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Spur vs Tallboy vs Ripley: Best Trail Bike for 2021

Jun 08, 2021
Hi, I'm Connor from Biker's Edge. It's in blizzard mode outside, so here we are in my charming 70s-inspired basement. One of the questions we get asked the most, whether in the store on YouTube or on our social media channels, is where are stimulates the transition? I fit in with the ibis

ripley

and the santa cruz

tallboy

so I spent a week in the desert riding those three

bike

s back to back so I could give you a really good answer so stay here and let's go oh yeah first. First, let's go over each of these

bike

s real quick so you have a basic understanding.
spur vs tallboy vs ripley best trail bike for 2021
We have carried out reviews of all of them. I'll put cards where it makes sense so you can click on them to see the full review of each one. of these bikes let's start with the transition stimulus it's new for this year it has 120 millimeters of travel front and rear 29 inch wheels it has a 66 degree head tube and it has a really long reach it has 510 millimeters and an extra large size, for what this bike is super long, pretty loose, it's pretty aggressive for a bike that blurs the lines between cross country and

trail

, now lets jump to the ibis

ripley

, this one has been around for a minute, it's a great excellent climber, i mean, it's incredibly good anyway 29 Wheels 120 millimeters of rear travel 130 millimeters of front travel Uses the Fox 34, so it's a little lighter.
spur vs tallboy vs ripley best trail bike for 2021

More Interesting Facts About,

spur vs tallboy vs ripley best trail bike for 2021...

Fork not so rigid and burly. The Ripley has a head tube angle of 66 and a half degrees and has a fairly long reach. with 500 millimeters in an extra large, finally, let's jump into the Santa Cruz tall boy again. 29 inch wheels. 120 millimeters of rear travel. 130 millimeters at the front. The tall guy uses the Rockshox pike, so the struts are a little bigger and stiffer. The fork head is a little stiffer. The tube angle is the slackest of the group at 65 and a half degrees and the bike is actually the smallest in terms of reach, so the extra large size on the low geometry setup, which is what I used for this test, it's 488 millimeters, so it's significantly shorter than The other two okay, this briefly summarizes the background of these three bikes, so let's move on to the right impressions right now.
spur vs tallboy vs ripley best trail bike for 2021
Okay, I'm back here in St George, Utah again, starting to feel like a home away from home this time. I'm in a good mood, one of the questions we get asked the most is how does this bike climb compared to the Ripley and you're about to find out it's got a steep, punchy part here it's got the climb and go of a cross. A cross country bike may not be a full cross country race bike, but you know, it's like a cross country marathon bike, so you have to get up and ride one of those, but the geometry allows you to ride it almost like you ride a big bike, therefore a cross country bike. for people who wear knee pads this bike is light weight it climbs well it's pretty efficient the seat tube angle is nice and steep it gets a lot of power through the pedals it doesn't sink the suspension platform uses flexible stays instead of an extra pivot down the rear axle which makes it a little bit lighter, I think it gives the suspension a unique feel and it also feels quick and agile, I love that jump, so here comes the technical, it's about to become a uncomplicated, oh, stuck, okay?
spur vs tallboy vs ripley best trail bike for 2021
So to sum up final thoughts on the climb, I think it gets a negative point. You know, it does everything pretty much perfectly, except for two things: the rear wheel can get stuck and bounce on technical stuff and it's pretty long. and lazy to navigate technical stuff, you know, that's what he said, it's still a great climber, now it's time to head back downhill on the

spur

, that's where this bike gets super fun, so the

best

thing about this bike is which has big bike geometry in this little guy. I've noticed that you can get into some trouble with this bike, so you can get going pretty quickly and then when you need a big ride to save you it's not there, not really a criticism of the bike.
As much as that's a compliment, you know it's very good for short travel, so the suspension feels quite planted. I don't know if you can say that about a 120mm bike, this terrain is very unstable at the moment, but the bike absorbs a lot quite well, it's not too level or wobbly, the suspension is quite supportive, allows you to pump and push You know, I think that's what allows you to ride a 120k bike, so aggressive is the geometry and the suspension platform that there are about 10 million lines through all of this I'm sorry, it sounded terrible talking about a uphill landing not good for that right, we got some fast stuff here, it's on that little descent there, I hit bottom, we'll see what happens here, that one has a better landing, so no bottom, no hard flights there, pretty impressive for a 120k manta and I have a hard time concentrating because what is written here is very funny, I'm sorry, so the stimulus on the downhill I think for the category it gets a minus, it does everything very, very well, it has a geometry that is progressive enough so that you can push the pace is stable it's aggressive it has a progressive enough ride that you can push it you know how to do some more important features in this without just ruining everything it's time to head to the car take the next bike do another lap Okay, so the big question to answer is which bike climbs better between this and the

spur

.
I am not going to lie. I'm a big fan of dw link on ibis bikes. It feels really good if you've ridden one. you know what I'm talking about, it feels super efficient, it just makes the bike feel light and fast, so I think the Ripley climbs smoother than the transition, smoothes out the bumps better, just helps you keep turning and not get stuck strung up. climbing or having your pedaling interrupted by bumps, which if you're climbing over this kind of thing is very useful, it makes the bike a little more efficient and a little faster, the Ripley just has a climbing position a little Better yet, it weighs just a little more. centered on the bike, if not a little leaning forward, okay, now we are getting to the technical climb, here the climb went pretty well on the spur, there is a small point that I had problems with, but it is a difficult point, so I'll probably have problems with it's on all bikes and I did it and this kind of thing, the bike just doesn't hang at all, it's so crazy you're used to the rear wheel getting stuck on those ledges and hitting you towards up and up and this just smooths it out, you don't even feel that bumpy final climbing slope on the Ripley, just a solid top of the glass, it really doesn't get any better than this.
I've been thinking this whole climb with a bone to pick and me. Honestly I don't have one so I usually have bones to choose from so good job ibis this is a great climber okay heading back downhill on the Ripley. Now see how this one compares if the gopro doesn't show it. This

trail

is really talkative. rocky, so it's a good test to check compliance over small bumps and how well a bike can maintain its speed. Ripley is doing pretty well, she's very capable, she's not as stable or smooth as the spur, but she's quite capable of getting through that rocky, thick section quite a bit.
Well the suspension design is really good, I don't feel like it's as progressive as the spur so I'm making my ride a little easier here, it's not the softest on those things but it's not sketchy either, it's not as disturbing. The handling on the Ripley is quicker than the Spur, it probably comes down to the overall length of the bike's wheelbase, so here you know the front end is a little more responsive, it just feels like the handling is faster, like you could steer it much better. I got into some of the bigger, steeper stuff here and I never remember my line through any of it because there are about 10,000 options, but I made it, yeah, I'm finding bottom a little more on the Ripley here than I thought.
I was in the stimulus, even you. knows the same amount of rides man this ripley is really lively, engaging, fun and playful let's see how he handles a little fall here really well that's pretty fun very agile responsive hello he's not that stable big and planted as the stimulus, this action is very fun. just a bit of high speed with a couple of good airs, very good, so I think I would give the Ripley an a b plus for downhill ability. You know, I think the spur is a lot more aggressive and you can get away with more on the way down. more stimulus than this bike, but it's still, oh boy, I hit a rock there that didn't feel good, but yeah, this bike is still a decent downhill, like I'm not afraid to ride it or go fast or do anything, just It is not like this.
So well planted, I think this type of fits into the more general purpose trail downhill category, so the suspension on the

tallboy

s sits a little deeper, is quite active, and has a similar feel to the rest of the Santa Cruz bicycles with the bottom. link, but this bike isn't your fast, lively, energetic, take the hardline, punchy type of bike, it's a little more sit, turn, get to the top type of bike, so that approach is similar to How an enduro bike or an all-terrain bike works. the mountain bike would go up a hill, you know, this will get you there faster than that, it's lighter, but it's the same feeling that all the Santa Cruz bikes and the tallboy include our drive factories, only it's very, very hard to get that rear wheel. to get loose, they do a really good job of keeping the rear wheel on the ground, this bike jumped super well, we'll get to that later, but okay, we're getting to the technical climbing section, now let's see how this guy does stop, here we go.
Oh, I barely managed to wrap the tallboy on the climbs. I think I'll generally go with a B-plus, accepting that technical things get an A-minus. This suspension is really plush, so it's just not as efficient uphill up the seat tube. it just pulls your weight a little further back which is generally never good for climbing performance on a bike, it just doesn't match what the other two can offer, especially Ripley going downhill with the tallboy oh, This is good, so encouragement. It has louder geometry, I think the tallboy has a really perfect suspension design for going fast downhill on a short travel bike. quiet, kind of like a patter over all these rocks, yeah this bike is really good on the downhill, feels nice and stiff, doesn't flex the frame much, doesn't feel like shaky tracks, a good straight line carries speed, here we go, oh yeah, this is it.
It's good, it's wide open, no breaks on any of those bike tracks, really good, feels a little more planted than the Ripley and I'd probably have to say more than the spur too just because of how the suspension works, so let's go back to back. With the tall boy and the spur, I think the biggest difference here is the suspension design that gives you a little more ground contact feel and a little more, not a little, a little more traction. I think that's honestly the biggest difference the tall guy is stuck on. This is the type of descent that I would say, the

best

of the group.
Oh, some wind caught me there, that was spooky. It's just so planted and low to the ground. I think the spur obviously has a more aggressive geometry. It's longer, which gives it some stability, but I think the suspension design here overcomes that and then the tall boy, if you like jumping and doing things like that, it's hard to beat this bike, the handling of this bike is somewhere between the ripley and the spur. It's a little faster than the spur, not as fast and lively as the ripley, but of the three it's the easiest to take off, you get a lot of it, I don't know a better word to describe it, but it drives when you're bunny.
Jumping feels very good, so the tall boy's overall climbing rating directly gets the first place in the class here out of this group, now it's time to go back, write down some ideas, let's draw a conclusion here, really dig in , so let's get into the awards here um, I think that's probably what you're here to know is where each one stacks up well, so the climbing awards here, the ibis ripley takes the top prize, it doesn't get any better, no you get faster, you don't get a better technical climber or smooth climber than the ibis ripley, the spark is close, it's almost as efficient and is probably aa little lighter, but it just doesn't have the suspension designed to match that ripley and then you have the Tallboy it's the slowest climber of the three and it just doesn't have the same fast and lively feel, but we carry that over to the descents.
Tallboy takes the top prize: he is the fastest descent, the most stable descent, the safest implanted descent, and me. I think the most fun thing to ride downhill right underneath is the spur, it's got the geometry that lets you go fast, it just doesn't have that suspension design to match the tall boy and then at the bottom we have the Ripley. The Ripley is the most trail or least aggressive downhill bike of the three, so let's talk about who each bike is for if you like to ride fast, flowing, smooth terrain, you like to put in the miles, and you just like to go uphill really fast. . you get the ripley, you can't beat it, it really is super fun, rewarding and engaging to ride, on the other hand, if you like to go downhill fast and that's your biggest emphasis on how a downhill bike performs, you get the tall guy you can .
I didn't beat it in the downhill category, it's the best downhill bike of the bunch, so if you want the average of those two extremes you get the transition boost, it climbs well, it descends well, it's not as extreme as Tallboy and Ripley in any of those categories, but you kind of average those kind of averages of those two bikes and you find yourself in the middle somewhere with a very well-rounded and versatile bike, so thank you for following up to this point. If you want to demo any of these bikes, I'm leaving a link in the description below for $20 off a demo bike.
You know, I'm a really nice guy who tries. To help you out here, be sure to click that link if you want to try one of these bikes out and see for yourself how it rides. If you have any questions, be sure to write to us in the comments. Visit our website. You know, send us. a little email or something and we'll be more than happy to help you again thanks for staying, see you next time

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