A 29’er with just under five inches of rear wheel travel, the Ibis Ripley has always been the perfect tool for a major contingent of mountain bikers. Since the release of the “Long and Slack” Ripley two years ago, Ibis has added a new bike to their line-up, the wildly popular Ripmo. That bike helped establish a number of standards for the company, things like a much longer front center than their previous models, the use of reduced offset forks, steep seat angles, and mechanical changes like the use of bushings in the lower link.

For the brand new Ripley, Ibis took all of these design cues and created what is essentially a baby Ripmo - and that’s a good thing.

As with its longer legged sibling, the new Ripley is run with a reduced offset fork. This allows Ibis to use a 66.5 degree headtube angle (steeper than the Ripmo’s 65.9) and maintain the “locked in” steering feel that a lower offset fork has versus a normal offset fork.

Although the Ripley has always been stocked with a 130mm fork, with this version Ibis supports both over and under-forking the bike. A lot of people like running the Ripley with a 120mm fork, which on the previous model resulted in a lower bottom bracket than was ideal. With the fourth generation, they have actually raised the bottom bracket about half a centimeter to accommodate that. They also saw a lot of people wanting to put a 140mm fork on the bike, which is now fully supported as well. With this bike’s steeper seat angle, (66 vs 63 degrees) over-forking the bike will not place your weight too far rearward.

Along with the familiar Ripmo styling we see similar geo numbers across the board. The Gen 4 Ripley has reach numbers that are up by about 45mm on each size. These bikes are meant to pedal though, so Ibis has kept very similar effective top tube numbers from the previous Ripley by really steepening the seat-tube angle, which is now at 76 degrees up from 73.

Another noteworthy change to the seat-tube is that it no longer sports the double eccentric bearing linkage that all the previous Ripleys had, opting for the same link system as the Ripmo. While the eccentric bearings are a proven and well-recognized design, Ibis has gone a different direction for a couple of reasons. Firstly, using the double linkage is one of the ways Ibis has saved weight on the frame -  about 0.65 lbs all said and done. Secondly, those bearings impede the seat-post, which means that fitting a longer dropper on the previous Ripley was often times not possible. With the new design, Roxy Lo, Ibis’ designer, who is 5’1” can now run a 150mm on her small Ripley.

On the back of the bike, you’ll see the very shapely rear triangle, which has been tucked in by over a centimeter to a snappy 432mm, and uses 148 boost spacing. It is compatible with the wide rims that Ibis popularized years ago, and can run up to 2.6” wide tires. Internal cable tunnels make cable routing especially easy - no more fishing around for loose cables and housing.

The lighter weight, new geo, and more progressive suspension all add up to a bike that is exceptionally snappy to ride. Call your new Ripley a “trail scalpel,” because that’s what it is.

As with all Ibis products, the Ripmo is backed by Ibis' 7-year warranty.