Ibis (bicycles)

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Please improve this article if you can. (December 2007)

Ibis Bicycles was founded by Scot Nicol, one of the earliest mountain bikers in northern California.

They were known up until the year 2000 for their take on what a bicycle company should be, along with the extremely high quality of the mountain bikes, road bikes and components they produced.

Contents

[edit] Innovations

While many companies 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 symbolizes the company.

For the Mojo SL, Ibis uses rubberized paint instead of the traditional clear coat that is found in the Mojo line. The rubber paint is said to be more durable and easier to clean. The durability of the paint hasn't been confirmed yet due to the SL being very new and having only reached a small amount of buyers so far. It is possible to stick protective tapes on the new bike finish.

[edit] History of Ibis bicycles

  • SS: Late 1980's fully rigid mountain bike.
  • Mojo: The mountain bike that really put Ibis on the map. Early models featured the aforementioned handjob.
  • Ti-Mojo: The Mojo made out of titanium tubing.
  • Bow-Ti: Full suspension mountain bike with 5 inches of travel, accomplished by using one long piece of titanium that flexed, rather than a hinge in the center of the bike.
  • Ripley: An aluminum a soft-tail (about 1" of travel) mountain bike.
  • Szazbo: Aluminum full suspenison mountain bike.
  • Alibi: Aluminum hardtail mountain bike.
  • Mai-Tai: Titanium hardtail mountain bike.
  • Cousin-It: Mountain Tandem
  • Hakkaluggi: Cyclo-cross bike (so named because of the difficulty of the racing discipline)
  • Sonoma (a.k.a. Spanky): Road bike, named after the original home of Ibis. The original name of Spanky was not favored by road cyclists, leading to the name change to Sonoma after the first model year.

After Nicol sold the company to an investment group in 2000, the company made poor decisions and bankrupted the company soon after that. Ibis fans were very excited to see Ibis Cycles return to the industry at the 2005 Interbike tradeshow. The Ibis brand had been purchased by an investment group, and Scot Nicol took a creative role in the new business.

The Ibis Mojo is by far the most successful product since the return of the company. This All - Mountain bike has scored a near perfect or perfect ratings in magazines and is listed as no.1 AM bike in MTBR.com listing with the most perfect overall rating.

[edit] Timeline

1981: Ibis founded in Mendocino, CA

1984-1988: Sebastopol, CA

1984: First Ibis road bike

1985: Ibis trials bikes

1986: Ibis tandem

1987: Ibis Avion, first complete bike

1990: SS, last pre-suspension hard tail

1990: Titanium production begins

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

1991: Mojo

1993: Limited edition Scorcher (fixed gear) 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: Titanium road bike

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 (first Al bike)

1995: Cousin-It mountain tandem, Forte Road Tandem, Touché road tandem in steel and Titanium

1995: EZ-Street road tandem

1996: first prototype BowTi

1997: Ibis Alibi aluminum hard tail

1997: Hakkalugi cyclocross

1998: Spanky road bike with Moron

1998: BowTi production

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

1999: moves to Santa Rosa

1999: Mai Tai titanium mountain bike and Sonoma Ti road bike

2000: Ibis Silk Ti pivot-less full suspension

2006: Ibis Mojo Carbon ; Ibis Silk Road

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

[edit] References

[edit] External links