Chipps gives us the lowdown on the brand new 2020 Ibis Ripley The new 29er from Ibis, the Ripley, Mk4, is a degree slacker, half a pound lighter and a whopping 47mm longer than the previous model. It’s even longer and lower than the company’s popular Ripmo EWS race steamroller.
Last month, we were invited along to check out the new Ibis Ripley Mk4. Those with very long memories will remember the Mk1, which was an aluminium softtail launched in 2001, with barely an inch of travel (and reviewed in the first few issues of Singletrack…)
Many years later saw the first modern Ripley, using Dave Weagle’s DW link suspension on clever rotating eccentric pivots to provide the travel. It was full carbon and featured 130mm travel up front and 120mm travel out back.
Since then, there’s be a couple more revisions, including the Ripley LS (Long and Slack, which by modern standards, wasn’t) though more recently, in 2018, the Ibis RipMo was launched.
Halfway between a 29er Ripley and a rough and tough Ibis Mojo HD, it was an instant hit on the enduro circuit with its 160/145mm travel and big-rolling 29in hoops.
This left the Ripley behind and Ibis went all out to make sure that the new Mk4 Ripley was as contemporary as possible. In doing so, Ibis’ engineers took the bike back to basics and re-planned the carbon layup, doing away with anything that didn’t add strength and stiffness. The carbon layup was re-done, and the suspension was changed from the old eccentric links to more conventional swing links similar to the Ripmo.
These changes saved half a pound on the bare frame weight.
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