In a category that’s breeding like rabbits, the Ibis casually struts into the room with a strong offering and a unique approach to the 160mm travel 29er game.

Watch our discussion about the new RipMo from the trails below.

A RipMo in a nutshell.

29″ wheels, 160mm up front, 145 out the back. The FOX fork uses a 44mm offset crown and paired with a fairly sensible head angle of 65.9 degrees and 435mm chainstays. So we have big travel with geometry that on paper lends itself to more toward the lighter end of the spectrum.

The frame is all carbon, using a DW Link to drive the FOX DPX rear shock. The frame is super low to allow the use of a long dropper post or open up the options to upsize the frame without it growing too much height.

44mm fork offset, so what?

The RipMo uses a reduced offset fork, 44mm instead of the traditional 51mm. Something we’ve seen becoming more popular from many brands; the Specialized Epic, Yeti SB100 for instance. The idea behind is simple, yet hard to explain. A longer front-end of the bike adds stability, but a shorter stem is required to keep your body in a comfortable position. Then the shorter offset will give the bike a greater amount of ‘trail’, for more stability in the steering.

So what all that means is there’s a focus on stability at speed or jumping.

And you know what? The RipMo does feel light to steer, yet not twitchy in the slightest, and letting the brakes off is not a scary thing.

Who’s the RipMo for?

Compared to other long travel 29ers we’ve ridden recently, the RipMo feels a lot more spritely and agile on trails that require you to work hard in the turns or pumping the terrain to maintain speed. We’d put that down to the low weight, sensible angles and supportive suspension.

Ibis makes beautiful bikes, we think the new RipMo will be very popular indeed.

Watch our video above for our discussion from the trails!