Ibis (bicycles)

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.

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.

History of Ibis bicycles

* Trials: Late 1980's trials frames/bikes (Comp, Pro, Mountain versions) some of which used different sized front and rear wheels.
* Tandems: Stock, semi- and full-custom steel and titanium tandems in 700c road and 26" versions (Cousin It, Touche, Uncle Fester, Forte, EZ Street and other versions)
* Avion: Late 1980's hardtail mountain bike produced for Ibis in Japan.
* SS: Late 1980's fully rigid mountain frame/bike made in Sebastopol, CA(Avion SS, XS versions).
* Mojo: 1990's hardtail steel mountain bike that really put Ibis on the map. Early models featured the aforementioned handjob.
* Ti Mojo: The Mojo made out of butted 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 soft-tail (about 1" of travel) mountain bike.
* Silk Ti: Titanium soft-tail mountain frame.
* Szazbo: Aluminum full suspenison mountain bike.
* Alibi: Aluminum hardtail mountain bike.
* Mai-Tai: Titanium hardtail mountain bike, straight-gauge tubing.
* Single Malt: Steel single-speed mountain bike.
* Hakkalugi: Cyclo-cross bike (so named because of the difficulty of the racing discipline)
* Scorcher: Limited edition single-speed steel road frame (100 produced).
* Ti Road: 1990's titanium road frame.
* Sonoma (a.k.a. Spanky): Road bike, named after the original home of Ibis. The first Sonoma's were titanium frames, while the Spanky models were steel. Later, the steel Spanky was renamed Sonoma, and the titanium Sonoma was renamed Somona Ti.

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.

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, imported from Japan (S, X, XH and Custom models)

1987: Trials Comp, import 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: Limited edition 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; the name poked fun at Ritchey Logic and Columbus Genius tubing

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 (first Al bike)

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

1995: EZ-Street road tandem

1996: first 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: moves 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 (see Mountain Bike Action, January 1999 issue); Single Malt steel mountain single speed prototype (see Singletrack, December 2000) with eccentric bottom bracket (EBB)

2000: Ibis Silk Ti pivot-less full suspension

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

2001: Ibis partners with Strong Frames to move production 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

References

* [http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1868746,00.asp "High-Tech Bicycle Toys at Interbike"] by Daniel Drew Turner, "ExtremeTech", October 7, 2005
* [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=0EAFED2987556620&p_docnum=1&s_dlid=DL0108033104100523625&s_ecproduct=SUB-FREE&s_ecprodtype=INSTANT&s_subterm=Subscription%20until%3A%2012%2F14%2F2015%2011%3A59%20PM&s_subexpires=12%2F14%2F2015%2011%3A59%20PM&s_username=santarosa&s_accountid=AC0105061516020614723&s_upgradeable=no "Pedal Pushers Bicycling Retrospective at Sonoma County Museum"] by Chris Coursey, "Santa Rosa Press Democrat", May 2, 1996 ("Scot Nicoll started Ibis Bicycles in his west-county garage 15 years ago. Today the company employs 16 people in its Sebastopol manufacturing facility, said Dave Halstead, one of those 16. Like Salsa, Ibis is known for its hand-crafted mountain bike frames.")
* "Ibis flies again; industry vets pull brand from the grave", "Bicycle Retailer", October 1, 2005
* [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=0F202B6E31F9D7A1&p_docnum=1&s_dlid=DL0108033104132119920&s_ecproduct=SUB-FREE&s_ecprodtype=INSTANT&s_subterm=Subscription%20until%3A%2012%2F14%2F2015%2011%3A59%20PM&s_subexpires=12%2F14%2F2015%2011%3A59%20PM&s_username=santarosa&s_accountid=AC0105061516020614723&s_upgradeable=no "Ibis Cycles Files Bankruptcy"] by Bob Norberg, "Santa Rosa Press Democrat", March 1, 2002
* [http://www.totalbike.com/news/article/86/ "Ibis Moves Manufacturing to Montana"] Total Bike, April 13, 2001.
* [http://www.singletrackworld.com/article.php?sid=164 "Ibis Singlemalt"] Singletrack mountain bike magazine, December 5, 2000.

External links

* [http://www.ibisbicycles.com/ The current official Ibis webpage]
* [http://www.cyclofiend.com/ibis Scans of Early Ibis Catalogs on Cyclofiend.com]