Ibis Ripmo AF & Ripley AF Receive UDH Hangers, New Colors, & New Price

 He does look like he'd be very helpful.

 Furgive the pun, but everything's pawsible with a dog.

 They did and he spent too much time barking up the wrong tree and chasing the mailman so they had to let him go.

 Maybe not shipping but probably helps in sending.

 @zeedre: Dogs tend to take the path of leashed resistance. They're are great on the retriever end of a shipping route.

 #freshdogship

 The Ripley AF is being ridden by Sophie, who is also part of our shipping team. She is accompanied by her dog Scout, who used to work in shipping but was recently laid-off due to the industry downturn".

 I don't think dogs are allowed where they took these photos, lol. Cue the Judas Priest!

 Discrimination.

 It's early, but this one's on the list

 Well, he is obviously not a shipherd.

 Might not do well in shipping, but I bet he'd be great in receiving!

 They both look like they've had a ruff day.

 Can someone explain to me this thing where now people are bringing their dogs EVERYWHERE? Not service animals, pets.
Whole Foods, Home Depot...a guy was rolling around HD with 4 (4!) dogs in his shopping cart.

I love dogs, have had them most of my life, and no disrespect to Scout...but it's out of hand.

 @ReformedRoadie: Dogs in the grocery store drive me nuts.

 @ReformedRoadie: kids in grocery stores annoy me, but I have to put up with that

 @lkubica: Scout looks like a Labrador Receiver.

 Scout was too ruff on the packages.

 @ReformedRoadie: I love dogs but I don't like trail dogs

 @ljheyden: right?!? Whole family outings to pick up 10 items, feral kids running around getting in the way

 @inked-up-metalhead: They tried, but he kept fetching the parcels back again.

 @Justfucnsmash: Right? Last thing I want to do is plow into someone's dog because his crazy line choice or...squirrel!!!

 @ReformedRoadie: What's wrong with bringing a dog to Home Depot?

 @ljheyden: babies on a plane *dead*

 Ripmo's are like mopeds, Fun to ride until your friends see you on one.

 @Mtbdialed: "Hey yo fat girl, come here -are ya ticklish,
Yeah, I called ya fat,
Look at me, I'm skinny,
It never stopped me from gettin' busy" ~Shock G, Digital Underground~ RIP

 Ugly AF

 @Mtbdialed: you are the biggest troll on this website

 @AppleJack76: Hail to the man who appeared in a Luniz remix music video twice... as two different people. RIP.

 @Jshemuel: tell your thicc girl hi for me!

 There are comparable options out there that don't have the kink. Given the option, I think people want a good looking bike.

 I was turned off by the look of the bike initially, but in person, it looks alright. Kinda reminds me of that Seinfeld episode "Two Face". But I get wanting a good looking bike...

 @gtill9000: Show me another dw link aluminum complete bike for $3k.

 @woofer2609: in person the Ripmo looks good, especially in that green color

 @woofer2609: I feel the same way about the Commencal T.E.M.P.O.; looks way better in person. But, still has that head tube routing.

 @gtill9000: Some people like a little kink. Some like a lotta kink. It’s pretty dull to like no kink.

 @xciscool: Yup, I looked long and hard at the Avacado Green. Ended up with an Altitude, but really appreciate these Ripmos.

 @burt-reynolds: Yeah you got me there. If DW link is a must-have then you're limiting yourself to what, 4-5 different options?

 @gtill9000: FWIW Trek's ABP, and Giant's Maestro system infringe on DW patents, according to Dave Weagle. So maybe there's a bunch of DW bikes under $3k?

 @burt-reynolds: And who cares about a DW link? It’s fine, but other suspension has caught up these days. The hype is left over from 15 years ago.

 That's why I don't ride Mercedes, cause from interior I simply don't see how it looks outside

 Bottom line - there are so many good options these days that there's no need to ride a bike you think is ugly.

 The thing is for us europeans a Ibis Bike is a dentist bike. The price difference to a Yeti is not worh mentioning.

 @gtill9000: I have ridden a lot of bikes and demoed a lot more. I don’t believe there is a 3000 bike that rides as good as the rip I does across all terrain. If you only can have one bike and your terrain is varied the ripmo AF is about as good as it gets

 I actually like the ibis top tube design. I have relatively short legs, and kinked top tubes help me avoid visiting the capitol of Thailand. With all the crazy stuff bike manufacturers come out with - proprietary parts, cable tourism, etc - a slight bend in a top tube is the least of my worries.

 I really don't mind that shape. I think bikes with top tubes that bend near the head tube are ugly. But a bit of kink between the legs is OK with me.

 @Glory831Guy: ABP is more or less the same as Split Pivot, which is a DW patent but very very different from DW link. If for some reason you want a 4 bar short link bike, ABP is not going to cut it.

 @ak-77: I was gonna mention Maestro and VPP at first, but Santa Cruz doesn't have any decent builds under $3k. I wasn't sure how similar ABP and Split Pivot are to DW Link, but I had heard about the lawsuit.

 @Glory831Guy: Mondraker's zero is different but rides very similar - perhaps better. They;re not cheap though.

 Bikes should just say color since there is likely just frame color and minor decal color. Colorway makes sense if there is more intricate design with multiple colors.

 Perhaps the industry is finally winding down the use case for colorway.

 Spelt colours wrong

 @jimmythehat: Spelt spelled wrong

 Is it time to recycle "livery" yet?

 @BagelMan: ...unless the intent was to spell 'spelt.'

 @thomasjkenney1024: Spelt is in fact correct as the past tense of to spell. And, for the true grammar junkies, the sentence would take on a totally different meaning (out of context here, obviously) if you take Spelt as the noun and colours as the verb. "Spelt colours wrong. I hate those colours of spelt!"

 @mi-bike: overseas, but not in the US. So, both you'ins right.

 @thomasjkenney1024: Correct I was referring to the well know flour, (not flower)

 @BagelMan: I don’t proof read my own work

 @mi-bike: also works for Smelt!

 @thomasjkenney1024: Oh I’m sure he was. It was just too fun a reply to resist

 Now we just need to work on the misuse (or use in general) of “price point”

 @pmhobson: Yes, that's a pointless word.

 @BagelMan: Naw, he's talking about grain

 I think Ibis never really got the hang of “pandemic pricing” in the first place.

 Have you posted on the MTBR Ibis forum? Lots of good info on there

 @Mfro: I'm not sure what help they can provide. Ibis needs to do something about my frame (it appears to be a manufacturing issue causing alignment problems), and the mechanic at the local bike shop is doing everything he can to communicate with them, but they're being difficult. They're being reticent to take responsibility for the issue, despite it being confirmed by the suspension shop. And further, they simply won't get back to emails from the mechanic for long periods of time, which is drawing it out further.

 @jayacheess: I get it. Sounds painful. That forum however may have shared experiences plus options and info you may not have considered.

 I'm sorry to hear about it. A friend had the same issue with his back in 2021-2022 and he eventually got fed up and dumped it. I really hope their manufacturer has stepped up the tolerances for this batch and that Ibis is QC-ing these better so misaligned frames don't make it to the customer anymore. My 2020 RAF frame was fine though.

I'm on a Canfield now and the frame quality difference vs Ibis aluminum is very noticeable. Canfield's are a pure fkn joy to behold and Tilt/Lithium frame weights are in line with the RAF. CBF gives up nothing to DW-link, they're both great designs. Good luck.

 @jayacheess: A suspension shop can suspect alignment issues but the only way to really confirm that is by measuring the frame. A good bike shop should have some tools for and experience with measuring alignment. When you have those measurements in hand you will have a lot more weight to push back on Ibis with

 That’s what happens when you buy bikes with that stupid clevis Mount
Sadly it happens

 @jayacheess: I only say this because you're in Canada, but is it actually Ibis themselves who are dragging their feet or is it a distributor who is handling it?

 @Canadmos: Ibis is giving direct responses to the distributer who is then passing it on to the bike shop.

I can see in the email chain that they're actually suggesting that it might be a problem with how the shock is interacting with the clevis mount, and that I don't have a warranty claim, for some reason? They suggest "the customer should try a different shock". The bike ship is pushing back on that for obvious reasons. Why would I be on the hook for Ibis spec'ing a shock with the frame that doesn't work?

 Do you have a coil or air shock?

 @nicoenduro: yup, saw that and lost interest.

 @jacks-cycle: DVO Topaz 3 air

 @jayacheess: Gotcha. We had the exact same issue with coil shocks that got sent out for a full service. The shocks all needed their stanchions replaced due to excessive scaring. It's why most coil shocks aren't compatible for any yoke driven design (not just Ibis). They tend to put more side loads on the stanchion/shaft. I think it's the main reason why Ibis stopped stocking the Ripmo's with coils and also why Specialized stopped stocking some of their models with coil shocks. I also think aluminum frames my be more prone to this issue as tolerances may not be as tight compared to carbon. However, if it's happening to your Topaz T3 Air, the side loads must be excessive which in my mind points to misalignment issues. Take it with a grain of salt though, as I'm no engineer. Hopefully, you can get it sorted. We have found Ibis's customer service to be great and they have always helped solve the few warranty issues we had over the years.

 @jacks-cycle: I appreciate the insight. cheers

 @showmethemountains: never seen a bike shop with a tool capable of accurately measuring frame alignment. Those crooked 'gauges' that you run along the side of the head tube and seat tube to the dropout are not sufficient.

 @nicoenduro: it shouldn't be on the consumer to not buy clevis. The clevis should be properly engineered or eliminated. Random guy buying a bike won't know, and shouldnt have to care, about frame/suspension design.

The bike should work well and be reliable out of the box

 @jacks-cycle: @jacks-cycle: I destroyed a Topaz Air on my '21 Meta TR. Same issue of scaring on the stantion/damper body. The meta also has the yoke driven platform. I ran the Topaz for two seasons and it worked just fine up until it suddenly didn't. I sold the meta shortly after (not because of the shock) and I never looked into the alignment. I suspected it was more of a sideloading/flex/design issue than a mfg issue.

 @wburnes: it is as much on the consumer not to buy clevis as much is it on the consumer not to buy bikes with cabletourism. sadly. as some of them are sick bikes.
I agree with you, but as for everything, knowledge is power.
The more you know the easier it is to make smart choices

 @Tambo: Fair point, I haven't used one of those gauges myself.

You can surprisingly good info with a string though! Pull a length of non-stretchy string from a point on one side, around the headtube, and to the matching point on the other side, and then cut the string at this point. Take the string off, fold it in half, and mark it at this midpoint. Put the string back in the same places on the frame, going over the same point on the headtube. If the center mark on your string isn't lined up in the middle of the headtube, then you have misalignment. The further the mark is to the side, the worse the alignment. It just doesn't put a number of the size of the misalignment

 @showmethemountains: What about just simply dropping the shock in? If the shock doesn't just slide in smoothly or you have to encourage it to one side, something isn't right.

 New update:

Ibis has come through with a solution that I'm happy with, and that I suspect will solve my issues.

 @jayacheess: Nice! Happy to hear that

 @Canadmos: Yes, that can tell you a lot. Sometimes it can important to isolate things to show someone that it is clearly one parts fault because an issue can be demonstrated when the shock isn't even installed

 @showmethemountains: string is better than the gauge, to be fair. But they're both nigh on useless unless you're working with a steel hardtail frame, essentially (cylindrical tubes, no suspension to worry about).

Honestly though, anyone who vouches for either method as an acceptable way to check frame alignment clearly doesn't have a full understanding of how many ways a frame can be not straight!

Dropping the shock into the mounts is likely to show the misalignment, but it's possible that the mounts line up with each other, but not perpendicular/parallel to the suspension pivots.

Source: I used to build frames professionally, and converted a surface table into a frame alignment table when I realised there was no other dependable way they could be checked.

 @Tambo: Cool. Thanks for expanding my knowledge

 What frame specifically and what shock specifically?

 The UDH change is just an update to the rear triangle ("swingarm"). They could be preparing a similar update to the front triangle that works with this updated swingarm and includes the cosmetic changes you want (not to mention geo tweaks). That's my hope, anyway (for the carbon version).

 @MtbSince84: yeah, if history is any indication the carbon version has to be updated first, then a waiting period before they’ll release the alu

 Literally any modern mountain bike is a capable descender. My cheapish 100mm 68 degree HTA non-boost hardtail is a capable descender. The rider is everything

 @scotteh: but the Ripmo AF demoed the new geometry before the carbon. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an update, but it seems like they are running the old design in carbon as a discount offering next to their new enduro bike the HD6. I wouldn’t be upset if companies more often offered older designs for cheaper since the molds have been paid off. Intense kind of did that with the 951. Bent top tube or not, the Ripmo just does a lot of things well for a lot of riders, why not offer it at good prices? UDH is a nice update so people can get the newest drivetrains if they want to upgrade.

 UDH, new colours and steerer angle sets will be all rage in 2024. New frames will prob need to wait till 2025. No one is buying new bike in 2024, all who wanted, loaded up on 50% discounts during Christmas

 I love my Ripmo AF, but the cable routing at the BB is so annoying. It gets in the way of the bottle cage and prevents me from using a larger bottle.

 Hard to gripe about a company speccing a solid build on a dw-link platform for a good price but let's do it!

One hangup for me when I owned one (in addition to that cable routing) was that the frame was on the flexy side. Bring back the earliest version with the additional brace welded into the front triangle down by the bottom bracket. Hell, they're speccing a heavy coil fork and assegai, both of which scream dh but hurt the climbing performance, so it's meant to be ridden downhill hard. There are better improvements Ibis could have made than adding Transmission compatibility on a 3k bike.

Also, they should have gone Z1 air. The large 10-pound jump in available springs for the coil means literally half of riders will be in-between rates. Ohlins and Cane Creek are doing it right with 5-pound spring increments. For me the Z1 x-firm spring (65#ish) was too firm and the firm spring (55#ish) was super mushy and asked too much from the basic damper.

Nit picking - I'd still recommend this bike or a used v2 for a similar price in this market.

 I have a specialized right sided zee cage with a couple zip ties on the base holding the brake and shifter cables in close. it works great, but i am on a XL

 @WasatchEnduro: I’m suspecting this is a sign that a cheaper mechanical version of transmission is nearing release. This update allows them to be prepared ahead of time while they started a new production run, my speculation.

 @WasatchEnduro: Have you by chance looked into whether other manufactures coils - Ohlins, CC, MRP, Push or Vorsprung for their conversions - have a spring that would work? Not sure how much variation there can be for forks that as either 35 or 36 stanchions and 150-170mm of travel.
I started to, but never followed thru. I have the heavy spring (N+1 Bikes swapped it at no charge on my RAF, their CS is awesome) and maybe could use something slightly heavier.

 @ReformedRoadie:

Dunno but there's gotta be someone out there running an aftermarket coil in their Z1. Maybe mtbr knows. That jump from firm to x-firm is pretty huge. A grip 2 damper upgrade would add HSC and really help anyone on a softer spring, but it's expensive.

 @WasatchEnduro: It would help but is expensive and most things I've read is that the actual performance - aside from some improved adjustability - is not worth the cost at all.

 I bi sexie AF?

 @ratedgg13: hehe, exactly!

 Exactly. This is a jig update at the factory to modernize a frame that's a little long in the teeth now.

 You’d have to actually ride the bike to give the yoke a chance to destroy the shock.

 Been riding a Ripmo v2 with a CC Kitsuma coil for 2 years without any issue. 2 years before that I didn't have any issue that wasn't just the X2 not being a great performer anyway.

 My friend put a coil shock on his Revel, that big ass yoke tore it up in no time.

 prob not, it will prevent you from buying new bike

 ..Or Do what I did and buy a 2nd hand ibis with new running gear! Job Done!

 so I went on their website, the price is not even a strong point anymore. It costs almost the same as any other bike. So I am even more confused

 But the NAME of the color has changed.

For $100 more you can change the name of the color to any custom name of your choosing.

 The spec looks fairly comparable to its introduction spec, and if you take account 18.52% inflation since 2020. This bike is a very good price.

 youtu.be/QPhtPu6KMW0?si=so3dPgXh0vUwjmEX

 Aesthetics aside, straight TT wouldn't be doing any favors to the performance of the bike, you'd either lose stand over or you'd lose bracing on the seat tube, if the latter, you'd need to do something like Banshee does with the curved support.

 @RadBartTaylor: banshee has worked some magic to separate the top tube like that.

 @Roost66: How do they even do it? My theory is that they sand the shit out of the welds but nothing is visible!

 Once all the top tubes are straight, we’ll get sick of it… someone will release a bike with a kinky or swoopy top tube and we’ll all be swooning over it.

 @islandforlife: Dr. Suess said it best with the book "The Sneetches"...

 @zanda23: Keith was asked once and he responded "wizardry"

 Totally! I was hoping to see a headline something like "Ibis Ripmo AF & Ripley AF Receive straight top tube". That's all the update that thing needs. Straighten it out, call it a V3 and call it a day.

 Everyone needs to buy a few thousand of these leftover, repainted models so they can start selling the new, redesigned AF models that are clearly sitting in a warehouse somewhere, waiting to be dubbed 2025 or 2026

 @VtVolk: Or not so they'll drop the price some more.

 @zanda23: They take a very young aluminum top tube tree and split the trunk of it, then let it grow into a smooth seat tube gusset!

 @islandforlife: all bikes should be bendy like jones or black sheep.

 @Roost66: it's actually pretty common in hydroformed tubing. I don't know exactly how they do it, but split top tubes or seat stays which merge are common in tubing catalogues.

 @Tambo: kinda makes sense, but why does no one else do it?

 @Roost66: probably because it's really limiting in how the bike looks, unless you pay tooling for a custom tube ($$$$$)

 maybe they did experiment with a straight toptube, and it inspired that new colour they named "plum smash"