2023 Yeti SB120 VS the Ibis Ripley // Everything You Need to Know!

what's up guys got another review on the SB 120 this time it's a head-to-head version uh against the Ibis Ripley for those of you who follow the channel you know the Ibis Ripley has been in my opinion one of the best short travel trail bikes you could buy in the last couple years geometry is really good on it um climb as well it descends well I mean it just kind of does everything really well and so uh it's November of 2022 and this SB 120 came out if you haven't seen that review you can click right up here I've been riding this bike for the last week and a half I've had a chance to write it uh and compare against a couple other different bikes the Ripley comes to mind I mean if you look at if you go to Yeti's website or if you click the link down below you can go look at the geometry numbers of this Yeti sp-120 the numbers are very similar to the Ripley on paper but writing it this week the last couple days these bikes are really not that similar foreign foreign [Music] hop on this these three bikes are like so close to each other though hop on this Ripley and you'll see what I mean like it feels like a toy I just need to lose weight then I don't have to like I know that's a good excuse to lose weight right dude for three seasons I put 176 PSI in that and I put 182 PSI in it this time just to give it a little bit extra okay and it's still soft it feels good it feels I didn't get to the travel let's see where you get to just something perfect though in my opinion oh yeah that's how you want to be that's a full stroke um it'll be off the back too mine was off the back on that one okay that same thing with that one it'll be off the back when you bottom it okay but you'll just see it feels like a toy like it just feels so just it's just easy to write I love that bike that's why I always come back to it I always come back to that bike [Music] the steering feels quicker on that bike too I'll be interested to see what you think foreign like definitely more easy going it's way more easy it's so much more playful it's crazy yeah it's not I love it it's fun the yeti SB 120 feels like more like a trail bike in fact when I first rode I thought man it feels good it feels you know like a short travel trail bike but it wasn't until I rode these back to back with Tyler switching back and forth throughout our rides um that I realized wow this this 120 from Yeti really is like stepping up and kind of bumping into the market of the old Yeti SB 130 which no longer exists it's now an SB 140. hopefully I'll be able to review that bike soon that Yeti just came out with again it's November of 2022 and and they just barely came out and so I am excited to tell you about how this bike compares to the Ripley um climbing this bike has so much support just right when you get on it support at the SAG level so the top portion of the stroke has a ton of support more than the Ripley um more than the Rocky Mountain Element or uh Santa Cruz tall boy or any of those other bikes um this bike the Ripley feels slightly softer and more easy going climbing this one fills geez like almost like a hardtail like it just wants to to really go and I mentioned in the original SB 120 video review that you could go and watch also that this bike um climbing you know I kind of break climbing up into two categories like the how how efficient does it feel pedaling the bike but also what's the bike's ability to get through a low traction type situation or a very technical obstacle or section of Trail where a bike will lose traction easily that's the two parts of climbing right and in terms of pedal efficiency see man this might be like the most efficient it feels almost like a hard time you just feel like every pedal stroke is pushing the bike forward up the trail you're not losing a lot of power in the suspension at all because of how firm the top that stroke is from sag up it's in the lower traction uh scenarios or sections of trail that I think bikes like the pivot Trail 429 really Excel or even bikes like the rebel Rascal which is a little bit longer travel bike but just it really kind of like it sounds weird but it kind of bears down and finds traction like it just it's very it's an active suspension that finds traction the pivot Trail 429 for example um so I think climbing between these two bikes they're both very very good this one just out on a fire Road might feel more efficient than that one that one I think gets through trickier bits of Trail maybe a little cleaner than this one does it's a little softer it just feels a little softer onto you heading downhill this bike even though the geometry you know they both have a 66 and a half degree head tube angle on both of them this one feels slightly more a bit more stable kind of like the pivot Trail 429 in fact I was excited to do this review but uh this comparison but after riding these bikes for a couple days I thought man the real comparison probably would have been the SB 120 versus the pivot 12429 those bikes are more similar um that bike the Ripley is more lively when you start when you start going downhill it's more lively you can kind of zip around more it feels a little twitchier you know not quite as stable as the uh Yeti sp-120 I I think maybe it has longer chain stays um and that's the other thing to think about is the SB 120 I'm on a size uh medium in both bikes and I'm five foot eight but the yeti feels like the more modern bike the more current bike which makes sense it just came out and that bike's been out for basically three years but this has um size specific chain stay lengths so as you go up in size to large or extra large the uh length of the chain stays increases right in any case the chain stays on this bike are longer than the Ripley and I think that adds to maybe that more stable and planted feeling um that bike just feels softer though everywhere and trust me I have the suspension set up 11 millimeters of sag on that bike the the yeti has I think 13 and a half millimeters of sag and they both feel like they're in the right spot in terms of setting up the suspension um this bike just feels more neutral you know it's not as Lively it doesn't make you want to just absolutely dive into every corner hard where the Ripley I mean I'm beating a dead horse at this point the Ripley just wants you just to have so much fun I love that bike um this bike is still really very good but it just feels um more neutral you know it feels supportive throughout the travel more supportive than that bike does until you get toward the bottom toward the bottom that's that bike still feels more linear like it feels like the same level of support throughout the whole stroke on the Ripley whereas this one it feels very firm and supportive uh think of like when you're mashing through the pedals are like really getting into a turn and really ginging out in the turn um you can start to feel yourself get through the travel a little bit here towards the end of the stroke or maybe Beyond halfway for sure through the stroke um in terms of high speed um this bike for some reason even though the geometry is so similar this bike can fill more stable more more confidence inspiring you might feel safer on this bike at a higher speed than you would the Ripley um and so some of you might say Well then why don't you like the SB 120 better than the Ripley well because I don't necessarily write that you know most of the trails I see most people riding most of the trails you see in my videos are blue trails and they're flow trails and you know under 18 miles per hour descending that bike's more rewarding it's fun it's Zippy it's more responsive it feels kind of Twitchy in comparison to this one you could say Twitchy or you could say playful but it does it's more playful um and there's always the same level of support like I said through the shock as you're pumping and pushing through it and stuff it's very consistent um I think if maybe my Trails were a little bit um higher speed and they're not slow speed by any means but they were higher speed you know this one might feel like maybe a little better on some Trails right um it would be really hard for me to to I I just couldn't I couldn't choose the SB 120 over the Ripley but I think some people could if you're a bigger guy it does feel stiffer and more stable than the Ripley and so that might be a reason to look at that I only weigh 145 pounds and I'm five foot eight so that's maybe something to consider it's also the more modern bike like just looking at like the way the cables are routed through here and down through the bottom here um it just feels like a more modern bike I like that they do the um size specific chain stays as well and it just like I said when you hit the pedals on the sp-120 everything is going forward on this bike it's it's really it's really cool I bet a lot of people will run this bike with a longer 140 millimeter Fork um the other thing to consider is you can get the Ripley in an XT build from Shimano group set or an x01 build from and it's six thousand nine hundred ninety nine dollars this bike for an x01 built from SRAM is 8 200 I want to say you're like twelve hundred dollars more I don't know man I would take that one and keep the 1200 bucks is what I would do um there's gonna be people out there who just love Yeti though and I totally get it like it's a very modern bike it's just the the switch Infinity suspension system is really very good and I can understand why a lot of people really love it I just I'm an Ibis Fanboy I mean there's obviously some bias in this video and there's no sense of me not mentioning it I just think I think that that bike runs so well and I'm not sponsored by Yeti or Ibis or anything like that my nobody's sponsored me and so I just try to write as more of these bikes as I can and give you guys the most honest feedback um I I should just say that the pivot Trail 429 is the most well-rounded um it's the bike I probably recommend the most in the last year to people looking at bikes in this category and this SB 120 is probably more similar to that bike than the Ripley um for whatever it's worth you know you can think about that um I think I've already mentioned like three times in this video that's November of 2022 and it's freezing cold outside so I won't have a chance to ride this bike and compare it to the pivot Trail fortunate but look forward to that video in the spring also uh I got these bikes from Salt Cycles here in Sandy Utah they have been helping uh supply parts and bikes and just all sorts of support to tons of viewers of this channel um they're the only support I have is salt cycles that helps me get bikes and do this YouTube channel so if you're looking for a Yeti sb120 they have all four colors in stock now they obviously have Ripley's in stock as well they're one of the largest Ibis dealers in the country and they can fully customize your bike however you would want it they can upgrade parts and not charge you all all the money for it they can just offset the price of the parts that you already bought that come with the bike if you want an XT build or an XTR build on your Yeti they can totally do that really seamlessly really easy so call Courtney or Jason or Chris and talk to them about building a bike I always build full XTR bikes so both these bikes are full XTR group set I ran four piston brakes um I should have mentioned that in the original uh Yeti SP 120 video I don't think I mentioned that but I run four piston brakes on both of these bikes because for the years that I was riding the Ripley I ran two piston brakes mistake huge mistake I'm lightweight at only 145 pounds go four piston brakes it just makes all the sense in the world um I think they're both really good bikes the uh just to sum it all up uh the Ripley is more rewarding on slower speed Trails um I think that this bike is kind of picking up where the sb-130 left off although this has a much more neutral like riding position you don't have to get as forward and as aggressive on this bike as you did the sb-130 that said it is you have to ride this bike more aggressive than the Ripley the Ripley is the more easy going user-friendly bike it's probably the best way to put that anyway call Chris at Salt cycles and get you set up um also click the links down below if there's anything that you're shopping for right now um I have all my affiliate links down there those uh are actual affiliate links that pay me a commission if you end up using them that's a great way to support the channel I get lots of uh uh Instagram Direct messages obviously messages in the comment section Down Below in this YouTube and we're on emails weekly from viewers of the channel I always am happy to respond and comment they oftentimes ask me how can we support the channel the best way to support the channel is to buy a bike from Salt Cycles or use these links in the description down below that's how I get paid that's how I keep this channel going so I really appreciate that and uh yeah it's a great time to be a mountain biker there's so many amazing good options um bikes are getting a little expensive and that's the other reason why I kind of think for 1200 bucks less the Ripley maybe anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this video um stay tuned for more coming out in the next couple months thanks guys that's fun so rather be on that bike would you which is more fun we're fine yeah the weight the weight panel you take on outside so it weighs more it's not quite as Nimble or easy going so this could be more of like a trail race bike right it feels more like a trail bike than it I mean you got to realize for the last year I've been on that I have a sexy which is an actual cross-country bike yeah so that feels way more Twitchy than either one of these bikes yeah it feels just more Twitchy and more delicate like underneath me you know yeah that doesn't that feels pretty to me it feels stable more stable than the Ripley I guess I like the unstability it just that gives you the option to like flick it around more though too right it's like just makes it more totally more easy going as far as maneuvering it and getting out of the way of things which I like in a bike yeah that's me though yeah you want to hop back on here for baby Rush yeah yeah that'd be fun see if I get all the way through the suspension I bet you will I don't think you'll feel it bottom though I still feel like that like in the middle still have like that same feeling every time I jump it's just like it just kind of goes through that middle quick yep [Applause] there you go you got the bottom on that one foreign [Music] foreign foreign

Channel: MTB yumyum

Views: 29,619

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Id: si7K69UGoq4

Length: 20min 5sec (1205 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 04 2023