Staff Bike Review: Neil's Ibis Ripmo

The Ripmo is an absolute classic of the Ibis range, first launched way back in 2018. Since then it has built up something of a cult following and a well established reputation as a brilliant all round trail bike for technical riding. Suspended on the legendary DW linkage, it’s a super efficient bike on the uphills, and despite what might have looked on paper like less slack and aggressive geometry than some of its competition over the years, the Ripmo has enjoyed considerable success at the races. With a number of Enduro World Series and World Cup podiums racked up by the Ibis team riders, along with a win here in the Tweed Valley under Bex Baraona in 2021 it has more than proven that it can compete on any descent. 

The latest version, the Ripmo V3 launched in late 2024 and subtly adjusted almost every aspect of the established bike, with geometry, kinematics, frame shape and travel all slightly tweaked to squeeze more performance out the platform, bringing it right up to date. Now at 160mm front and 150mm rear travel it joins a hugely competitive category of bikes aiming to be the ‘one bike for all’. The question of course, is how well does it manage to do that? With Neil now about a year into his V3 we sat down with him to grill him on the pros and cons of his bike.

TVB: Tell us again why you picked a Ripmo last year and what you were hoping to get from it?

So I’d spent the last couple of years riding longer travel bikes (for UK off piste riding) in the form of a Santa Cruz Megatower and Ibis HD6. Those bikes were both great machines but I did find myself wondering if I actually needed as much travel as they had at around 170mm. I’d been spending a lot of time on a Santa Cruz Tallboy, which only has 120mm out back, loving the way it pumped, hopped and accelerated and was curious to see if dropping just a bit of travel and wheelbase could add in some of that zip without limiting me on the more technical trails. At just 150mm out back the Ripmo has about 20mm less travel than those previous bikes and it's also slightly shorter in wheelbase than both. 

The idea was that I’d end up with a more responsive and manoeuvrable bike that would be more involving to ride, while still letting me enjoy all the technical trails I rode on the longer travel bikes. I was slightly concerned that I might just get beaten up with the drop in travel however; as much as I knew the Ibis and TVB team riders had all picked Ripmos for their race bikes, I definitely don’t have their riding skills!

TVB: Talk to us through your bike.

I went with a Medium (Neil is 5,9’) which is smaller than some of our customers my height might pick but my usual size. I think I could probably ride an XM as well, but I’ve been completely happy with the size all year so I wouldn’t change it. The Medium Ripmo is about 456mm reach,  with a shortish 435mm chainstay, a 1224mm wheelbase and the BB is quite low at 33mm below the axles. It’s quite a compact bike overall; compare it to the new Bronson for instance and while the reach is only a few mm shorter, there’s almost 20mm difference in wheelbase. The Ripmo can be built either as a full 29er or on MX wheels thanks to a neat flip chip on the seatstays. Mine is set up with MX wheels, as I’ve really grown to like the way that wheel size combo handles on steeper trails. 

TVB: It’s also a custom build? 

It is; I started from just a frame and some parts brought over from my HD6 and then filled in the blanks with mostly familiar components. For the cockpit, I went with a 50mm Burgtec Enduro stem and 30mm rise Burgtec Enduro Bar, trimmed to 760mm. The longer stem opens up the size a touch (the stock bike comes with a 40mm) and I’m super used to the steering feel of 50mm stems from previous bikes, I often find short ones a bit twitchy.

Suspension is full Fox Factory - the Float X is stock and the 38’s were passed across from my previous bike. I had them set at 170mm just to add a little more travel for the local steep stuff, but I’ve since ridden Ripmo’s with 160mm forks and I’m not sure the extra 10mm makes all that big a difference. I think the bike works well with either option. I did initially wonder about a coil shock but the Float X works so well I’ve not bothered to swap as yet. 

Hope's Tech 4 E4 brakes are still my all time favourite. Rotors are 200mm at both ends. The Hope 165mm EVO crank was a new experiment into shorter lengths for me as I’d never ridden shorter than 170mm before. The crank itself is nice to look at, fairly light and tough, as is their excellent BB. As with the Fox 38, the drivetrain was another swap from my old bike, and is the now theoretically dated yet still brilliant SRAM X01 mechanical Eagle. It may be an older generation, but it’s very lightweight, consistent, and crucially my disorganised brain does not need to remember to charge it. The dropper is also a simple cable one, in the shape of a PNW Loam, which has been faultless, with one of Hope’s excellent levers doing the cable pulling. 

The real luxury item is the wheels; I built a custom set of Reserve Carbon rims onto Hope Pro 5 hubs, using their lighter SL rim on front and an HD out back to make a very light yet super tough wheelset. Tires are both EXO+ casing Maxxis; Assegai front and DHRII rear. They are perfect for me for home riding though I would switch the rear to the tougher DD for trips away to rockier places. 

That all adds up to quite a light bike overall at 14.7 kg. I’m not super weight obsessed but the Ripmo being light is nice for long days out and contributes further to the agile feeling the bike already has. 

TVB: Tell us about the ride, how has the change to a 'smaller' bike worked out for you?

Well, the short version is that it has turned out to be the bike I hoped it would, which is a relief! Compared to both the long travel bikes I had come from, the combination of dropping to 150mm travel along with the shorter wheelbase and short rear end has made for a very different bike on the descents. It pumps and accelerates more quickly, is easier to hop or unweight when needed and it feels super quick in and out of tighter corners. There’s more support and less chassis movement generally, so when loading up the bike in a berm, take off or catch turn it feels firmer in a good way, with less wallow or lag time. For steeper and tighter tracks I think it might be my favourite bike I’ve owned. It’s very easy to keep weight over the front and the wheel weighted and it simply fits into the tight trails well with its relatively short wheelbase. 

There is of course a trade off to the faster handling and shorter travel and it’s that when riding very high speed and / or rough sections the bike (especially with me riding the slightly smaller size) does not have as calm an attitude as longer travel and wheelbase bikes. A little more feedback gets through to the rider and the sharp handling that feels so good in the technical stuff manifests as a bike that needs a little more managing when the impacts and speeds are higher. Going up a size to the XM would have added stability but I’m happy with the compromise. I spend a lot more time riding slower and steeper trails than I do smashing down blown out DH tracks so for me the Medium feels ideally suited to the trails I actually mostly ride.  

A year in and I’m now pretty happy that for me at least, a good 150mm bike strikes a better all round compromise than a 170mm ‘enduro’ bike. There are a lot of places where I feel it works better, I enjoy the feeling of the more supportive and less wallowy ride, and there are surprisingly few moments where I notice the loss in travel in a negative way. The same goes with the slightly shorter wheelbase, there are compromises, but overall I prefer the snappier handling to the lazier feel of the long and super stable bikes. 

TVB: How do you think the DW link measures up as a suspension design?

I’ve definitely enjoyed Ibis’s take on DW-link suspension on both my HD6 and this bike. The suspension is quite firm under pedalling effort (which suits our area well as we’ve a load of fire road climbing) with an efficient overall feel, very little bob and no need to be reaching for lockout levers. For technical climbing, it accelerates well, and is easy to pump and hop up obstacles. It is maybe a little less active than some other designs when pedalling over really rough ground, but that is generally the trade off for a bike with a firm pedalling platform. 

Descending, Ibis's execution of DW-link takes no real learning to get the best out of. There’s a good amount of support to work with when manipulating the bike, enough bottom out resistance for bigger hits and I like the behaviour under braking; it feels like there is a decent balance between keeping the suspension active and preserving geometry, with none of the feeling of pitching forward when on the brakes that some very active (low anti-rise) bikes can have. If I were trying to be critical, the biggest weakness would be that in sharp repetitive impacts, there is a bit more ‘noise’ back through the feet than on some other bikes. As with the pedalling traits, that slight kickback is the trade off for an efficient bike. Overall suspension performance is very good; supportive, neutral and a bike that makes it easy to ride it actively rather than just plough. 

TVB: What about liveability - how have the frame and parts measured up over the year?

I can’t fault the frame really. This is my second Ibis now and I’m pretty convinced they make a quality bike at this point. All the hardware stays reliably tight, the bearing and bushing life has been good, seems to hold up well to our wet weather, and everything is easy to work on. Cables are all routed through internal tubes so changes are painless and the frame has remained quiet throughout. The BB is threaded and it's one of few bikes that still uses proper press in headset cups which I’m also a fan of. 

I don’t have too much to report on the build kit as it’s all still working well. The Hope 165mm cranks have been nothing but positive, longer ones now feel weird that I’m used to the shorter size. The Reserve wheels have also been faultless - I did check spoke tension just recently but they still don’t need to be touched. For an 1800ish gram wheel set that level of durability is amazing. Hope’s brakes are also brilliant, I guess it’ll be a set of their new TR4’s next time I switch but that could be a long time given how well I know these will last.

TVB: Give us your quick summary of the bike.

The Ripmo is a great all round trail bike. It should suit anyone with a varied riding life, who wants a decently efficient bike that can actually pedal and cover distance without it limiting them when they get to the fun stuff. With supportive suspension and slightly shorter geometry it has a load more pep than longer travel enduro rigs, so for a rider who likes to work the bike rather than just stand on it, it’s absolutely ideal.

It’s also an absolute ripper on steep and tight trails.  It’s well built, relatively lightweight and very versatile. It may not have quite the high speed stability of the longest bikes, but for the great majority of trail riding it works extremely well; its world cup results alone should convince you of that! 

Ibis curious? We’ve a range of demo and stock bikes to get in touch to come and have a look

☎️ 01896 831429

📧 shop@tweedvalleybikes.co.uk