According to Ibis, “The Ripley is our snappy, flickable, playful, fast, lightweight, and versatile 29” trail bike. The Ripmo inspired lower-linkage design morphed it into a rather progressive, modern trail bike designed to be more forgiving at speed.
To solve this, the v4 Ripley features an all-new, from-the-ground-up redesign inspired by the overwhelming success of Ibis’ Ripmo. It was reported to be a hyper-efficient climber, but may have lacked the grit for more technical and rowdy trails. Angles (large): 66.5° Head tube, 76° Seat tubeĪlthough well-loved by many, the v3 Ripley may have erred on the side of too cross-country for a lot of trail mountain bikers, especially in this day and age.Before we dig into whether or not it lives up to my self-imposed hype, here’s a summary of all that’s changed. And, in my opinion, it’s the most tantalizing Ripley yet. Moreover, the latest Ripley is even a striking departure from the v3 model released in 2017. Other than the fact that the Ibis tipped its hat to v4’s softail great grandmother (shown below with a matching “Blue Steel” colorway, as seen in Ibis’ in-house museum of mountain bikes), there’s no resemblance. Read on for details about what has changed, all the specs, a split-triangle frame bag pack list, and my ride impressions.Īs mentioned, the Ibis Ripley is now in its fourth transmutation, which is a rather dramatic change this time around. And try it I did, clocking in about 800 miles on it during rides in my local Pisgah playground, a whirlwind mountain bike trip sampling Vermont’s finest singletrack, and a couple bikepacking trips. But, the latest generation Ripley was the coup de grace for me.
Then came the third-generation Ripley LS (2017), which was quite tempting as well. It was re-re-released as a short-travel full-suspension 29er back in 2011. That bike’s long gone, but I’ve been pining for a Ripley for several years now. My first major mountain bike investment involved the then bleeding edge 26″ Mojo HD, which I practically had to sell a kidney for back in 2008-the same bike that went on this bikepacking trip before I even had real bags. It’s even pretty wild to look back on the brand 10 years ago. It was originally conceived some 20 years ago by designer by John Castellano as a full-suspension “softtail.” That model year 2001 Ripley featured an aluminum frame with a whopping 32mm (1.25”) of pivotless rear suspension. The Ripley’s been in Ibis’ bloodline for quite some time.