Had a call from the Local Bike Shop to say they had some good news and some bad news about my Ibis Ripley!

The good news was, the bike was all built up and ready to go.

The bad news was the space between the XX1 cranks and the frame was so small that they felt I needed to install cranks with different Q sizing. Let me explain.

From Ibis the crank that comes with the X01 build (mine) is the e*thirteen. I wanted to upgrade this to a SRAM XX1 crankset, which would allow me to more easily swap over the front cog. So, I purchased a set independently and asked the LBS to install this. Now the XX1 crankset comes in two Q sizings — the space between the inside of the crank and the frame. I purchased Q156 cranks rather than the larger spaced Q165 as that’s what’s recommended on the Ibis site. However when they installed it, the LBS boys felt it wasn’t right. So they swapped it out for the e*thirteen.

A SRAM XX1 crankset showing the black,  red & grey cranks that the pedal attaches to and the cog that you can readily swap over for one with a different number of teeth, which obviously affects the gearing ratios

This shows what the Q sizing affects – the gap between a Q156 sized crank and the frame will be less  than when using Q165 crank

I explained to them why I had bought the Q156 set and they jumped on the web to see what Ibis and the forums had to say about it. They concluded it should work and one of them stayed back on his own time on a Sunday afternoon, when the shop had closed for the day, to swap them back. And after a bit of tweaking, he is now more than happy that the bike is ready to go, XX1 and all. Thanks for the great service, Ashley.

I’ve had a sneak peak of the bike today (believe it or not I think it looks awesome!) and tomorrow it will be all mine. It’s Christmas Eve – and I’m far from cranky!

My Ibis Ripley almost ready to go, shown here with the e*thirteen cranks