Ever progressive, and always down for a good time, Ibis' Ripley blurs the line between cross country rocketship and all-mountain fun machine. While Ibis' newest iteration of its Ripley GX Eagle Factory Mountain Bike does see a full redesign that does include the modern longer-slacker-steeper treatment, we think it finds a moderate landing place that's still capable of quick-rolling power and nimble control in XC applications, while offering unwavering support when we head into chunkier, steeper terrain. That's because the engineers at Ibis didn't go too overboard. Instead, they opt for just a one-degree shift in the head tube to slacken things, lengthening the wheelbase just a touch to extend the reach in the cockpit to give us a little more room to move around, while the seat tube shifts forward 3-degrees for the perfect perch when we need to attack climbs. The frame is an all-new design that drops weight over the previous generation while bolstering frame stiffness where it's needed most. The Ripley 4's overhaul meant that Ibis' engineers could start from the ground up, and they chose to start with the heart-and-center of the bike, updating the dual-eccentrics used in the past to a new design based on the Ripmo, which still holds DW-Link suspension tucked neatly in the front triangle, but without as much weight, and with a huge boost in stiffness. This change in the frame's chassis allows massive weight savings of over a half-pound on the frame alone, giving our all-mountain machine a little more pep in its step when we're pushing up grueling climbs, and a more nimble feel when we're flicking it around tight switchbacks. Weight savings aside, one of the biggest benefits we see with the drop of the double-eccentric design is extra room in the seat tube, which enables taller riders to run dropper posts up to 185mm. This long-dropper length lets Ibis' engineers carry forward with even more geometry tweaks, like an extra-low standover height, so we can pick our f...