When you think of the carbon Ibis Ripmo, what words come to mind? Refined, sculpted, sleek, lightweight? The aluminium Ibis Ripmo AF is nothing like that! It’s in the wrong group test here, but nobody told the Ripmo AF because it totally rips.

Brutish, industrial and burly would be good adjectives for the Ripmo AF. At first glance, the 15.7 kg Ripmo AF will look familiar to Ibis owners. The distinctive Ripmo silhouette is there, but looking closer, the chunky welds, fat tubes and thickset look stand in contrast to the carbon version. The big question. Why did we include a 145 mm trail bike in this enduro bike test? The Ripmo AF doesn’t quite fit in the trail bike category, it’s too heavy and too burly, so we wanted to see how it compared against hard-hitting enduro machines. The build kit looks interesting, with a DVO Diamond 160 mm fork and (optional) DVO Jade coil shock controlling the 145 mm rear travel. A SRAM NX drivetrain is a good choice at this price point. SRAM Guide T brakes with 200/180 mm rotors do the stopping, or at least try to. The bike rolls on Ibis’ own S35 Aluminium wheelset with a 35 mm internal width and burly Maxxis Assegai 29” 2.5” EXO+ tires front and back. A 150 mm KS Rage-i Dropper finishes the € 3,498 build.

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