MRP Introduces the Ribbon Fork 2

For 2017, MRP set out with a seemingly impossible goal: to craft an all-mountain fork with the highest performance, most adjustability and features in its class, and deliver it at a jaw-dropping weight. The result is the Ribbon, the new benchmark for high-end suspension. Designed, tested, and built in one of the meccas of mountain biking, Colorado.

MRP Ribbon Highlights

• 35mm stanchions.
• TRAVEL: 140, 150, 160, or 170mm (27.5").
• TRAVEL: 120, 130, 140, 150, or 160mm (27.5+ / 29").
• WEIGHT: 4.15 lbs. for 27.5", 4.2 lbs. for 27.5+ / 29"
• SPRING SYSTEM: FulFill™ independent positive and negative chamber system.
• EXTERNAL ADJUSTMENTS: Positive air-spring pressure, negative air-spring pressure, 8-position low-speed compression, 16-position Ramp Control, and rebound.
• INTERNAL ADJUSTMENTS: Travel (in 5mm increments)
• STEERER OPTIONS: Tapered Only (1.5 - 1.125")
• COLORS: All black chassis with 9 decal color options.
• OFFSET: 44mm (27.5"), 46* or 51mm (27.5+ / 29")
• BRAKE MOUNT: 180mm PM (Disc only)
• CHASSIS / WHEEL SIZE OPTIONS: 27.5" or 27.5+ / 29”
• TIRE CLEARANCE: 27.5" Chassis: 27.5" x 2.6" on 35mm ID rim
• TIRE CLEARANCE: 27.5+ / 29" Chassis: 27.5" x 3.0" on 45mm ID rim, 29" x 2.6" on 35mm ID RIM
• AXLE: "Boost" spacing - 15x110mm, QR15 standard, "tooled" bolt-on axle optional
• MSRP: $989 USD

Inspiration

Like all MRP products, the Ribbon was designed and prototyped in house and thoroughly tested on local trails - and we're blessed with some of the most technical in the country, right out our back door. Among those, the namesake Ribbon trail offers riders a variety of terrain from slow, techy moves and near-vertical rollers to slickrock slabs where speeds can reach in excess of 50mph. The trail tests a rider's prowess while approaching the limits of traction, their confidence to let-off the brakes and "pin it" at eye-watering speeds, and their courage to drop into daunting, seemingly impossible chutes. The new fork was built to handle everything trails like the Ribbon can throw at you, and it became the de-facto test track, so it was only right to pay homage with the name.

Today’s all-mountain and enduro riders need a supple and extremely high-performance ride for a variety of terrain. The Ribbon offers a new design, inside and out, that provides the highest level of personalization offered in a suspension fork. Here are the highlights of the new design:

Air Spring

The new FulFill™ air spring offers independently adjustable positive and negative chambers, giving you more control than ever over your base setup. You can personalize the tune of your fork to achieve the desired feel based on your style of riding and the type of trail. Whether it’s an unbelievably supple or highly supported off-the-top feel you desire, you can have it. The one-size-fits-all negative spring setups found in other forks is deliberately absent in the Ribbon.

MRP’s popular and critically acclaimed Ramp Control™ technology lets you isolate and tune your forks behavior when subjected to the most violent, demanding high-speed hits. It’s a robust and convenient package that simultaneously adds speed-sensitive ending-stroke and bottom-out force control on-the-fly; finely adjustable by a 16-position knob. You never have to install or remove tokens again, and you don’t have to sacrifice the initial and mid-stoke feel you want to get the bottom-out support you need.

Once you’ve found that perfect for you air-spring setup, you can keep it feeling that way courtesy of a helpful little addition that’s a first of its kind outside of dedicated downhill race fork. Experienced and discerning riders know that elevation and temperature changes can build up pressure in your lowers and radically alter the feel of your stroke. To mitigate this, PSST™ valves were added to the Ribbon’s castings allowing you to bleed it off quickly with the press of a button. You may still personally suffer at nosebleed-inducing elevations, but now your fork won’t.

Damper

“Twin-tube” has been a suspension buzzword for a few years, and with good reason. Despite it's notoriety among suspension aficionados, it's seldom been implemented in forks - until now. The Ribbon’s EssenTTial™ damper, twin-tube dampers offer advantages in performance, ride control, space-efficiency, and durability that open bath and mono-tube dampers can’t touch. Furthermore, the EssenTTial™ damper utilizes an exclusive low-pressure IFP instead of a bladder - a stiction-free design that also provides more reliability and consistency over long-term use. And once service time finally does arrive, appreciable details like cassette-tool interfaces on the top caps and external bleed ports make the process stress free. On the rebound side, a speed-sensitive shim stack responds magnificently to trail events and obstacles of all varieties, shapes, and sizes.

Chassis Design

The redesigned Outcast™ arch is an instantly noticeable feature, implemented for both practical and artistic reasons - look no further for proof of our "outside of the box" approach to the project. On the practical side, the forward-facing weight reliefs mitigate mud build up in the arch, a feature that will be especially appreciated by those who aren't fair-weather only riders. With the weight reliefs no longer hidden from view, the engineering team at MRP was forced to carefully sculpt every non-essential bit of material from them and holistically blend that shaping into the fork. That attention to detail in the casting design went a long way to achieving the feathery weight of the Ribbon (Under 4.2lbs, with uncut steerer, for both 27.5” and 27.5+/29” models). On the artistic side, the Outcast™ design stands out in a sea of homogeny and complements both organic and contemporary frame designs with aplomb.

Custom Options

A bolt-on axle option is available for a weight savings of over 30 grams from the QR axle. Each fork comes with 35mm of spacers and simple instructions for adjusting its travel – and you’re not just limited to 10mm increments, 5mm adjustment is possible, unlike any other fork on the market. And finally, the Ribbon will be offered in 9 decal color options – chosen to match today’s most popular colorways – so that your bike can maintain a clean, uniform look.

Tested Every Step of the Way

Through development the Ribbon accrued thousands of hours of machine testing in addition to extensive trail testing. The fork was repeatedly torture tested in the lab under conditions far more extreme than would be faced in regular use. As with all MRP forks, each Ribbon is built to order, by hand, at our facility in Colorado. Unlike competing forks (where dynamometers are used only in development or, in some cases, batch testing), every MRP fork is dyno tested to ensure the compression and rebound ranges are exactly where they should be. Whether you're an EWS contender or just bitten by the cycling bug, you're getting our very best.

Our Favorite Features

"My favorite element of the Ribbon is the Outcast Arch – it worked out to be a great compromise in strength to weight, and improves that mud accumulation situation for climates where that’s a challenge, which providing a standout visual. You won’t mistake the Ribbon for any other fork when you pass on the trail." - Scott Winans, VP of Engineering

"I'm loving the weight of the Ribbon. Being a large guy and all, the weight vs. stiffness equation is always a difficult one to address for me but with the Ribbon we were able to create a comparably stiff chassis to the Stage while actually trimming down the weight significantly. This should serve as a great benefit to all riders when comparing the Ribbon to the Stage, or to other competitors fork offerings" - Cole Hanson, Engineering.

"My favorite feature isn’t a knob you can turn - it’s the fact that the Ribbon, like all MRP products, is a no compromise component. As a small company we have the luxury to do things differently. We don’t need to make our shareholders happy or be concerned about how the product can be mass produced on an assembly line in Asia. We control every aspect of the product and we only answer to you and ourselves." - Tim Fry, Owner

"My favorite feature is the Fulfill air spring. Just by changing the pressure in the negative air chamber by a few psi, the user can tune the firmness of the top end of travel." - Darek Barefoot, Engineering (damper and air-spring architect)

The Ribbon may be purchased through any of MRP’s fine distributors, dealers or direct from us. Ribbons are also available with the following bike brands: Banshee, Canfield Brothers, Guerilla Gravity, Lynskey, Pyrenatic and Reeb. For a full list of specs, see the Ribbon product page.