Ibis Bicycles is a mountain bike manufacturer located in northern California. It produces the popular Mojo, Ripmo, and Ripley mountain bike frames among other models. Ibis products are distributed in 33 countries.
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. Nicol sold the company to an investment group in 2000 and it went bankrupt within 20 months. Ibis returned to the industry at the 2005 Interbike tradeshow. Hans Heim, a former co-owner of Bontrager Cycles and Santa Cruz Bicycles, partnered with Scot Nicol, Tom Morgan, and Roxy Lo to relaunch the brand. Colin Hughes, the Head of Engineering, would join later as a partner.
Production
Ibis frames are primarily manufactured in Asia. In 2018, they began producing a small quantity of US made frames under the label Carbon 831. Ibis frames are primarily made of carbon, but after an 18 year hiatus, the brand recently began manufacturing aluminum frames.
Innovation
While many companies, 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 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 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. In 2016, Ibis launched an Enduro World Series Team. The went on to win the Overall Team Title in 2017. The 2020 team roster includes Robin Wallner, Bex Baraona, and Cole Lucas. In 2018 Brian Lopes returned to manage Ibis' new U.S. enduro team.
Timeline
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 . 1987: Ibis Avion, first complete bike, imported from Japan 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 1990: Titanium production begins 1990: Scot Nicol inducted into Mountain Bike Hall of Fame 1991: Mojo steel hardtail mountain bike 1992?: Uncle Fester steel 26in tandem 1993: Scorcher fixed gear road bike, 100 made, custom handlebars were made to replicate an old Torrington design. 1994: Moron 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, Cousin It mountain tandem, Cousin It Road tandem 1994: Prototype Szazbo full suspension in steel and Ti 1995: Szazbo full suspension 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 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 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 2006: Ibis Mojo Carbon ; Ibis Silk Road 2007: Ibis Mojo SL ; Ibis Tranny ; Ibis Silk SL 2010: Ibis Mojo HD 2011: Ibis Mojo Sl-R; Ibis Ripley 2013: Ibis Mojo HDR and HDR 650B 2015: Ibis Mojo HD3; Ibis Ripley LS 2016: Ibis Mojo 3 2017: Ibis Mojo HD4; Ibis Hakka MX 2018: Ibis Ripmo, DV9 2019: Ibis Ripley V4, Ripmo AF, Mojo HD5 2020: Ibis Ripmo V2
