Ibis Ripmo V3 Mountain Frame

The perfect mountain frame Ibis Ripmo V3

How do you improve on perfection? The answer in the bike industry, at least, is that you don’t rest on your laurels. That is to say: one rider’s perfection may be another rider’s ‘just a bit too high’, or ‘just a bit too long’, or ‘just a bit too low’, etc. With the Ibis Ripmo V3, you can get a feel for how important it is to the Californian company to gauge the perfect fit for the widest number of people. Because for Ibis, it’s all about ride quality = huge stoke. 

There’s no denying that the Ibis Ripmo became an enduro legend from the first pedal stroke of the first iteration of the frame. But that hasn’t stopped the company from tweaking and retweaking, sometimes to amplify the Enduro World Series level of high performance, and sometimes to improve the quality of life for the mechanic working on the bikes. 

Innovations in the Ibis Ripmo V3 frame

For this Ripmo V3, Ibis has pulled quite a few rabbits out of their hat by adding neat features like internal downtube storage, increased coil compatibility, and a flip chip for mixed wheel sizes, but they’ve also added size-specific geo features and even increased their frame size options from four to five. That’s really a huge investment for a carbon frame manufacturer, and all with the express purpose of making it possible for riders of all sizes to find essentially a custom fit for their Ripmo. 

Perhaps the more important new feature is the number of size-specific details they have added to every frame. Normally, for the sake of simplicity, bike brands will standardize things like chainstay length, frame angles, and bottom bracket height across all frame sizes. That practice, though, often compromises the ride feel and handling for the outlier sizes. That’s what Ibis engineers want to avoid. So, they have introduced size specific seat tube angles, suspension kinematics, chainstay length, and bottom bracket height to ensure all riders enjoy the same balance, responsiveness and overall ride quality. 

And for a similar reason, they have added more adjustability with their suspension flip chip, so you can run 29-inch or 27.5-inch/29-inch mixed (MX) wheels on all sizes without compromising the geometry. When you order a complete bike, though, they ship the Small and Medium sizes with a mix of 29-inch wheel in the front and a 27.5-inch in the rear, while the Extra Medium, Large and Extra Large sizes come equipped with 29-inch wheels front and rear.

And yes, you read that right: Extra Medium. That is the new size in the Ripmo line-up. It plugs that gap for riders around 5’8” and 6’ who were between Medium and Large. If you fall into that category of size, it’s all very nuanced as to whether Ibis recommends you slot into the new XM option. It will have a lot to do with your riding style and your type of trails. If you have any questions, one of our experts at Wrench Science will be happy to help. 

As for the rest of the Ripmo V3, it boasts all the great features that Ibis customers love like super efficient dw-link suspension, progressive geometry and a new frame storage system with Cotopaxi making two internal bags that fit in the down tube and can store tools, nibbles, or other small essentials. 

The Ibis Ripmo V3 sits high on our list of ultimate enduro racing machines, but it also moonlights as maybe the most fun, multifaceted mountain bike available. It’s always been equally good on descents as on climbs. Now with the size-specific improvements, it’s even better.