Coming Soon

Punta Ala Preview

VitalMTB put up this great preview of this weekend's inaugural Enduro World Series Race in Punta Ala Italy. It’s a great watch.

 

SLIDESHOW: Historic Enduro World Series Kick Off in Punta Ala, Italy — More Mountain Bike Photos

Tech Videos

There's a project we've been working on for a few months that's ready for prime time. We hired a very talented filmmaker to do a series of tech videos for us, showing how to properly work on or set up your Ibis. 

Live now are videos on:

• Setting supension sag on all our dw-link equipped bikes
• Cable routing tips on the Ripley 29
• Bottom bracket replacement on the Ripley 29 and Mojo SL-R
• Replacing the eccentric bearings on the Ripley 29 (giving you a great peek into the inner workings of dual eccentric suspension)
• Cable routing on the Mojo SL-R

You can see all these videos below.

Still to come are:

• How to identify creaks and noises on your bike
• Cable routing on the Mojo HD
• Mojo HD and SL-R: changing upper and lower links
• Changing travel on the Mojo HD
• Mojo HD Chainguide installation

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Setting the Suspension Sag

Setting the correct sag on your suspension bike is a fundamental but super important part of getting the most out of your ride. This video shows you how to achieve a perfectly balanced front and rear end. We show you how on a Ripley, but it applies to any of our dw-link suspension bikes.

 

Setting the Front and Rear Suspension’s Sag

Ripley 29 - Replacing the Eccentric Link Bearings

Ripley 29 - Replacing the Bottom Bracket Bearings

Ripley 29 - Cable Routing Tips & Tricks

Mojo SLR - Cable Routing

DIRT FEST!

This coming weekend, we're headed out to Pennsylvania for Dirt Rag's Dirt Fest. It's supposed to be a real good time out on the Allegrippis Trails at Raystown Lake. 

Here's a poster for the event, hope to see you Pennsylvanians (and others!) out there.

Bike Magazine Tests the Ripley

We gave Bike Magazine an early look at the Ripley. They came, they rode, they took it home, they rode a lot more. See how much they liked it by reading the review. Click on the picture below and it will open a PDF of the article. Spoiler alert: They loved it!

Bike also did a nice video about the process of bringing the Ripley to market. You can see that by clicking on the video link here:

 

We Have a Winner

On May 1, 2013, we conducted a drawing to determine the winner of our "Own the Flow" campaign, a fundraiser to jump start Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBoSC) efforts to build the a new flow trail near Santa Cruz. In the two weeks leading up to May 1st, we raised money online, at the Sea Otter and at the Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival. 

The lucky winner gets the choice of a brand new Ripley 29 or a Mojo HD.

Details:

We drew a random number from just shy of 9,000 entries.

We had a total of 8882 entries at $5 each, which raised a total of $44,410 for the new flow trail. There were 1,640 individual supporters with an average donation of $27. Let us repeat that, through the kindness of all of you who donated, we raised:

Thank you, thank you, to all of you who we so generous with your donations, that is truly a great result!

 

Our winner is Joel Steinberg and here's what a representative of Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz told us about him:

Joel is such a deserving guy. He is a medical doctor in Lodi, and comes to Santa Cruz a few times a month to ride his bike. He is one of our most generous donors and has donated over $2,500 in the past year - mostly towards the Emma McCrary trail. He threw down $1000 on the flow trail raffle so he bought big block of numbers. More recently, he's been doing a lot of volunteer work for us. He's done a few sessions on the Emma McCrary trail and volunteered at the Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival. 

All in all, I'd say a very deserving gentleman. And we hear he's got kind of a beater bike, so the Ripley or Mojo HD should be quite a welcome change for him! 

Here's Joel:

A final thank you to all who contributed, and to Fox, Easton and Shimano for dontating some of their fine components to the cause.

Now, let's get that trail built!

MTBR ride the Ripley at Sea Otter 2013

Brian Mullin from MTBR took the opportunity to try out the Ripley at Sea Otter. Read on to find out how he got on with his maiden voyage on our new big wheeler.

Ibis Ripley: First Impressions – Sea Otter 2013  BY Brian Mullin

After departing from a snowstorm in Colorado, I was thoroughly enjoying the lovely 70 degree weather at Sea Otter. My impressions of my short ride on the Ripley is that it seemed much smaller than a 29er, and it felt light, quick, nimble, and flickable.

The long-anticipated release of the Ibis Ripley 29er was officially broadcasted to the world in mid-March, and Sea Otter was the first time I got to see and then ride one. It was initially announced back in the summer of 2011, and has been in the design phase for five years. They have gone through many iterations of the frame, changed factories, and spent a lot of effort working out the kinks of the innovative internal dual-eccentric dw-link suspension linkages.

The DW-Link Ripley has 120mm of rear travel, and is approved for 120-140mm front forks. It has a tapered headtube, two water bottle mounts, press-in bottom bracket, internal top tube cable routing, 142mm rear, integrated direct mount front derailleur, comes in Black and Blue, and the frameset retails for $2899.99. They finalized the geometry with a head angle of 70 degrees with a 120mm fork and 68.5 degrees with a 140mm, and chainstay length at 17.5″, bottom bracket height (w/ 2.1″ tires) at 12.8″ with 120mm fork and 13.25″ with 140mm, and weight is 5-5.2 lbs.

First Impressions
The frame looks very nice in person, and it has the typical swoopy and sculptured Ibis lines, making for a stunning and beautiful frameset. The bike felt pretty light, and with the component’s spec’ed it was probably around 27 lbs. The frame felt nice and stiff, and the new eccentric linkages did an excellent job of pivoting, and they were silky smooth without any binding or notchiness. The bike had a tad more squat then my old Mojo Carbon, but it felt pretty normal to me since I ride my current Mojo HD with a lot of sag and low shock pressure. Out on the trails around Sea Otter I was amazed how fast the bike felt, and it just seemed to accelerate through most everything, including the dreaded stutter bumps. On occasion, I could feel the bigger wheels, especially when you got them up to speed or rolling over things, but it really felt like a 650B on steroids. The Ripley darted in and out of the trail, and it was easy to toss anywhere, and worked well in corners, berms, climbs and most descents. The suspension absorbed things nicely, without diving into the terrain, offering good composure and stability, though as set up, it felt more x-country then All Mountain. There was one uber steep climb that it did fantastic on, where the bike stuck like glue, and I could pedal up without having to apply much power, something most 29er’s would feel sluggish on. I used most of the travel, especially out of the 120mm front fork, but the local trails aren’t the burliest and most technical for pushing the suspension to the limit. When I was spoke with co-owner Hans Heim, he said that he substantially decreased his usual lap time on a local trail when riding the Ripley, compared to the Mojo, which really highlights the quickness of this frame.

I am looking forward to some more in depth and long term testing of the Ripley on my local terrain, especially in a 140mm front mode. Excellent job Scott, Colin, Hans, Roxy and Tom!

IMB Magazine Issue 23 - SL-R Bike Test

IMB Magazine issue 23 features an SL-R in their Bike Test. They took the SL-R to the new Garw trail in South Wales (U.K.) to see how it would handle some Welsh ups and downs. Click the image below to be taken to their website to read the full review.

Owenhouse Bicycling & Fitness

Win a Ripley

ENTRIES FOR THE OWN THE FLOW CAMPAIGN CLOSED AT 11:59 PM APRIL 30
A Winner will be annouced shortly!

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One of the golden rules of cycling is that you can never have enough bikes. In fact there's a scientifically proven IF/THEN statement that says this: 

IF: N equals the number of bikes you have
THEN: N + 1 is the number of bikes you need

We know that many people have difficulty rationalizing this indisputable truth with their significant other or spouse (or spouses if you're in Utah). 

We are aware of this problem and we are here to help. On May 1st, we will be giving away either a complete Ripley 29 or a Mojo HD mountain bike. To be eligible to win this bike, all you need to do is enter by buying a piece of the new flow trail that  Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBoSC) wants to build in Soquel Demonstration State Forest (Demo). You can buy chunks of the trail in $5 increments. The more you buy, the better your chance of N + 1 in your garage, without that pesky charge on your VISA bill at the end of the month. 

We anticipate your conversation will go like this. 

You: "Honey, I'm going to donate $40 to a non-profit" 
Honey: "You're a good man/woman honey. I'm proud ot you"

To learn more, head over to our "Own the Flow" page. To donate to Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz and enter the contest, click the image below.

Ask a Founder

On April 1st, Ibis quitetly had its 32nd birthday. That's a long time to be slinging bikes out to the world.

Bike Magazine is hosting a shindig on Friday April 12th 2013 at Mission Workshop in San Francisco. A bunch of Ibisians will be there to talk about whatever you want them to talk about. Tweet your questions to #askchuckibis and we will pick a few out. Mr. Furry Knuckle, Mike Ferrentino will host. 

It's first come first serve and reservations are limited to 100 people. See details in the flyer below. 

Own The Flow

WE HAVE A WINNER!

On May 1, 2013, we conducted a drawing to determine the winner of our "Own the Flow" campaign, a fundraiser to jump start Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBoSC) efforts to build the a new flow trail near Santa Cruz.

We drew a random number from just shy of 9,000 entries, and we have ourselves a winner. 

We had a total of 8882 entries at $5 each, which raised a total of $44,410 for the new flow trail. There were 1,640 individual supporters with an average donation of $27. Let us repeat that, through the kindness of all of you who donated, we raised 

Thank you, thank you, to all of you who we so generous with your donations. 

Our winner is Joel Steinberg and here's what a representative of Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz told us about our winner:

He is such a deserving guy. Joel is a medical doctor in Lodi, and comes to Santa Cruz a few times a month to ride his bike. He is one of our most generous donors and has donated over $2,500 in the past year - mostly towards the Emma McCrary trail. He threw down $1000 on the flow trail raffle so he bought big block of numbers. More recently, he's been doing a lot of volunteer work for us. He's done a few sessions on the Emma McCrary trail and volunteered at the Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival.

All in all, I'd say a very deserving gentleman. And we hear he's got kind of a beater bike, so the Ripley or Mojo HD should be quite a welcome change for him!

A final thank you to all who contributed, and to Fox, Easton and Shimano for dontating some of their fine components to the cause!

Read below to see what this fundraiser was all about:

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We want you to help us help Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBoSC) build their new flow trail. Which means it's our flow trail.

The short of it: MBoSC's next project is building a new flow trail in the Soquel Demonstration State Forest ("Demo"). We are hoping you will join us and buy a piece of the trail. A chunk of trail costs $5. For each 5$ you get a chance to win either a brand new Ripley 29 or a brand new Mojo HD. The more chunks of trail you buy, the more chances you have of winning. You don't need to be a local to win. This campaign is open worldwide.

If you're sold, click here, or you can read more about this campaign below the graphic.

OWN THE TRAIL. YOU WANT MORE TRAILS. WE WANT MORE TRAILS.

To build the flow trail in Demo, MBoSC needs to raise $100,000. This will buy nearly 4 miles of meticulously crafted single track designed expressly for your riding pleasure. 

A flow trail is a purpose built trail for mountain bikes which emphasizes speed and rhythm and contains linked berms and rollers. Flow trails are fun and accessible for the young and not so young.

From the beginner to the pro, a well-designed flow trail delivers fun no matter your ability.

This is the part where we could show you a picture of Brian Lopes shredding a flow trail. We've decided to head to the other end of the riding spectrum though, and show you how versatile a flow trail can be. This video shows a toddler on a Stryder bike at a flow trail up in Humboldt County. With your help, this is what we will bring to Demo.

OWN THE BIKE.

On May 1, we'll randomly choose one of the $5 donations to be the winner. If you gave $100 and your buddy gave $5, your chances of winning are a lot higher than his (not to mention your karma).

The winner will chose between a brand spanking new Ibis Ripley or a Mojo HD. Both will be resplendent with generously donated fork and shock from Fox (Kashima coated of course), a parts pick from Shimano, and a fresh wheel set, stem, bar and post from Easton. Thanks for the help, guys!

The Ripley is the most anticipated bike we have ever produced. It's shipping now, and demand is very high. Delivery of the winning Ripley will be in mid summer.

If you choose the Mojo HD, delivery will be right away.

You can read more about the Ripley here.

And info on the Mojo HD can be found here.

OWN THE FLOW.

MBoSC was founded in 1997, here's a little more about them...

• They are a 100% volunteer, non-profit educational association.
• Their mission is to create, enhance and preserve trail opportunities for mountain biking in Santa Cruz County.
• MBoSC is your voice for more trails. More members means more leverage when we seek access to lands for trails, which means more trails for you to ride!
• They brought the soon to be opened Emma McCary Trail to Pogonip by raising $30,000 to build the trail with over 3,000 hours of volunteer labor. They're also promoters of the (4th annual) Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival. 100% volunteer powered.
• Last  year they put on the 2012 Bell Super Enduro at Demo. It'll happen again in October of this year.
• Future opportunities include bike parks, pump tracks, and trail work in Wilder Ranch State Park and Delavega City Park, and access to Coast Dairies/BLM and CEMEX Redwoods lands.

The flow trail will be the first trail in Demo built in its entirety using modern, sustainable trail construction techniques, instead of being a patchwork of re-purposed logging cuts interspersed with short segments of true hand-built singletrack. The trail will conform to IMBA's Flow Country Trail designation. The flow trail is also vegan and uses no GMOs!

A lot more to look forward to from mbosc

In the future, some huge tracts of land are opening up for recreation to the north of Santa Cruz. Coast Dairies has 7000 acres, six watersheds and 7 miles of coast. It was acquired by three conservation groups recently and is the most significant addition to public land to the North Coast since 1975. MBoSC hopes to be a driving force to ensure that mountain bikers will have access to this incredible resource. Help us give the MBoSC a shot in the arm with this Demo Forest raffle so we can keep up their great momentum.

More information can be found on the MBoSC website.

To donate, here you go:

Own the Ibis of Your Dreams.

1 entry $5.00 USD4 entries $20.00 USD8 entries $40.00 USD15 entries $75.00 USD20 entries $100.00 USD40 entries $200.00 USD

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The fine print

• Online donations can be made until 11:59pm, April 30, 2013, and will receive entries in the  drawing.
• Snail mail donations received at P.O. Box 331, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 until April 28, 2013 will receive entries drawing.
• The random drawing will be held on May 1, 2013. Fundraising results and winner’s information will be posted on the MBoSC website and Facebook page.
• You do not have to be present to win. The winner will be contacted by email.
• Should the contact information prove incomplete, illegible, discontinued, or the winner fails to contact MBoSC to claim the drawing prize within 7 days, or if he or she is deemed ineligible to receive the prize, an alternate winner will be selected at random from the remaining entries.
• Delivery date of the drawing prize dependent on model, size & color availability.  Estimated availability of 12-16 weeks from drawing date.
• Winners assumes all risks and will be responsible for all costs associated with claiming and transporting the drawing prize.

Bike Magazine’s Blueprint Series Checks out the Ripley

Ibis Instruction Book Update

With the release of the Ripley we also updated the Instruction Book. In it you'll find lots of updated material, including instructions on removal and reassembly of the Ripley eccentrics. The book is heavy with a bunch of Chris McNally's illustrations. It also shows cable routing recommendations and some other setup tips for all our bikes. 

Click on the photo to download the PDF. 

Ripley 29 Quick Look

Ripley 29 Quick Look

Ripley Tech Video

So far we've just shown you pretty pictures of the Ripley. Now it's time to show you a pretty video of the Ripley. 

Throughout the Spring of 2013, we'll be posting a series of Ibis tech videos describing how to do various tasks on your Ibis. Instructions on setting sag, changing links, proper cable routing, locating funny noises, bearing removal and replacement and swingarm disassembly are all going to be covered.

The videos will be unique and dare we say gorgeous, like nothing seen before in the instructional video realm. We're very lucky to be working with some extremely talented people, and our videographer is no exception. 

We grabbed a minute of footage from our recent video shoot and are sharing it with you now. It gives you a quick look at the Ripley, revealing just a little bit about how it comes apart and goes back together, along with a peek at the eccentrics and swingarm mounting. There's a lot more to come, too. Don't forget to click on that gear at the bottom right of the video, and change the resolution to HD.

Ripley Blueprint Video by Bike Magazine

The Ripley, Bike Magazines Exclusive Blueprint R&D Story

We really like the direction that Bike Magazine has been taking recently. They've been doing some great video productions, their website is rich with enticing images just like their magazine, and it doesn't hurt that they recently raved about our Mojo HD in their Bible of Bike Tests. 

We gave them an early peek at the Ripley a few weeks ago. They brought a video crew and fired off a bunch of questions to Colin and Hans. Here's the latest installment of their new Blueprint video series, this time on the Ripley.

Home - Splash

Ripley Complete Bike Shots - Set 2

Ripley Complete Bike Shots - Set 1

Ripley Visits Grand Central Station

Ripley Frame Shots

Ibis Lo-Fi Carbon Bar

Ibis Hi-Fi Carbon Bar

The Ripley Visits New York

Ripley Visits the New York City Subway

The Mule

The Mule was a proof of concept to test the eccentric link system as well as the anti squat level and shock rate before we had a real sample to work with.

We used a Tranny hard tail frame and grafted the eccentrics and shock onto it, making it a 120mm travel full suspension bike. We test rode the bike, it fell apart, we rebuilt it and learned, until it was really working and we'd made good progress toward the final design.

This bike was ridden all around the Santa Cruz mountains, but without a lot of stopping to chat with other riders. It is strange enough that we didn't think people would figure out what it was, but it seemed best to keep moving just in case. Roxy supplied "Kung Pow Chicken" decals for the branding.

Dave Weagle got to ride the bike at the Sea Otter (behind the hotel so nobody would see it). It was very exciting as we knew we had something pretty special on our hands.

A full set of CAD drawings were prepared first as part of the proof of concept.

The closely spaced eccentrics being fitted for the first time.

Not the prettiest thing we've ever done, but it worked perfectly.

A view of the clevis, in aluminum. The production clevis is made of carbon.

The finished bike, being tested.

Kung Pao Chicken stickers by Roxy removed any Ibis branding.

E*13 TRS+

X9 double - 38/24

XT triple - 42/32/24

XO double - 38/24

XTR triple - 42/32/24

Stan’s Arch EX 29

Easton EC90XC Carbon 29

Easton Haven Carbon 29

Fox Float 34 CTD 140mm

X-Fusion MicroLite RL rear shock

Hakkalügi Disc

MR RIPLEY GOES TO NEW YORK

Four Ripleys have been touring New York City lately. They've been on the subway, to Grand Central Station and on the streets of Manhattan. We sent them over there to get pretty pictures taken. We're still waiting to get the pictures back from the photographer. Once we do, we'll put them up on the website. That will be Monday, March 18th. 

We can't wait to show you the Ripley!

And here's that spectacular image of Mr. Ripley in Grand Central. Click and it gets bigger.

Poison Spider Bicycles

57 Seconds with Brian Lopes

Rapid Fire: Brian Lopes - More Mountain Bike Videos

Ripley Frame Only

Biker’s Edge

Geometry Ripley 29

Ripley 29

Jeff Uses his Weekend

The fine folks over at Paved Magazine put out a call to action last weekend, and unknowingly, our resident hard-man/downhiller/sales-guy/photographer/skin-suit-wearing/porn-star-moustache-sporting/all-around-nice-guy Jeff Kendall-Weed participated. The call to action was called #useyourweekend and Jeff definitely did that. 

He took off on his Hakkalügi Disc, loaded with very little gear, for a little two day jaunt south of Ibis, in the dead of winter. 

The Hak Disc is a super versatile bike, made for more than just racing CX. Last weekend Don Myrah won a UCI Master's World Championship on his, this weekend Jeff does a pretty epic adventure. 

Day 1

Down the coast past the famous Bixby Bridge. Jeff travels light.

Jeff's not afraid of a bit of adventure. In addition to starting his day with a climb over Laureles Grade by Laguna Seca Raceway (not the easiest route), he opted for the obscure Old Coast Road. Which is dirt. Here's a last look at Bixby Bridge.

Still lots of nice redwoods down there.

Followed by lots of nice coastal miles like this, with fading light at the end of the day and no headlamp. 

First day stats: 

83 miles

8200 feet of climbing, looks like this:

That night, Jeff stayed at a campground way south of Big Sur with some friends (who brought a sleeping bag and some PBRs for him).

Day 2

Day 1 was just a warm up. A known road, mostly paved, downwind, fairly straightforward. Day 2? Not so much. 

Jeff rather quickly steered off the beaten path, up Nacimiento Road. which does this for a long ways, 3,000 feet up right off the coast. 

Then a long slog across Fort Hunter Ligget 

Fortunately it's been dry here for a while, despite being the 'rainy' season. 

Another long climb ensues. 

Then the 'road' gets decidedly sketchy. Yes, this is Jeff's route.

What's amazing is that someone else had been down this road not too long ago. 

Further out into the middle of nowhere. 

Then the views get big.

But the road stayed nasty, at least someone made Jeff a little impromptu living room.

According to Jeff: "The road was heavily grown over, but the dirt had an awesome sandy top layer. I will never forget that dirt- among the best I've ever ridden."

And after a long downhill out of the moutnains, a many mile slog into an insane headwind. Not the prettiest road of the day either.

And then the sun went down. Jeff again: "After an hour and a half in the dark with no light, the 7-11 was a glowing halo of relief. Gosh that was a good hot dog!"

Second day stats: 

114.5 miles

9595 feet of climbing

Here's the final route, day 1 and day 2:

Hope you had a good adventure last weekend too! 

 

Mojo HD Review, in Czech (with english subs)

Team Life-Cycle

Queen City Cycles

BL in MAR MBA

We just got our March Mountain Bike Action, and there's an interview with Brian Lopes in there that sheds light on who he is. Good read. Click on the image below for a PDF of the interview. 

BL in FEB MBA

We forgot to mention that there was a good story about Ray's back East featuring Brian Lopes. It appeared in the February 2013 Mountain Bike Action. Funny to talk about February in the past tense when we're still in January. Ah, but that's the world of publishing. Click on the image below to download a PDF of the story. 

Eddy to Chuck

One of our favorite pictures

Evan Plews Wins the El Paso Puzzler

We got a succinct race report today after Evan Plews started off his race season right with a win at the El Paso Puzzler. Here's what he said:

Just won the El Paso Puzzler and the Ripley was insatiable.
Fifty miles of the rockiest knar you can imagine and not a whimper!
Quite possibly the most technical race I've ever done.
Good job.
Thanks for giving me a chance!

Here's Evan on his way to victory, shot by Devon Balet. Also, after the race Evan said to Devon:

I was about two minutes behind the front group at the top (Mundi's Gap) and I was able to take that all back on the descent. That just shows you how important the bike and the descending component can be in a real tough mountain bike race.

devonbaletphoto.com

Bike Magazine’s Bible of Bike Tests Video

Here's some old school reportage on the Mojo HD by Bike Magazine's panel of 'experts'. 

We like it, guys!

Flagstaff Bicycle Revolution

Mountain Biker (Spain) tests the Mojo SL-R

Hot on the heels of the HD shootout test, Mountain Biker (Spain) gives the SL-R a nice six month test. We're happy to say they like it very much. In Spanish. 

Switchback Magazine reviews the Mojo SL-R

Switchback Magazine has a lot of real nice things to say about the Mojo SL-R. 

Like: "The dw-link suspension devours tight, steep, rocky descents while still providing pedaling efficiency for powering out of corners."

And: "The Mojo SL-R rider is looking for a lightweight machine that does everything well. It is for the fast trail rider that is looking for uncompromising performance in a stylish machine. The dw-link suspension is one of the best platforms on the market mixed with dialed-in geometry—all of which results in an impressive do-it-all machine."

We totally agree!

BIKE MAGAZINE’S BIBLE OF BIKE TESTS

The fourth annual Bible of Bike Tests arrived on our doorstep yesterday. We couldn't be much happier, as two of the testers rated the Mojo HD as their favorite bike. Bear in mind, they spend four months figuring out which bikes-out of hundreds-they want to test. Then the whittle it down to (by our count) thirty bikes. That's thirty of the best bikes in the world. So it's a great honor to have two of the six editors choose the HD. No other bike got two votes. And we were by far the smallest of the companies with a tester's choice honor.

Bike Magazine’s Bible of Bike Tests

The fourth annual Bible of Bike Tests arrived on our doorstep yesterday. We couldn't be much happier, as two of the testers rated the Mojo HD as their favorite bike. Bear in mind, they spend four months figuring out which bikes-of hundreds-they want to test. Then the whittle it down to by our count thirty bikes. That's thirty of the best bikes in the world. So it's a great honor to have two of the six editors choose the HD. No other bike got two votes. And we were by far the smallest of the companies with a tester's choice honor. 

Thanks Bike Magazine, we appreciate that! Click for a large image.

Mountain Biker (Spain) tests the Mojo HD

Check out this fun shootout with an HD going head to head with a Nomad. Both good bikes. Oh it's in Spanish. 

Mojo SL-R Action Shots

Mojo HD Action Shots

Mojo HD Action shots with Andrew Whiteford

The Ibis 2012 year in review

It's been a great year at Ibis, and we want to share some of the moments with you.  We hope you enjoy.

The year started off with a bang and a very proud moment for Ibis. Don Myrah won the 2012 UCI Cross World Championships in the 45-49 age group on his Ibis Hakklügi.

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We were proud to have both Anne Caroline Chausson (ACC) and Brian Lopes riding Ibis again this year. They are the two winningest World Cup athletes on the planet. And they ride for us. 

At the beginning of the year, Anne was over in California coaching a BMX World Cup (she has an Olympic gold medal in this disicpline), and took an extra week to ride with us. Here she is at Whiting Ranch, a few hundred meters from Oakley's Headquarters.

Also joining Anne and Brian was Andrew Whiteford, who is a pro skier, and keeps from getting bored in the summer by riding his bike. Take a bit to look at Andrew's videos if you want to be blown away. He's amazing: http://vimeo.com/whiteford

Here's Anne leading Andrew down Noble Canyon trail in San Diego area.

And here are the three of them.

Anne, trying to keep at least one wheel on the ground.

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Brian Lopes won the inaugural Sprint Eliminator world cup this year. He's the winningest male World Cup competitor. He's won world cups in dual slalom and 4X, and now he adds an XC event to the palmares. At age 41 mind you.

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One of the best events of the year is Sea Otter, and it's less than an hour away from us. We didn't have any new bikes to show this year, but we completely stole the show with Ibis Maximus, a fantastic creation by Nick Taylor. Photo ©Wynnphoto.com (click for a bigger view). 

Here's Ibis's Olivier Guincetre doing a "Superman" on Maximus at Sea Otter. 

When we saw Ibis Maximus getting built, we said, "hold on Nick, what's your day job?" He sent us this picture, and said, this is the last thing I built. He lead the team of people who installed Cloud Gate in Chicago, and worked on the sculpture for several years before that. We simply said, "ok, carry on, looks like you know what you're doing". 

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Evan Plews races bikes for us and wins a lot of races. He also gets some really good test miles on our bikes. 

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Check out this nifty animated gif from our friend Nicolas over there in the Champagne region of France. He took his 20 year old Mojo and morphed it into his new Mojo SL.
If you're on a slow connection, it might take a minute to load, so be patient...

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Anytime you get to be pinkbike.com's picture of the day it's a BFD. Instead of getting hundreds of views, you get many tens of thousands, maybe 100K. This is Life Cycle team rider Alessandro Seddaiu

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Our good friend Tyler Roemer is a great photographer, and sends us amazing shots from all over the world. ©Tyler Roemer

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From our distributor in Germany comes this excellent shot of our excellent German made beer glass. 

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There is just nothing like riding in the Colorado Rockies in July. This one happens to be in Crested Butte. The daily routine is to go for a bike ride...

...and then go watch the tour broadcast we just recorded. It's fun to record it, because sometimes, out of the corner of your eye, you catch something that you want to see again. Like in this case.

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Andy Hampsten, on his turn on Alpe d'Huez, pointing out the Ibis sticker. You get your name on a turn if you win the Alpe d'Huez stage in the Tour de France, which Andy has done. We heartily endorse putting Ibis stickers on signs everywhere.

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At the 25th anniversary of the 1st Mountain Bike Worlds in Villard de Lans France. L to R: Anne Caro, Baptiste our French Rep, Scot Nicol, Enrico Guala (our Italian Distributor)

While at the 25th anniversary of the first mountain bike Worlds in France, we met a vintage bike collector and artist named Pierre Bonnafous. He made these wonderful sketches of some of our vintage bikes. Thanks Pierre!

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And in another part of France, our friend Arnaud Bachelard continues to send us good pictures. This one from Chamonix.

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We don't keep our fondness for the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship and the Sierra Buttes in general a very good secret. Here are a few iPhone pictures that might help to illustrate why. This one is Long Lake, mid October, Sierra Buttes, above the better known Downieville.

Long Lake in mid October, another view. Sierra Buttes.

Ron Heard, trailbuilder, looking down on Long Lake. Lakes Basin, Sierra Buttes, California. High above Downieville.

Mills Peak, high above Downieville

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Over the years, we've hired many artists to do work for us. The latest this year was a trio of shirts done by Matthew Burton. They're available in our store here. Check out the pressure washer image of a Mojo frame outlined on the caravan (what they call trailers where Matthew is from). 

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We mentioned Andrew Whiteford earlier, here he is as the snow flies at the end of October (he lives up in Jackson Hole, WY). Andrew has fashioned a nice gnarwal cam for his GoPro that protrudes off the front of his helmet. At the time we published this year end review, the video had an incredible 337,000 views!

And here's the video that frame is taken from.

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In October we also introduced the new Hakkalügi Disc frame. Sorry. Hand Job RIP.

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Come cross season, two time U23 National Champ Danny Summerhill tore up the circuit on his new Hakkalugi Disc. Danny is quite the talented rider. The day we sent him his bike, he emailed us back and said "I just rode a mile long wheelie on the Hakkalugi". © Dejan Smaic 2012

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This is our "Appetite Seminar" a bike ride immediately before our Thanksgiving dinner. We rode here from the shop. We are extremly lucky to live in such a nice place. This is Brian Lopes on his Ripley. 

Only a few minutes earlier, we were on the coast.

And after the ride, it's time for Thanksgiving with the extended crew at Ibis. Each year, our Ibis family gets together the day before Thanksgiving for a feast, cooked by Roxy.

Happy New Year and hope you have a healthy and plentiful 2013.

 

The Mojo HD Makes DIRT’s 100

Dirt Magazine out of the UK gave the Mojo HD high praise in their Dirt 100 this year.

"In the world of enduro racing there is one bike that appears more than possibly any other, the Ibis Mojo HD. You’ll find Crawford Carrick- Anderson slaying the UK enduro scene aboard his, likewise Manuel Ducci atop the coveted Italian Super Enduro series’ podium, and across the pond the brand’s main ambassador, Brian Lopes, has had numerous wins and podiums aboard his.

In the tough world of Italian Super Enduro racing a bike has to have it all in order to succeed. It must descend with the best, be able to pedal up the highest mountains and, above all, it must make it through one of the most demanding race calendars in the world. The fact that so many of the field choose to buy the HD, even with its hefty price tag, is surely testament to the ability of the bike.

The biggest reason why we love the HD is because it’s probably the only bike other than Specialized’s Enduro that you really can pedal all day and still trust on even the most gnarled of downhills. Carbon doesn’t come cheap, but as far as ‘boutique’ looks and raw performance go, this is one of the finest bikes available."

http://dirt.mpora.com/dirt-100/2013-dirt-100-ibis-mojo-hd.html

Mojo HD Endorsement from Dirt

And we quote:

"In the world of enduro racing there is one bike that appears more than possibly any other, the Ibis Mojo HD. You’ll find Crawford Carrick- Anderson slaying the UK enduro scene aboard his, likewise Manuel Ducci atop the coveted Italian Super Enduro series’ podium, and across the pond the brand’s main ambassador, Brian Lopes, has had numerous wins and podiums aboard his.

In the tough world of Italian Super Enduro racing a bike has to have it all in order to succeed. It must descend with the best, be able to pedal up the highest mountains and, above all, it must make it through one of the most demanding race calendars in the world. The fact that so many of the field choose to buy the HD, even with its hefty price tag, is surely testament to the ability of the bike.

The biggest reason why we love the HD is because it’s probably the only bike other than Specialized’s Enduro that you really can pedal all day and still trust on even the most gnarled of downhills. Carbon doesn’t come cheap, but as far as ‘boutique’ looks and raw performance go, this is one of the finest bikes available."

 

http://dirt.mpora.com/dirt-100/2013-dirt-100-ibis-mojo-hd.html

 

Hakkalügi Disc review by Bike Radar

Bike Radar wasted no time in asking us for a Hakkalügi Disc for review. We got one to them, they reviewed it, they loved it. 

Read the entire review here: http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/category/bikes/cyclo-cross/product/review-ibis-cycles-hakkalgi-disc-13-46779

 

Hakkalügi Disc review by Bike Radar

Stellar review of the Hakkalügi Disc by our pals at Bike Radar. 

MBR HD Review

"Stateside, the Ibis Mojo HD has gained a reputation as the custom gravity enduro bike of choice. With 160mm of travel from a 2.95kg (6.5lb) full carbon chassis, it’s easy to see why it is so popular with the gravity race set. So, on a recent trip to California, we jumped at the opportunity to ride the Ibis in its hometown of Santa Cruz."

Scot writes about Alex Moulton

You know what's great about the bike industry? The people in it. Over the 32 years I've spent in the bike industry, I've met a lot of very interesting people. Here's a story about one of them.

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In 1993 I had the great privilege and honor of attending a press conference held by Dr. Alex Moulton in Bradford on Avon (in the UK). I was writing a story for VeloNews about the new Moulton APB, or All Purpose Bike. This was not your ordinary press conference. It was held at Moulton's estate. Here's a picture I snapped of his house.

He lived there by himself. As you might imagine, he was a fascinating character.

 

I was saddened to hear that Dr. Alex Moulton, 92, passed away last Sunday (on Dec 9th, 2012). Here he is in a shot I took in front of his workshop.

You're probably wondering about the house. So was I. So I did a bit of research. It turns out that his great grandfather, Stephen Moulton was pals with Charles Goodyear (in the 1840's), and acquired the rights to the vulcanization process that Goodyear had just invented. Stephen wanted to sell the rights to someone else and make a quick buck. Or pound I guess. He couldn't interest anyone so he set up his own factory. As Dr. Moulton explained to me on one of my visits to his house after the press conference, Stephen became the supplier of vulcanized rain gear to the British Army, specifically supplying the soldiers in the Crimean War. I remember nodding my head when he told me this, "sure, yeah, the Crimean War". Remember, it was 1993 and we didn't have iPhones or google to look this stuff up yet…Anyway, when I got home, I opened up and encyclopedia (remember those?) and looked up the Crimean War. I'll let you google it. Turns out it was a lucrative contract and put the company in fine shape. There's a lot more history there as you might imagine, and if the name Avon in Bradford on Avon (where Moulton Lived) sounds familiar, it might be because of the Avon Rubber Company which is still headquartered there. At one point Avon acquired the George Spencer Moulton & Co, which was an extension of Steven Moulton's company.
Ok, enough of the history, but it sounds like the rubber business was very very good to Stephen. And ultimately to Alex too.

One of the other things Dr. Moulton did was design the suspension for the Austin Mini and some other cars for BMC. Not the BMC bicycle company out of Switzerland, but the British Motor Corporation. He even had a test track on his estate.

Here's British Journalist John Stevenson 'testing' a trike on the grounds. See the speed bumps on the road behind John? Moulton used those to test the suspension on his designs.

One of the funniest stories I remember was seeing one of his many Minis setup without a front passenger seat. I asked Moulton why it was setup that way. He explained that during a recent fuel crisis that his chauffeur driven Rolls Royce was using too much fuel. So as a self-imposed austerity measure, he converted his Mini to a chauffeur driven coach. Here it is:

Here he is, chauffering himself.

I kept in touch with Dr Moulton after my trip there. He ended up coming to California a little while later and I invited him to stay in my house. To my surprise he did. We had a nice dinner and I also invited John Castellano, another one of the bike industry's most brilliant engineers. I remember with great amusement watching John and Alex argue about cars. John is a VW guy. Alex is a Mini guy. Each argued his case but Alex made abundantly clear his feelings: "John, the engine is in the wrong end of the car in a VW". 

Here's a picture of Alex in my living room, after an exhaustive night of arguing. 

And a few more shots of the press conference.

Here's a shot of one of the rooms in the house, and of John Stevenson eating. He's a journalist from the UK.  

And here we have another of John eating. 

And here in the house, there's a picture of the house

The fireplace had a representation of a Moulton on the grate.

Referring to this marble fireplace, Dr. Moulton told me "they don't make these like they used to".

Back outside, we see a proper greenhouse and a proper safari mobile. 

And a proper place to hang out by the river Avon. 

The proper number of cylinders in a Jaguar, 12.

Two of the good Doctor's creations

A properly contructed workshop, with a sign on the front carved from stone.

In the days following the press conference, I cruised around the countryside on a Moulton. 

The world lost a great man this week. I'm going to miss you Alex...

What the funkci zadní?

bikeandride.cz posted a nice HD review, time for Google Translate!

Beer and Bling

BEER & BLING

Someone said it's better to give than receive. But at Ibis, we think it's better to give and receive. Which is why we came up with our Beer & Bling program. 

It goes like this. You buy a fresh newly minted Ibis stainless steel necklace (see below) for someone:

• wife
• girlfried
• boyfriend (if jewelry is his thing)
• wife & girlfriend (you'd need to buy two in this case)

Give the item a 'like' on Facebook and we will throw in for free the fresh new Ibis stainless steel bottle opener and we'll ship them both to you for free (if you're in the US). You check two people off your birthday, anniversary, Christmas or whatever list and everybody is happy. Click on the image to go to the Ibis store.

 

Beer not included

November 21st, 2012

Here in America we have a traditional holiday called Thanksgiving, where families get together, cook a huge meal of turkey with stuffing and gravy and mashed potatoes, ruin perfectly good yams by putting marshmallows on them, and then eat pumpkin pie. It’s our biggest meal of the year, and usually memorable, but not always for the food.

There are many traditions associated with Thanksgiving:
• Overeating
• Overdrinking
• Spending time with your relatives
• Realizing why you only see those relatives once a year
• Getting into pointless political discussions with those relatives
• Giving thanks that you only see those relatives once a year
• Watching football so you don’t have to disagree about politics, and can instead disagree about sports
• Going into a food-induced catatonic state
• Writing Facebook posts about what we’re thankful for, ad nauseum
• Writing Facebook posts about how much you hate your relatives, which is far more entertaining

Many cyclists add another tradition: a bike ride before their big turkey dinner to pre-burn a few calories:

Thanksgiving Day this year marked the 37th! Annual Appetite Seminar, which is the world’s longest running mountain bike event. The Appetite Seminar is a mountain bike ride around Pine Mountain Loop in Marin County California (for those of you who don’t know, Marin County is widely regarded within Marin County as being the birthplace of the mountain bike). Marin is a little more than an hour north of us, and often, Ibisians will make the trip to Fairfax and join in the fun. Here's a poster from the 7th annual:

At Ibis, we have an annual pre-Thanksgiving meal for our extended family the day before the actual ‘Turkey Day’. The intrepid Roxy, our design and cooking guru, takes on the task of cooking for all us. With boyfriends, girlfriends, wives and kids, the Ibis family swells to about 26 people. The good news about the Ibis turkey day reminds us of that old saying, “you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your relatives”. The truth is, we actually like each other, so for a lot of us, it's way better than the real Thanksgiving. 

We thought we’d share a little piece of our world with you, and here are a few shots from the day...we hope you enjoy.

IBIS THANKSGIVING 2012

It was technically a work day, but a few of us went on our own version of the Appetite Seminar (we called it product testing), before we all sat down to enjoy Roxy’s massive and delicious effort. 

Here's a bit of pre-ride banter with Scot (far left) Tom (tall), Brian Lopes (tweeting) and Colin (engineering):

Colin Hughes and Brian Lopes discussing the finer aspects of, well, something technical:

Getting ready to head off, still discussing bike stuff...

After about 5 minutes, we find ourselves on the cliffs:

...overlooking the waves:

Brian Lopes came armed with his newest GoPro goodies, here he is setting up a remote controlled shot:

 And here are a couple of the resulting shots, complete with camera shadow:

It was a super rough day at the office:

We've found that it's pretty much not possible for Brian NOT to get air here and there and everywhere:

One of the secrets of the coast of the Northern half of California is that the weather is spectacular in the fall and winter. We're approaching December right now, yet we're still riding in 70° weather. Scot made the ride:

Once we got tired of the ocean, it was time to head up to the Redwoods. Here were are, climbing high above the bluffs

 

Up the hill and into the woods:

We don't want to overdose you on that 'heavenly light' but here's one more:

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Alas, all good things must come to and end, sometimes to be followed by more good things.

Food was being prepared for days by the amazing Roxy:

Hans filling us in on the details, talking a little bit about our year, our successes, our challenges and the future:

Then it was Roxy's turn to tell us a fishing story. It was THIS BIG:

Now, we know that some of you out there are patiently waiting for your bike. We want to let you know that we were still working, answering the phones, etc. Check out this shot, with Roxy's husband Todd in the background, sending a shipment to Italy while the rest of us ate.
No one had to sweep the floor that night, Rex the dog took care of that:

Then it came time for the most delicious dessert ever, ice cream made by Hans’ wife Carol.

And another shipment goes out, this time to a local shop (their timing was great, just in time for ice cream):

And here's the most important show of all, a wave to our customers (and those of you who have made it all the way through this post). Thanksgiving is a holiday where we give thanks for various things, and Hans gave a nice talk about how none of this would be possible without our customers, so this is truly a thanks for them (which means you). So when it came time for a group shot, we remembered Hans’ words and this shot is a shout to all our customers. Yes, Jeff Kendall-Weed’s eyes are closed, and yes, on the lower left Aaron is holding a small lap-based canine.

 

Finchè ho fiato, io attacco

Or as we English speakers would say: "As long as I breathe, I attack."

Those are allegedly the words of Bernard Hinault, 5 time winner of the Tour de France, also known as The Badger. Here he is in October of 2012, relating a few more words of his philosophy.

Photo by Arnaud Bachelard

Now, back to that original statement, see below. Bernie is obviously breathing because he's attacking. This is what happens when you F with the Bull. You get the horn. Apparently these guys were trying to stop the Tour de France. Or maybe this was just the Badger responding to that ridiculous knit sweater. Phil Anderson the pacifist Aussie is in the background, not really sure what to do. 

MORE (G)NARWAL!

Set-Up Guide

Hakkalügi Disc in its native habitat

The coast of California is a pretty nice place to be in November. Chris Spilly took this picture of Rex Lierly out on the Marin headlands.

Meanwhile, in Portland at the same time, another Hakkalugi disc is called to duty. Photo of Dave Condon courtesy of Robin Straughan.

In the Clouds

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Store

Beastie Bikes - Slovakia

Winter or Fall?

Some Truth

There are so many things wrong with this graphic. 

Only one full suspension bike? A gal or fella need different bikes fof all mountain, XC, Trail, Freeride... And what about wheel sizes? 

It's a good start anyway. Remember the formula, if N is the number of bikes you have, N +1 is the number you NEED.

ENVE CX Disc Fork

Whiteford getting ready for the white season

Here are a couple of screen grabs from Andrew Whiteford's latest quick experiment with his new Hero 3 GoPro camera. The video is below the screen grabs. Click on any of the images for a bigger view.

 

 

 

The (g)Narwal Returns

The (g)Narwal Returns

A Little bit more on the Hakkalügi Disc

We guarantee that the extra control you get from the powerful brakes on the new Hakkalügi Disc will make you ride like Danny Summerhill...
OK, maybe not. But check out Danny's hand position. You can spend a lot more time on the hoods (and in the air if you're so inclined) and still be able to brake with one finger.

One of the things we've noticed in testing the new Hakkalügi Disc is the amazing amount of control you have, due to the precision of the tapered steerer ENVE fork, the nice low bottom bracket and the controllable power of the disc brakes. Both Don Myrah (UCI Masters World Champ) and Danny Summerhill (Garmin Pro rider, 2X U23 National Champ) have commented on how much further they can go into corners before hitting the brakes. When we were at the Ft Collins USGP in Oct 2012, we were pretty blown away by Danny's control on the bike. Here's a nice shot of Danny at the Blue Sky Velo Cup, hitting a corner and pretty much using the bike to its fullest.

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Back to the one finger braking...Mafac (makers of the cantilevers we used to put on our mountain bikes in the early 80's), had a motto that read "Un Doigt Suffit", meaning one finger suffices, or one finger is all it takes, in Swahili. And they're not necessarily talking about the middle finger (depending on your braking preferences). Here's an old Mafac box, for a bit of historical perspective. Not really truth in advertising now that we have disc brakes.

 

 

One Bike to Rule Them All?

The day after Anne-Caroline destroyed the womens field of the final round of the Italian Superenduro series and Davide Sottocornola took the overall series win, pinkbike.com posted their review of the Mojo HD. 

As a hard-driving technical trailbike, the Mojo HD is such a standout performer in the Ibis range that we wonder how or what they will have to come up with to supersede it? The Mojo HD chassis feels far more rigid and precise than its XC predecessor and regardless of the resemblance, it feels from the outset like a completely new design. The HD weighs a couple of pounds more than the original Mojo in similar trim, but it accelerates much faster out of the turns and climbs nearly as well. Like all of the most desired bikes in the AM/trail category, the Mojo HD is centrally balanced and it always seems to have enough handling in reserve to encourage its rider to push harder or to try a new line. If you are a 26-inch-wheel devotee seeking the mythical 'one bike to rule them all,' the Mojo HD certainly has earned the credentials. We'd recommend the HD to anyone who is taking a serious look at Enduro racing as well.

Click the link below to read the full review.

World Bike Adventures

Superenduro finale, in Finale Ligure

This weekend marked the finale of the Italian Superenduro series, and appropriately, the finale was in a town called Finale Ligure, along the Ligurian coast of Italy. It's where pesto comes from and is also known as the Italian Riviera.

Anne Caro Chausson showed up to race, destroyed the women's field, winning by over 3 minutes. She placed 42nd in the men's competition out of over 500 competitors.

Our tireless Enduro promoter (and also our distributor in Italy) Enrico Guala wrote this to us this morning:

An Incredible season for us and IBIS: 

 

All in all a great and very successful series, we've looking forward to next year.

Hakkalügi Disc

Around Ibis, a lot of us really like riding cross bikes. Some of us race, some of us don't. Last week we announced a sibling to the original Hakkalügi. The real good news is we started shipping the new Hakalügi Disc the minute we announced the bike. Click on the image to read all about it.

 

 

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