Ibis (bicycles)

Ibis Bicycles
Private
Industry Bicycles
Founded 1981
Headquarters Santa Cruz, California, USA
Key people
 Scot Nicol
Products Bicycle and related components
Website ibiscycles.com

Ibis Bicycles is a mountain bike manufacturer located in northern California. It produces the popular Mojo mountain bike frame among other models. Ibis products are distributed in 33 countries.[1]

History

Ibis Bicycles was founded by Scot Nicol, one of the earliest mountain bikers in northern California. It began in Nicol's garage in 1981, when a friend asked him to build a frame.[2] Nicol sold the company to an investment group in 2000 and it went bankrupt within 20 months.[2] Ibis returned to the industry at the 2005 Interbike tradeshow. Nicol has since partnered with Hans Heim, formerly of Specialized, Tom Morgan, and Roxy Lo.[2]

Production

Ibis frames are produced in Shenzhen, China. Other Ibis products are produced in Taiwan. Ibis frames are now made with carbon fiber exclusively, though a future return to steel, aluminum, and/or titanium has not been ruled out.[3]

Innovation

While many companies (Columbus has their famous "Genius" tubing), actually came up with sophisticated names for their steel bikes tubing, Nicol and Ibis called their tubing "Moron"- meaning it had more on the ends for strength and less in the middle to give the bikes light weight (a standard practice in cycling called "butted tubing")

They are also remembered for their sculpture-like "hand job" cable hanger, which resembled a fist reaching up and grabbing the rear brake cable. The Hand Job took an overlooked part of every other bike and made it a focal point for an Ibis, and as such symbolized the company.

The Bow-ti design was unique in being a full suspension frame that did not use pivots to separate the front and rear triangle. A complex system of flexible titanium tubes provided up to 5 inches (125mm) of travel. Designed by John Castellano, 269 frames were produced until the 2002 closure. Castellano now supports the design with his own company.

Sponsorship

Ibis Cycles sponsors Brian Lopes. Lopes also collaborated with Ibis Cycles in developing the "Lopes Link", a suspension upgrade for the Mojo and Mojo SL giving more handling precision.

In 2011, it sponsored Anne Caroline Chausson.

In 2014 Brian Lopes amicably left Ibis cycles to pursue other efforts.

Timeline

Ibis Mojo Carbon

1981: Ibis founded in Mendocino, California USA

1984-1998: Sebastopol, California

1984: First Ibis road bike

1985: Ibis trials bikes

1986: Ibis tandem, utilizing the "Uptube" design borrowed from Rick Jorgensen's Tango Tandems.

1987: Ibis Avion, first complete bike, imported from Japan (S, X, XH and Custom models)

1987: Trials Comp, imported trials bike

1987: Mountain Trials, hybrid trials-mountain bike with 24in rear and 26in front wheel

1988: Trials Pro, trials bike with 20in rear wheel and 20 or 24in front wheel

1989: Avion SS, Sebastopol-made steel hardtail mountain frame

1989: Cousin It mountain tandem, uptube-free design

1990: SS, last pre-suspension hardtail (XS version was offered with semi-custom frame options and high-end component kits)

1990: Titanium production begins

1990: Scot Nicol (founder) inducted into Mountain Bike Hall of Fame

1991: Mojo steel hardtail mountain bike (XtraMojo or XTRMojo versions 1992-1994 with custom paint options and XT or XTR component kits)

1992?: Uncle Fester steel 26in tandem

1993: Scorcher fixed gear road bike, 100 made (25 small, 25 large and 50 medium), custom handlebars were made to replicate an old Torrington design.

1994: Moron (MORE ON the ends) tubing for the Mojo

1994 Mojo Ti, titanium version of the Mojo

1994: Ti Road, titanium road bike using a fully butted tubeset

1994: Touché road tandem (steel or Ti), Cousin It mountain tandem (steel or Ti), Cousin It Road tandem (steel)

1994: Prototype Szazbo full suspension in steel and Ti

1995: Szazbo full suspension (Sweet Spot) in aluminum

1995: Forte Road Tandem, Touché road tandem in steel and titanium

1995: EZ-Street road tandem

1996: prototype BowTi

1997: Ibis Alibi aluminum hardtail

1997: Hakkalugi steel cyclocross

1998: Spanky road bike with steel Moron tubing

1998: BowTi production

1998: limited run of single speed frames (one for each letter of the alphabet)

1999: move to Santa Rosa

1999: Mai Tai titanium mountain bike, lower-cost straight-gauge tubeset

1999: Sonoma titanium road bike using a straight-gauge Ancotech tubeset

1999: Heywood steel mountain single speed prototype; Single Malt steel mountain single-speed prototype with eccentric bottom bracket (EBB)

2000: Ibis Silk Ti pivotless full suspension

2000: Steel Spanky is renamed Sonoma, and titanium Sonoma is renamed Sonoma Ti

2001: Ibis partners with Strong Frames to move to Bozeman, Montana

2001: Silk Ti softtail titanium mountain bike

2001: Ripley aluminum mountain softtail (now the Castellano Fango)

2006: Ibis Mojo Carbon ; Ibis Silk Road

2007: Ibis Mojo SL (SuperLight); Ibis Tranny ; Ibis Silk SL

2010: Ibis Mojo HD (HeavyDuty)

2011: Ibis Mojo Sl-R; Ibis Ripley (29er)

2013: Ibis Mojo HDR and HDR 650B

2015: Ibis Mojo HD3

References

  1. ↑ "Ibis Mojo HD Hype". Singletrack. January 6, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "About Ibis Bicycles". Ibis Bicycles website. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
  3. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". Ibis Bicycles website. Retrieved January 7, 2010.

External links

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