Nodes close to the tip will be just fine. Almost any style of bow will have stiff tips that close to the end. I guess the swell at the nodes ads a tiny bit of thickness weight, but whatever.
ONE place I learned the hard way NEVER to place nodes is close to the handle, just off the fade-outs. This creates an area where right as it fades thnner, it suddenly swells again due to the nodes. I have had two otherwise fantastic boo-backed R/D bows (goncalo alves and massaranduba) eventually fret like crazy between the fade and that first node, and I just couldn't see that they were over-strained there ahead of time. Overworked it like crazy, but it LOOKED stiff.
You should have PLENTY of wood for two bows, but can you saw it either way and get 1-/7/16" width? I was usually starting with a 1/8" backing or so, a 1/8" power lam or so, and a 3/8" belly lam for woods like ipe, osage, bulletwood, even black locust. Even then they are impossibly stiff at first. Ipe is really stiff and strong. It's a little narrow for some designs at 1-1/4". I wouldn't try some radical reflexed recurve, or highly reflexed bow with it. You have plenty of length.
If you lose 1/8" thickness to the saw, you still have more than a half inch per lam, either way. Which is a LOT of ipe, honestly. If you backed that with bamboo into ANY reflex, you'll be SHOCKED how stiff it is coming off the form. At only 1-1/4" wide, keep any reflex or R/D moderate.
If you took 66-70" or so, left the middle 50% with parallel sides, and tapered to skinny tips, you could make a great hunting longbow that essentially tillers like an ELB or African longbow but a less deep cross section. Kind of like some NA bows, too, in tiller shape, but with the narrowed tips. You may have to build up a handle for comfort. You could make an even shorter BITH (64"-66" for round figures) with similar tiller, but stiffer outer limbs. You could also make a flatbow with a barely narrowed handle. On any of these I would induce only a little reflex at glue up, just enough to counter any set.
Good luck, have fun! Let us know how it goes.