Lear Miller

Lear Miller

Wel­come to Meet the Flock­ers, our recur­ring series that shines a light on the extra­or­di­nary indi­vid­u­als who bring the Ibis brand to life. For our first edi­tion, we’re fea­tur­ing Lear Miller — a gift­ed pho­tog­ra­ph­er, film­mak­er, and rid­er whose breath­tak­ing visu­als have become syn­ony­mous with Ibis.

Orig­i­nal­ly from North­ern Ari­zona, Lear moved fre­quent­ly as a kid, but it was Sedona’s mes­mer­iz­ing red rock trails that cement­ed his pas­sion for moun­tain bik­ing. ​“Liv­ing near Sedona changed every­thing for me,” he recalls. ​“That’s where it all began.”

Lear began work­ing with Ibis when he pho­tographed the Rip­ley V4 in Moab for its prod­uct launch. Since then, he’s become a vital mem­ber of the Ibis fam­i­ly, cre­at­ing count­less pho­tos and videos that have defined our brand’s visu­al feel.

When asked about how he found his career path, Lear shares: ​“I was intro­duced to the cam­era ear­ly on — my mom would film my Motocross and BMX races. By 12 or 13, I was using iMovie to make videos and tak­ing film pho­tog­ra­phy class­es in high school. Ear­ly on, it felt like a way to stay part of the com­mu­ni­ty even when I wasn’t riding.”

Lear’s first Ibis was a Rip­mo Car­bon. ​“Hav­ing just moved into my sprint­er van, it was actu­al­ly my per­fect ​‘do-every­thing bike,’” he says. ​“It took me every­where, and I took it everywhere.”

When asked about van life and if he’d ever return to it full-time, Lear replies, ​“Once a Van­lif­er, always a Van­lif­er. Even though I feel the need to have a home base now, the free­dom of the van to explore new areas for extend­ed peri­ods is a game-chang­er. I don’t think I’ll ever not own a van.”

His love for the Rip­mo is so deep that he owns not one, but two. His car­bon Rip­mo is set up with light­weight but durable com­po­nents for tack­ling big mis­sions around his favorite rid­ing spots: the Ore­gon coast, Belling­ham, and, of course, North­ern Arizona.

Lear’s oth­er Rip­mo, an AF ver­sion, is built for slopestyle. While he’s best known for his pho­tog­ra­phy, Lear is also an incred­i­ble rid­er. He’s been known to drop his cam­era bag, hop on his bike, and guinea pig a 40-foot dou­ble in the woods — throw­ing a text­book-per­fect table along the way. His deep under­stand­ing of rid­ing and light­ing gives him a unique abil­i­ty to cap­ture jaw-drop­ping visu­als, know­ing exact­ly where the peak moment of action will be.

Lear’s Rip­mo AF is built to with­stand big tricks and bru­tal ter­rain. ​“I set it up as a Freeride/​Trail bike — some might call it ​‘Slope­duro,’” he explains. The stiffer set­up soaks up huge land­ings, and the cus­tom cable rout­ing lets his han­dle­bars spin 360 degrees, per­fect for bar­spins and tail­whips. The bike’s front brake cable runs through a drilled hole in the top cap, while the extra loops for the rear brake and shifter cables enable smooth spins. Lear also mount­ed the drop­per post lever to the water bot­tle boss­es, mak­ing it easy to drop the sad­dle for mas­sive hits and raise it again for ped­al­ing back up. He’s also run­ning an adjustable Sprindex coil, set stiffer than a super­cross bike with extra-slow rebound to han­dle those huge impacts.

“This build is the cul­mi­na­tion of 25 years of rid­ing all kinds of bikes,” Lear says. ​“It’s my attempt at the ulti­mate ​‘do-it-all’ play bike, built to han­dle every­thing from park laps to skateparks and still climb back up the hill. It’s a size Large Rip­mo AF, one size small­er than my XL Rip­mo V2, mak­ing it eas­i­er to throw around on jumps and jibs. The sus­pen­sion is set up with min­i­mal sag and max­i­mum pro­gres­sive­ness. It feels super respon­sive in cor­ners and per­fect­ly at home on big com­pres­sion lips.”

At 6′4″, Lear’s siz­ing choic­es come down to the type of rid­ing he’s doing. ​“For wide-open, fast tracks, the sta­bil­i­ty of a big­ger bike is great. But for switch­backs and jumps, I def­i­nite­ly feel more maneu­ver­able on the Large Rip­mo AF.”

When it comes to his favorite Ibis bike, Lear finds it hard to pick just one. ​“The Oso has real­ly changed the game, espe­cial­ly when I’m lug­ging around heavy cam­era gear. But if I had to choose, the Rip­mo is still my ulti­mate ​‘do-it-all’ rig.”

But Lear’s pas­sion isn’t lim­it­ed to just moun­tain bik­ing. ​“My life revolves around wheels,” he says. ​“I def­i­nite­ly iden­ti­fy as a cyclist first and fore­most, and jump­ing my bike is my favorite sub­cat­e­go­ry. But after 25 years of rid­ing, some­times it can feel hard to get into a flow state or feel less inspir­ing.” To keep the stoke alive and expe­ri­ence that rush of pro­gres­sion, Lear turns to surf­ing and climb­ing. ​“They clear the head in a way that bik­ing some­times can’t, espe­cial­ly when the time calls for some­thing different.”

Despite his Insta­gram-wor­thy lifestyle, Lear has a sur­pris­ing past. ​“I worked at In-N-Out Burg­er for four years before get­ting into pho­tog­ra­phy,” he reveals. And when it comes to food, he has one guilty plea­sure: ​“I’m not big on rou­tines, but I’ll always make room for a Cat & Cloud break­fast bur­ri­to with avocado.”