By The Takeaway: The Spot Ryve 115 is a short travel trail bike for riders who prefer a lightweight, reactive bike and demand performance for all parts of the ride.
- Updated frame designed around a 130mm fork.
- Stiffer frame with more progressive rear suspension.
- Slacker head angle, longer wheelbase, shorter seat tube.
- Spot's signature Living Link dual-link suspension offers a uniquely lively and reactive ride.
- Lifetime warranty.
Price: $5,600 to $9,000 ($9,000 as tested)
Weight: 27.6 lb. (6-Star AXS, size medium)
Spot Ryve 115—What’s New
It is hard to visually see the updates between the V1 Ryve 115 and the new V2 Ryve 115. The biggest changes are to the bike's purpose and subsequent geometry updates.
The V1 Ryve, launched in 2019, did double duty—with a shock and fork change—as a 100mm XC race bike and a 115mm (with 120mm fork) fast trail bike. That dual personality compelled Spot to compromise on geometry and frame stiffness.
But after a few years on the market, fewer than 10 percent of buyers opted for the 100mm version. With the sales data making clear that the overwhelming favorite was the 115/120mm version, Spot’s team chucked the 100mm version for the V2 Ryve and optimized the frame for a 115 platform.
Those updates include a 28 percent boost in frame stiffness, geometry revised around a 130mm fork, and increased shock progression. Linkage progression now stands at 16 percent, a 25 percent bump from the V1 Ryve.
Improvement to the frame's stiffness came from a “New rocker link with larger bearings and thru-axle pivots,” and a repositioned lower shock mount.
Geometry updates include a degree slacker head tube angle (now 66.2 degrees), shorter seat tubes for compatibility with longer dropper posts, a longer front center, and a longer wheelbase.
These changes make the Ryve 115 a more direct competitor to some of the best-selling and best-riding trail bikes on the market: Yeti’s SB120, Santa Cruz’s Tallboy, Evil’s Following, Pivot Trail 429, Ibis Ripley, and other amazing bikes.
A smaller update was the elimination of the groove in the downtube for external rear brake hose routing: The Ryve now has internal hose routing.
The Ryve 115 has a lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects, and Spot offers a crash replacement program.
Spot Ryve 115—Ride Impressions
Spot sent me the V2 Ryve months before its official product announcement, so I had plenty of time to ride it myself and hand it off to a trusted tester for a good flogging. Overall, the V2 is almost as good at climbing as the V1 but is much improved on the descents and for aggressive trail riding in general.
If there is one word that sums up the Ryve 115, it is “lively.” This bike is dynamic and energetic on the trail in the best ways possible. It feels efficient and reactive in ways that a lot of trail bikes have foregone in their quest for stability and performance on steep downhill trails.
And don’t think “lively” is just a polite way of saying the Ryve is twitchy or unstable: It’s neither of those things. It’s also not a shorter travel bike pretending to be a bigger bike.
With mountain bike weights where they are today, often there is a negligible difference between a 120mm bike and a 140mm bike on the scale. So it can seem strange when brands aggressively slacken, lengthen, and equip shorter travel bikes to make them ride like longer travel bikes. Many riders will consider that weight difference but opt for the extra capability of the longer travel bike. And who can blame them?
The Ryve 115 isn’t cosplaying as a 140mm bike, and its overall vibe is more Evil Following than Santa Cruz Tallboy. That is in line with the bike Spot was trying to build. Spot considered the whole ride; it was not trying to make the best descending short-travel trail bike.
“Spot’s philosophy is still that mountain biking is about going up and down,” Spot’s president Andrew Lumpkin told me in a phone conversation, “We really enjoy the climbs, but of course, we really like to rip the downs—That’s the payoff. But I don’t appreciate the type of riding where you’re suffering for 50 minutes, and you just hate it and you’re only doing it for those five to ten minutes of descending. I really like to build things where it’s about the entire experience.”
Later in our conversation, Lumpkin talked about picking lines, riding with precision, and “Jeep crawl” climbs. He built the Ryve for those kinds of riding rather than optimizing a bike for plowing descents.
So the Ryve’s ride won’t be the best short travel bike for riders who hang off the back of the bike as they navigate steep terrain. It’s a true all arounder that flies up climbs. And it descends well too. It’s for the rider who wants a bike that steers with a lighter touch and feels best when ridden with precision.
The rear suspension feel is excellent. Though the new Ryve is a much better bike for downhills and rowdy trails, you can still feel a hint of its cross country legacy in the rear suspension. With just 115mm of travel and a crisper tune, the Ryve’s ride is more sporty than plush, but it uses its travel efficiently: It is suitably sensitive off the top, and with the stock 0.4 in.³ volume spacer in the shock, there’s enough progression for this bike’s stated purpose while leaving options on either side for riders who need more or less progression. But the mid-stroke is the star of the Ryve’s travel: There’s a wide and supportive platform in the heart of the Ryve’s travel that help’s create it’s signature liveliness.
The new Ryve pedals very well, a trait I’ve experienced in every Spot with the Living Link rear suspension design. For whatever reason, this design seems to imbue Spot’s bikes with unique sensations of extra punch and efficiency. This bike climbs. And not just because it pedals so well but because the suspension is reactive and generates tons of traction.
It's also fairly light for a modern bike, coming in around 27.6 pounds (built with a Fox 34 GRIP2 and stocky Maxxis Minion tires)—that’s about two pounds less than the Yeti SB120 I reviewed. Plus the Ryve has a higher-end build than the Yeti and costs $600 less. Keeping the weight down makes the Ryve feel better on steeper climbs and makes it easier to flick around.
However, because I received my sample so early it did not come with the final spec. The rims and handle bar on my tester are different than production builds though the weight differences between those parts should be negligible. Tires are a different story: The stock spec is Schwalbe’s Wicked Will 2.4-inch Super Ground. Based to claimed weights, the stock tires are 302 grams/0.66 lb. lighter than the tires on my bike, which should put the bike right at 27 pounds/12.2kg.
As noted, the Ryve 115 is a lively and quick-handling bike. At the highest of speeds, the steepest of roll-ins, and the pinbally-est of rock gardens, it’ll take a more deliberate hand to keep it going where you want than a Tallboy. But the payoff is the Ryve feels so fast, pivots around uphill switchbacks so gracefully, is easy to keep centered when climbing a rutted high-country traverse, and pushes less in flat corners. If your first question is, “What is the head angle?” this isn’t gonna be your bike.
“My first ride I felt under biked compared to my usual Specialized Stumpjumper EVO,” wrote my tester in her notes, “But the Ryve makes up for less travel by being so maneuverable. The Ryve is lively and agile: It springs out of corners and over obstacles. As a lighter rider (about 130 pounds), I appreciate that I can put less effort into maneuvering the bike. The lightweight chassis will change direction with just a flick, so picking a cleaner line almost seems effortless.” she said.
As far as any negatives go, my tester reported a pronounced rattle that she could not trace, however I did not experience the rattle when I rode the bike. And if you're a fan of using the Fox shock’s compression lever, this bike’s layout makes it tough to reach.
If you’re seeking an extra reactive trail bike that climbs very well, feels light and lively, rewards precision riding, and still offers modern trail bike performance on the descents, few bikes can fulfill your wants like the Ryve 115.
Spot Ryve 115—Living Link Suspension
Like Spot’s other full-suspension bikes, the new Ryve uses the brand’s Living Link suspension platform. While it looks like a dw-link dual-short link system, Living Link has a twist: In place of a traditional cartridge bearing and axle pivot, the lower link’s rear pivot is a titanium leaf spring.
The titanium plate serves two purposes. One, it is low maintenance and does away with a pivot assembly in the most contamination-prone location on the bike. Two, it influences the suspension’s performance. Here’s how Spot describes what’s happening during a suspension event:
As the suspension compresses, the leaf spring begins to flex, supporting the rider and widening the sag sweet spot. As the leaf spring continues to flex it stores energy that assists the system’s compression until, at full-bottom-out and maximum compression, it returns to a relaxed state. As the bike’s suspension enters its rebound phase, the leaf spring goes from relaxed to partially flexed, storing and controlling rebound energy. Midway through the rebound, the leaf spring is fully flexed, a position in which it is fully loaded up with rebound energy. As the rebound continues toward its relaxed state, it releases that stored energy.
The benefit, according to Spot, is the leaf spring makes the air shocks spring curve “more linear in the middle of its travel. A more linear curve increases the suspension response in the mid-stroke, where a bike spends most of its time.”
Additionally, Spot claims that this suspension is somewhat sag-agnostic, allowing riders to dial in a softer rider with less shock pressure, or a firmer ride with more pressure, without a significant effect on the bike’s pedaling efficiency.
Spot Ryve 115—Geometry
Okay, nerds: Here’s a ton of geometry information for your pleasure.
First is the new bike’s geometry table. As is shown, the V2 Ryve 115 comes in four sizes (small to extra-large). Note that though chain stay length does not change with frame size (like some of Ryve's competitors), actual and effective seat angles get steeper as frame size increases.
Second is my table showing how the geometry changes from the V1 Ryve 115 to the V2. Notably, the head angle is a degree slacker, the front center and wheelbase are longer, and the seat tube is shorter. The seat angle stays the same at 75 degrees. And many of the other dimensions are also the same or similar.
Third, in this nerd trilogy is my table of the Ryve 115 V2’s geometry and that of many of its competitors. As the table makes clear, the new 115 is in the mix but on the steeper (head angle) and shorter (wheelbase) end of this grouping. I caution that geometry tables can cause you to jump to conclusions or see things that aren’t there. A bike is more than one number on a geometry table and also more than its geometry table.
Spot Ryve 115—Build Kits and Prices
The Ryve 115 lands in four complete builds and a frame-only option. There are two color options: matte hot tomato and matte black.
Full build details are on Spot’s website, but here’s a quick rundown of prices and spec highlights:
- 4-Star, $5,600 - SRAM GX Eagle, Stan’s No Tubes Crest S2 wheels, Fox Factory Float EVOL Shock, Fox Performance Float 34 fork, Bike Yoke Revive dropper
- 5-Star $6,800 - SRAM X01 Eagle, Stan’s No Tubes Crest MK4 wheels, Fox Factory Float EVOL Shock, Fox Factory Float 34 fork, Bike Yoke Revive dropper
- 6-Star XTR $8,800 - Shimano XTR, Industry Nine Trail 280 wheels, Fox Factory Float EVOL Shock, Fox 34 Factory Float fork, Bike Yoke Revive dropper
- 6-Star AXS $9,000 - SRAM XX1 AXS Eagle, Industry Nine Trail 280 wheels, Fox Factory Float EVOL Shock, Fox 34 Factory Float fork, SRAM AXS dropper
A gear editor for his entire career, Matt’s journey to becoming a leading cycling tech journalist started in 1995, and he’s been at it ever since; likely riding more cycling equipment than anyone on the planet along the way. Previous to his time with Bicycling, Matt worked in bike shops as a service manager, mechanic, and sales person. Based in Durango, Colorado, he enjoys riding and testing any and all kinds of bikes, so you’re just as likely to see him on a road bike dressed in Lycra at a Tuesday night worlds ride as you are to find him dressed in a full face helmet and pads riding a bike park on an enduro bike. He doesn’t race often, but he’s game for anything; having entered road races, criteriums, trials competitions, dual slalom, downhill races, enduros, stage races, short track, time trials, and gran fondos. Next up on his to-do list: a multi day bikepacking trip, and an e-bike race.
