Field Test: Ibis Exie - Ready for Your Next XC Race
PINKBIKE FIELD TEST
Ibis Exie
Words by Sarah Moore; photography by Tom Richards
Ibis Exie
Words by Sarah Moore; photography by Tom Richards
Ibis introduced the Exie just over a year ago, right in time for their 40th anniversary. The carbon 29" cross-country bike is built in a factory near the brand's Santa Cruz, California, headquarters and already has several podiums under its belt after a first season on the World Cup circuit under Jenny Rissveds.
While some of the bikes we tested in Quebec lean more towards the trail side of things, the Exie is geared towards cross-country racers with its 100mm of rear travel. It's definitely part of a new generation of more capable cross-country bikes, however, since that 100mm of rear travel is paired with a 120mm fork and a 67.2° head-tube angle.
While some of the bikes we tested in Quebec lean more towards the trail side of things, the Exie is geared towards cross-country racers with its 100mm of rear travel. It's definitely part of a new generation of more capable cross-country bikes, however, since that 100mm of rear travel is paired with a 120mm fork and a 67.2° head-tube angle.
Ibis Exie Details
• Travel: 100mm rear / 120mm fork
• Carbon frame
• 67.2° head-tube angle
• Reach: 439mm (med)
• 73.8–75.9° seat-tube angle
• 435mm chainstays
• Sizes: S, M (tested), L, XL
• Weight: 24.6 lb / 11.1 kg
• Price: $10,048 USD
• www.ibiscycles.com
• Travel: 100mm rear / 120mm fork
• Carbon frame
• 67.2° head-tube angle
• Reach: 439mm (med)
• 73.8–75.9° seat-tube angle
• 435mm chainstays
• Sizes: S, M (tested), L, XL
• Weight: 24.6 lb / 11.1 kg
• Price: $10,048 USD
• www.ibiscycles.com
Ibis sent us the middle-of-the-line X01 build, which came to a cool $10,048 USD when we added the optional carbon wheels. There are three builds available, with the XT version coming in at $7,999 USD and the XX1 AXS setting you back a whopping $12,799 USD. You can also buy the frame and build it up yourself for $4,499 USD.
The SRAM X01 build we tested features a Fox Factory Series 34 Stepcast fork with a Fit 4 damper and a Fox Float DPS rear shock. The suspension is controlled by a lockout at the handlebar. Stopping was done by Shimano's XT brakes and the size medium we rode came with a 160mm Bike Yoke Revive dropper that got the saddle out of the way nicely. We tested all of these bikes with control tires, but it's worth noting that the Exie comes with Maxxis's wider-than-used-to-be-typical-for-cross-country Recon Race 2.4" tires.
Trailforks Regions Where We Tested
The Sentiers du Moulins trail system was just one of the five trail networks we explored on the Ibis Exie. Filled with long, exposed bedrock, a healthy dose of machine made and naturally flowing tech trails, this zone surprised us with all of the gems hidden on either side of the valley.
We admired the views and the rock work on Crête du Lynx, before heading down the fast and flowy Maelstrom, which had tons of berms and rollers to fly through.
Climbing
Just looking at this XC whippet and its spindly rear triangle, you’d expect the 100mm of rear wheel travel to get up and go. And get up and go it does! The first ride I did on this bike was on the Mont-Sainte-Anne World Cup cross-country course, and I had forgotten just how steep and demanding it is. I was really glad to have this bike on my side for the tight corners and steep sections with questionable traction.
The Exie comes with a 50mm length stem, which is on the short side for a full-on cross-country race bike, and that paired with the steep head tube angle makes it easy to change directions quickly and choose the best line up the climb. I felt that the Exie really put me into an ideal position for putting power onto the pedals on climbs. While it doesn't have size-specific chainstays, the size-specific seat angles should mean that a wider range of riders feel like they're in that optimal climbing position as well.
As for the suspension, there's some sort of magic going on with the DW link suspension and it ekes out traction from the Exie's short amount of travel and lets you conquer the trickiest puzzles on technical climbs. The Exie powers up hills without sapping energy, but when you make a mistake or get bumped off line, the suspension is forgiving of mistakes and allows the rider to continue to grind up. There's definitely more to the Exie than just a gleaming raw carbon finish and a low number on the scale.
Descending
While the Exie is forgiving on the climbs, you'd better be paying attention when you start descending. Due to the steep head angle (compared to the other bikes we had on test) and relatively short stem, it feels like the front wheel is more underneath you than it did on some of the other, less race-focused bikes we had in the mix in Quebec.
That being said, it doesn't feel delicate and mistakes can be made without disastrous results. The frame is a comfortable ride and the traction we noticed on the uphill exists on the descents too. It's just that the geometry is definitely happier on sections of trail that aren't too steep and it takes a different level of concentration to make the bike work for you.
Pros
+ Serious traction both up and down
+ Quality looking frame
+ Made in the USA
Cons
- Steeper head angle is noticeable on the descents
- Same length chainstays on all bikes
- Lockout lever is in a clumsy position
The 2022 Downcountry Field Test is presented by Québec City Mountain Bike, Sweet Protection and Specialized Ground Control Tires
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Must Read This Week
Still. Why do media companies believe they need their own proprietary video player, other than to keep you on their site rather than youtube? Invariably they are worse and clunkier and I cannot then easily go find the other videos in the series. It's all posted to youtube anyway.
And embedded player, it's simple, you can play adverts you are paid for, not YT. Even Vital has this for a long long time. This is kind of funny cause it shows that this Outside subscription thing did not really catch on, did id? I remember they were saying they will be more independent of adverts, blah blah and now guess what, more commercials.
1. You can't rely on youtube. Its great for starting out; hosting, streaming (esp live), and distributing high bandwidth video is incredibly hard. This is one of the greatest achievements in the modern era, and we all don't even give it a second thought. However, your company can't rely on external services like this forever. Youtube unpredictably "moderates" people. Their streaming quality sometimes takes a dive. It can adversely affect your page load. At some point you have to own your own content.
2. Most A/B testing finds increased user engagement when videos autoplay. I very much doubt that Pinkbike is AB testing us in this way, but Outside is just copying industry trends. 80% of traffic on this site is mobile, and autoplay is critical to most mobile conversion metrics (think tiktok). The problem here is that what is "conversion" and "engagements"? I think it is a mistake for this audience. (on that note, most of the full width and other complaints don't apply to mobile, where once again 80% of the traffic is).
I get that there are issues here, I don't like the new player either, but unfortunately large corporations can't afford to shoot from the hip or go by someones gut. Small startups can do that because they generally aren't profitable and/or they have people working for hopes and dreams instead of bimonthly payroll. A large ship like Outside HAS to follow industry data until proven wrong, instead of the luxury of waiting for something to be proven right first in this specific situation.
For the devs out there who haven't seen the light : autoplay is intrusive, obnoxious, interruptive, bad for accessibility, generally bad practice, against apple developer guidelines, forces mobile data usage without permission, and is the main cause for high bounce rates.
Did I mention it's plain annoying?
www.jwplayer.com/video-monetization
The best response to this is "so autoplay gives you a short term bump in conversions, guess what so does clickbait. Its like drugs, good in the short run, bad in the long run." And thats a very good point. For many platforms, probably pinkbike included, the audience is very targeted and isn't dominated by 20 year olds still exploring life, finding their hobbies, making small purchases, and being very fickle with their purchaces. However, idk if Outside has the resources to AB test pinkbike, and the industry data around video autoplay is very robust, in both the short run and the long run. the A/B data at my company is very robust, with our data being processed by PhD statisticians, and a firewall between AB results and actually rolling out a policy 100%.
That being said, css media queries were invented over a decade ago, so it doesn't have to be full width once you get to devices that are primarily used in landscape. However, would you as a project manager prioritize the 20% or the 80% first?
Also @toast2266 ... exactly. I've got two massive monitors in from of me at the home office. MS project on one, pinkbike on the other :-)
And yeah, whoever at outside decided to use forced autoplay deserves a sriracha enema.
I'll still complain about the mobile site being loaded by user agent instead of css media queries!
Still autoplays even though I changed the setting in my profile... let the bitching continue.
YouTube are hardly renowned for their generous revenues. I'm sure PB can make more $$$ selling video ads direct.
www.diversetechgeek.com/blocking-autoplay-videos-browsers
medium.com/@gotheek/block-brightcove-player-with-privacy-badger-d0ae208345f1
But, in a race scenario, what advantage does a 67 HA offer over a 65? The main complaint I hear about slack(er) HAs is that they can suck the fun out of a flatter, calmer trail and they can feel more boat-like on sharp hairpins.
Would avoiding either of those traits outweigh the added stability and confidence in the downs, where a race (and season) is rarely won, but can very easily be lost?
Some of us (have to) live where it’s flat. A bike with a 62 degree head angle does me no favors at my local.
Hump
Jokes aside it looks beautiful, and I've heard good things about it being used as a bikepacking rig. Shame I can't afford it for the next 30 years :/
manufactured goods, my bad dude
Now consider the absolute COGs of the frame itself - there is nothing especially interesting about the frame design, and it would be easy to argue that it uses appreciably less raw material than our counterpoint's frames.
In any mature market there will be select organizations that price themselves out of sales volume, but still hit their profit goals through inflated margins. Nothing wrong with this strategy. But the fact remains: consumers are often paying a premium for a product that is at parity with other, less expensive options.
Makes me personally want to fork over the extra cash.
www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a26766146/guerrilla-gravity-new-carbon-mountain-bikes
Their investment into carbon manufacturing was relatively low, because they sort of homebrewed their own mold, robots, forms and baking machines. They didn't buy anything off the shelf. They also took advantage of low cost loans and even grants from the State of Colorado.
Ibis, alternatively, is manufacturing in one of the highest-property-cost states in the USA, in a new facility, using lots of off-the-self stuff, and manufacturing their frames in a labor intensive way.
Argonaut and Allied both make frames in the USA, and they are equally expensive to the Ibis, despite the fact that Allied makes their frames in Arkansas.
It sorta makes you wonder what percentage of the frame cost is upper management compensation? I asked Payson McElveen if he got a cut of his special edition frame or not. Does the additional cost of the Allied or Argonaut or Ibis go into the hands of the people actually manufacturing these frames, or does it go into the pockets of ownership, investors, etc?
But ultimately the market dictates what people will pay for a frame. I don't think many people would buy from Ibis, Allied, WAO if the frames were $6k. But $4.5k? That's just typical Santa Cruz, Yeti etc.. pricing for commie frames. I think these thermoset/hand laid North American frames were priced with that in mind. From eg WAO's perspective they have a beautiful frame, a dual link suspension, glowing reviews...why wouldn't they price it like a SB150? I don't think the front offices are losing money on local production, but probably aren't profiting quite as much either.
Deep in my soul I feel Ripley was too traily for me and Exie will be much better on my 100-150km daily trail adventures
I've run a -1* angleset on my Ripley V4 and while it does help with descending, if you're on the larger sized frames, it becomes really obvious that the chainstays are now too short for how long the front center is now.
The Ripley is a great bike, but with the Exie in the lineup now, it's in a weird spot where it has too much overlap with what the Exie is capable of, and the Ripley isn't really all that much better on gnarlier trails.
If you're doing a test on "downcountry" bikes, l'd argue the ripley is the better all around choice.Unless you're riding xc, which most of us aren't.
I'd also argue you're going about it wrong by trying to turn the Ripley into something its not by putting on an angleset or lengthening the chainstays. Its fine for you to not like the bike, but for some of us it's a great trail bike.
So, slackening the Ripley V4 a degree is not making it something it's not, it's making it something the Ripley already is.
As for the chainstay length, size specific chainstays are only going to become more and more prevalent. It's simply crazy that at this point we still expect people ride the same chainstay length on a bike model, no matter if you're 5'1" or 6'3". Again, even Ibis is going this direction with their new ebike that has size specific chainstays. Without them, you have different sized bikes riding completely different from one another because the front centers of the bikes are so different.
For the prices we pay for bikes these days, it's not too much to ask for at least 2 sizes of rear triangles, one for smaller bikes and a longer one for larger bikes. Heck, you can even get crazy with it and let people pick what triangle they want when they are buying the bike.
Here is first hand experience, not just forum talk Ripley vs Exie ...
Now on Exie, 3600km so far and year not finished by far - also shows something which bike I like more and ride more, will do ~1500km more in year compared to year on Ripley.
Both bikes had very similar kit. Exie is so much better bike to me and to my style. Biggest difference is better geo/fit, because of reach 519mm on XL. BB is not so low, I do not hit ground with pedals so much as on Ripley. More easy to grab a bottle. I like remote lockout on long paved climbs (transfer to the best trails on my location).
I`m so happy with the Exie, best bike I`ve ever had!
Ultimately the bike would most likely be lighter if the link actuated a vertical shock, but then it would be harder to fit dual bottles in the frame. I also like the look of horizontally mounted shocks, if you ask me (but I hate shock yoke extensions!)
What I wonder though, why do you say that the target audience is running 80mm posts? I NEVER EVER see short post on other people's bikes. 125mm minimum
It doesn't carry speed through larger rough rock gardens with multiple hits as well as the Ripley and in Bromont I prefer the Ripmo otherwise it does crazy well. I find I can pull it through tight tough stuff easier than any other bike and the pedal out as soon as I need to. At race speed I found I occasionally got on top of the front end and may have crashed a couple times... not sure that was the bike though. I tried a 60mm stem but preferred the 50mm.
I can't stress enough how well it carries speed, is comfortable and surprising capable on medium sized jumps and drops.
Weirdly I might say this bike is the most planted over steep roots and rocks of the ones I currently ride. I can overwhelm it at high speed on chunk but that is a reminder of what the bike is and is not. I have jumped it pulled it through some gnarly stuff and it feels almost as capable as my Ripley which has a float X on it.
My biggest con is the checkered flag paint job... I choose to view it as a joke to support the "exie" name. Laughing at itself. I am not sure this bike is beautiful but it sure is awesome.
if you watch the replay you can see that jenny literally overtakes on the descents
To your actual question, I had a Tallboy 3 built up in 29er XC race mode back in 2017-8, so fairly similar to my current setup on the Exie. Granted, the Tallboy was two pounds heavier (26.5 v 24.2) and generally rode more "damp" through the chassis (maybe VPP vs. DW link, maybe carbon layup?) with very similar Fox suspension, Reserve rims and Schwalbe tires on both bikes. The TB3 felt pretty slack and aggressive for the time, while the Exie just feels like a well-fitting modern XC bike, meaning it would have felt radically long and slack by 2018 standards (especially with the 518mm reach on the XL). If there's one big geo difference I think it's BB height -- the Exie feels pretty high by modern standards and doesn't feel all that stable at speed or pushing into corners, while the TB3 I thought was an incredible corner-er and almost felt like a slalom bike at times.
Yesterdays trail bike is todays XC.
Having bought the bike off PB marketplace at the start of the pandemic for $2k, I feel like I'd be pretty dumb to ever sell it, considering the asking price of DC and light trail bikes nowdays.
...also, steep HTA typically means the overall length of the bike is shorter. Shorter length = quicker turning. Like wiping a Miata around a turn versus a long SUV.
When climbing steep, sometimes loose with tight corners and your shoulder to shoulder with other racers, the precision a steeper HA provides is very important.
XC DHs have gotten a lot more techy and chunky, but the segments only last for 10-45 seconds. One can only push those XC tires so far too.
Best way I can describe it is watching my GF ride her new one. She rides a Transition Patrol, but picked up an Epic for the longer, more chill trail rides. On her first couple rides, she has been trying to climb up everything she can find. Big rock pile? Go up! Steep climb? Go up! Fast and flowing? Pedal hard! It's a unique experience.
You may not want to own one, which is fine, but just taking one for a spin is an experience.
I really hope no one pays this crazy amount of money so bike companies really hurt and in the next 5 years prices calm down. I only see 45 - 50 years old men being able to afford this shit
Yeah, I can't afford it either.
Just curious, I personally hate Rekon Races....and would switch them out also.
this shit is off the f'n hook the manufacturers want to retire rich after a few years.
also what is wrong with SLX?
So your comment can be applied to any new bike, XC is now mini enduro, trail is now enduro, enduro is pretty much DH rig, DH rig... I don't think anyone really cares about them after slamming 180mm Fox 38 on your normal MTB