Inside Ibis Cycles: Artful Innovation
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Joe Breeze, Gary Fisher, Charlie Kelly, Tom Ritchey and Scot Nicol are all names synonymous with the early progression of mountain biking in Marin County, CA. Their love for exploration and tinkering is what led them all to continue the progression of that unique form of recreation they all had fallen in love with and what we all are now so influenced by. "We just started working to make the bikes we were riding more durable and functional for the riding we were doing," explained Ibis founder Scot Nicol. After more than 30 years since those early years of experimentation, Ibis continues to build products intended to help make our beloved sport even more enjoyable. We recently spent some time at the brand's Santa Cruz, California, facility to see what's new with Ibis and we were welcomed by smiling faces, passionate tales, and tons of eye candy.
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 Ibis' Santa Cruz, California, facility feels big, but considering what takes place here, it is relatively humble in size. Everything from design and development to sales/marketing and customer service is all done under one roof. If you own a current Ibis, it came through this facility on its way to you. |
The Early Days
In mountain biking's early years, and we mean early, like 1981, Ibis was getting its humble beginning in founder Scot Nicol's garage in Mendocino, CA. "I was working as an apprentice with Joe Breeze and Charlie Cunningham learning to weld frames. A buddy eventually asked me if I could build him a frame and I said 'sure'," said Nicol. "It just continued like that for the first few frames and that's how Ibis began." In 1983, Crested Butte rider Wes Williams approached Nicol about working with Ibis and quickly became an integral part of Ibis for the next ten years as a welder and production manager. Williams eventually became one of the earliest evangelists of the 29er mountain bike after developing some early "Scorchers", a 700c fixed gear bike with 45c wide tires. Ibis continued to develop and innovate through the late 80's and early nineties connected tightly with the growing race scene. This tie to competition kept development a key focus, with the goal of creating products that worked even under the most demanding circumstances. In early 2000 Nicol sold the brand to an investment company with very little bike industry knowledge. After 20 months the new owners were bankrupt and Nicol found himself sitting on the brand once again. It wasn't until 2005 that Hans Heim, a longtime industry figure who previously worked with both Specialized and Santa Cruz, approached Nicol about reintroducing the Ibis brand around its original philosophy. This proved to be a wise move.
As Ibis slowly regenerated and continued their steady growth, their philosophy is the key component that made the brand so appealing to many of their loyal customers. "We see a lot of repeat customers, riders who have owned numerous Ibis' and they keep coming back. We think that's a good sign," said Hans Heim. "Our goal is to build bikes people love riding and will last them as long as they need them too." This devout following continues to help Ibis in the exceedingly competitive yet very tight knit bike community. With the idea that they are creating the best products to help improve the riding experience, it is no wonder we see so many Ibis bikes out on the trail.
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| After developing bikes for almost 30 years, Ibis has quite the collection of bikes. An in-house museum pays homage to the brands diverse history with everything from trials bikes to tandems. Past bikes from left to right, BowTi, Szazbo and Trials Comp. |
Innovating For the Sake of Innovation
Unlike larger, more corporate bike brands, Ibis isn't tied to model years or yearly updates to their bikes. This allows the brand to continually tweak and improve models year after year until a specific platform has been tapped out to the extent of its design. Ibis prides themselves on building bikes that are not only top notch, but designs that last. "Because we are small, we need to build bikes that last a long time," said Heim. "It would cost us a lot of money to invent and manufacture new bikes every year, so we would rather make adjustments to current bikes to make them the best." This mentality has worked for Ibis in the past and continues throughout their current models, for example the Mojo, which was introduced in 2006 and currently lives on as the Mojo HDR and SLR versions.
With the goal of creating bikes that will last, it is often difficult to judge what the next big improvements may be. But because Ibis focuses on smaller quantities of frame production, they are able to make adjustments early on in a technology's introduction. This strategy allows the brand to adapt with market changes quickly, without the risk of being stuck with obsolete frames. But Ibis also prides themselves in being the ones to push these technologies, from the groundbreaking aesthetics of their Mojo to their commitment to durable, long last lasting carbon with the HD version. "We can't do everything or make everyone happy. So we do what we do and do it well," Nicol explained. This philosophy has been the basis of Ibis' success and continues to help the boutique brand stay afloat in the exceedingly competitive high-end bike market.
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| Ibis' Industrial designer spends countless hours designing each Ibis frame and seeing it through many stages. Above, a solid plastic mold shows the unique frame design of the first Mojo frame. This same piece was almost used as the display bike at Interbike due to early manufacturing issues, but luckily a carbon model showed up just in time. |
 | We can't do everything or make everyone happy. So we focus on doing what we do and doing it well. Everything is great if we keep hitting home runs. - Scot Nicol, Ibis Founder |
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| In the warehouse space frame components hang in a rainbow of color ready for quality control and assembly. |
Continued Evolution
"We really strive to keep our bikes relevant, while continually trying to perfect them," explained engineer Colin Hughes. "Rather than coming out with new bikes every year, we strive to perfect each model to the point where they are perfected in our eyes. This creates a much longer life for our bikes and designs." Some examples of this can be seen in the brands groundbreaking Mojo, a bike that helped to create a new understanding of what a bike frame can be. Now on its fifth iteration, the Mojo has developed through various stages as riding has evolved, from the original Mojo to the SL then the HD, and now on to the 650b HDR. With a commitment to pursuing perfection, this strategy has allowed Ibis to adapt and grow without changing and updating expensive molds every season, thus also helping with the brand's bottom line.
As a smaller brand, it is also critical that their inventory is managed with diligence, since any excess inventory eats into profits. But it seems as though they run a tight ship. "We keep a small staff and and inventory which helps keep stress levels low," says Nicol. "We have more stress coming from customer demand than from cash flow problems." As we toured the warehouse, it was impressive how well setup everything was; frame components were organized strategically by size and color and ready for their final build. Perfecting each build stage in-house allows Ibis to focus on 100% quality control where each frame is tested for imperfections before its final build.
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| Engineer Colin Hughes shows us some of the quality control each Ibis' frame undergoes, and although standing on every frame would get tedious, some level of this test is performed on each and every Ibis'. Pretty amazing what a carbon frame can withstand. |
Driving Design
As a brand driven by their commitment to innovation and improving the rider's experience, Ibis' niche in the ever growing market is based around quality and creativity. With a warehouse full of frames, the rainbow of unique colors speaks to the brand's design driven aesthetics. Utilizing Roxy Lo, Ibis has created a new level of design within bike frames. Many of today's current carbon frame designs stemmed from Ibis artsy Mojo frame. With its swoopy lines, stout tubing, and subtle graphics, the Mojo was a groundbreaking bike for the industry. Each iteration after the first has continued to improve not only in technology, but also in aesthetics and coloration. Ibis' bikes not only ride well, they are also some of the most eye catching bikes out there.
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| The original Mojo was an artistically intricate frame design that helped push carbon frame design to a new level. Ibis continues to impress with their sleek designs, catchy coloration and graphics, like the 29" Ripley above. |
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| Many design and development discussions have occurred around this table at Ibis' Santa Cruz based office. |
New Territory
As mountain bikes have continued their evolution, Ibis has found themselves in a well defined niche with a distinctive following. "Since we have been around, for so many years, people know the Ibis name," Nicol said. "But we always have to keep a level of freshness in the brand and keep developing and evolving our bikes as riding progresses." This mentality has led Ibis to not only kept updating and perfecting their bikes, it has also driven them to other realms of improvement. During our visit we were lucky enough to get a sneak peek at their latest project - super wide carbon rims. "Everyone knows how important wheels are to a bikes ride characteristics, but for some reason the bike industry has been stuck on the idea that narrow is sufficient," said Tom Morgan, Ibis' president. "We found that a wider rim can significantly change traction characteristics and thus began our rim project."
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| Ibis' founder, Scot Nicol, has continued to help push the brand forward while helping to keep his original philosophy at the heart of the brand. |
With the continued goal of improving the ride, Ibis found that with their extensive carbon manufacturing knowledge and engineering ability pushing the wheel envelope was a natural progression for the brand. "We began talking about other wheel tire combos in other applications, most are 1:1 -1.3:1 ratio, mountain bikes are 2:1," said engineer Colin Hughes. "With new carbon technology we knew we could make wider stronger rims that were still light." The end result is a hookless 41mm wide rim with an internal channel measuring at 35mm. These massive hoops have the ability to be laced to traditional spokes and nipples making for easy truing or spoke repair. After extensive testing and development, Ibis' claims the rims are 50-200% stronger than other carbon rims they tested during the period while improving traction immensely. According to Colin Hughes, "Tires are currently designed around the narrower rims available on the market, so we found certain tires that really worked well with the rims and others that did not. Over the next few years we will see a huge shift in tire development to accommodate wider rims, it is amazing how much they improve traction with the right tires."
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I was once working for a very exclusive shop putting together high-end bikes where I had to be supremely meticulous. I had been given the task of building up a Mojo. After pointing out problem after problem with the frame to my boss because I couldn't do certain things a certain way (aluminium inserts not straight, not pushed home, terrible cable routing, and other things I thankfully don't remember), I got angry with the bike and cursed whomever designed it and my boss yells "Just put that plastic piece of garbage together quickly and move on to the next bike!"
My LBS in California saw every swingarm crack. They stopped selling them and pushed Santa Cruz instead. Same price, better quality.
Roxy Lo owned an Ibis carbon road bike that fell onto a street sign under it's own weight. You could see it was a light blow as the paint barely had a mark where it hit the pole (then scraped along it as it fell to the ground), yet the frame split lengthwise two inches. The guys in the shop had never seen anything like it. I've hit other brands' carbon top-tubes hard with a hammer and barely chipped the paint.
"I've hit other brands' carbon top-tubes hard with a hammer..."
Hehe.
As for making awesome bikes possible don't be so naive into thinking it's just R&D mate, production and Quality are key processes to any build - just look at the evil revolt for case and point to that issue buddy
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this frame was 6months old had probably been ridden I would say about 6 weekends as my mate works abroad, for that kind of money you would expect better i'd never buy one now. even though their customer service was brilliant.
All the Ibis hate is probably just 'cuz they sponsored Cryin' Brian for so many years. How can you blame anyone for hating a company that sponsored the Lance Armstrong of MTB for 7 whole f*cking years?
Still, without a doubt Ibis may be guilty of some of the most artificially inflated prices in the industry, you know, to sell to the "premium" idiot that also buys an i3 & an iPhone to go with his Ibis, but that pic of brah up on the frame mounted by the BB is just totally titillating titties to me. Shouldn't he be wearing his helmet for that though?
A) I really love my HD.
B) the external cable routing is one of the reasons that I bought the bike.
C) Santa Cruz carbon has had debonding issues.
And finally, Ibis' customer service is top rate.
Keep up the good work!
1] Broken rear triangle (weak carbon).
2] Really bad cable routing.
It's the little things that keep me away from ibis and towards Santa Cruz bikes.
Nice to read the comments about wide rims. A wider rim will tend to cause the tire to have a flatter profile. So, ya, the contact patch will be bigger, but it'll steer slower. For some rider, bike, tire, and terrain combinations, it'll be great. For others, their favourite tires won't behave like it any more. I think it'll be most viable with wider, large volume tires until or unless tire manufacturers get on board. .
Find a mountain bike brand who have an office/showroom/test facility in USA or Canada, but actually manufacture in Taiwan, China or Korea. Take loads of dusky photos to make the American/Canadian head office seem like a bespoke manufacturing facility where a few frames are made much like an independent coffee producer or small time frame maker. Make loads of cash from advertising revenue creating brand loyalty for the 'good 'ol boys' that make this stuff.
Most likely your frame was made by welding robot in a factory where 10s of other brands are made (yes even ones you don't like), probably supervised by someone with the name Wang, Zhang, Liu, or Li.
I'm not saying there is anything wrong with frames or components being made in Taiwan, most shocks and forks and a whole other host of components are made there. Just that these articles are so misleading.
Also these articles don't outright lie and tell you frames are made in the USA when they aren't, but every other trick is employed to convince you that somehow they were.
The prices that some of these companies charge is enough that they could have made these frames in the USA or Canada, when let's be honest they are probably made by them by Giant or Specialized in Taiwan. What's worse is that some bikes aren't even designed in the USA they are just from a catalog. So they have it easy, someone else does all the work and they just sit and count the dollars. Stop being brainwashed by Pinkbike.
Support manufacturers that actually manufacture in North America, not 'boutique' brands that have their frames manufactured by someone else for $50. I doubt some of these companies could even make a prototype themselves without the factory spoon-feeding them.
you make some valid points, except for "welding robots"
humans are still much better at welding bicycle frames than robots, so its very likely most aluminium alloy, titanium alloy and cromoly steel frames are hand-made by skilled workers who actually earn a decent wage
these are also workers with skills that are decline in the Western world as manufacturing has been outsourced off-shore to remove the risk of employing a domestic manufacturing workforce, and increase profits by using a more competitive manufacturing region
some of the best welders and composite technicians now reside in China and Taiwan. If you pay good money and control things tight using your own people on the ground (in the factory) you can get A1 quality production at affordable prices
"design and marketing" companies is nothing new in the bike biz...its been going on years, but you make valid points about the way its dressed up or obscured to camoflage the country of origin. I do like the way some of the big brands are proud of their manufacturing plants and have stickers like "Proudly made in Taiwan" in a prominent place on the frame
as an example outside of the bike industry, about a year back a new bridge was installed in the UK. There was an issue with the bridge and there was no one with the skills to undertake this work in the UK; a highly trained team was flown in from China to do the job
3 seasons on my HD absolutely one of the most teliable bikes Ive had over the last 25years of mtb.
I jump the shit out if it, just finished a month road trip guiding, racing, every day, clean oil chain every few days, covered over 9000m of vertical drop in that time rode up nearly everything, single ring no adj fork or crutch ctd shit @160mm.
Bike and Truck totally reliable over some if the harshest terrain NZ dishes up check out Cardrona G2W Enduro report on enduro-mag.com.
Any bike frame hrand has issues no excuses but it happens, difference is how its managed.
When I first ordered mine frames were hard to get in my color choice combo, LBS wanted me to buy SantaCruz I contacted Ibis direct they removed any doubts others gave me and have always answered my emails and questions put up with my quirks.Thats a great company who can achieve that.
Many people in the industry fail in this one thing everyday.
Ive trusted my life with my HD.
Ibis you rock, great article keep rubber side down team!
Go copy the new Mondraker Foxy geo and you will be the king!
Really what Ibis needs to do is drop the small -- make the current medium the sized small, the large the medium, and the extra large the large. That of course leaves them without a proper XL but it may just be the case if you're over a certain height (maybe 6' 1"/6' 2") you just can't fit one.
I'm 5' 8" and run a short stem. When I got my HDR a few months ago I sized up and got a large. The standover was virtually identical to a medium and all the other measurements put it in the same category as the current crop of many mediums -- the Bronson, the Mach 6, the T27.5
Long TT dimensions across the line , provided you have generous standover allows much better fitment across the model line. Once you ride down a sketchy downhill with a 50mm stem on a long TT with 66/67 deg geo you will not go back.
I have a XL Yeti SB66c and run a 65mm stem on that 26" TT and it is AWESOME! But sometimes I wish I had the DW in the back.
I told my wife that she was on a need to know basis with my toy purchases. After the argument died down , I won when I said......."Look honey, in what context would me coming to you to ask to spend $8500 on a new MC ever get a yes answer?" She had to admit.....none.
Additionally, I had the pleasure of meeting Scot in the demo tent, setting up the bikes. I had no idea. An incredibly patient, kind and humble guy. I hope everyone buys one of these bikes!
P.S. 3rd season on my HD, weekly rides in Western Washington rain, 2 trips to Montana, 2 to Colorado/UT, and only things I've changed are brake pads, drivetrain and tires. Sweetest bike I've ever owned or ridden.
Lightweight components + bare essentials is still lighter than lightweight components + 2L of water + the kitchen sink.