2015 Ibis Mojo HD Ridden
The original Ibis Mojo was launched in 2005 and it was a bit of a ground breaker. At that time 140mm full carbon fibre frames built for trail riders were as rare as bar ends at Rampage. When you consider that in 2005 Specialized was only selling the 150mm S-Works Enduro and the 120mm Stumpjumper FSR models with full aluminum frames it should remind you that carbon was once considered an XC-specific luxury. Ibis staff ignored convention and built a beautifully sculpted carbon frame that met their needs as riders, without a single focus group. The finished product made a bold statement for a brand returning after a 5-year break.
While the original Mojo caught the attention or riders who like to get after it, the introduction of the HD version in 2010 seduced an even rowdier audience and the Mojo began to appear on the North Shore and other places where the trails are challenging. With 160mm of travel and up to a 180mm travel fork the HD preserved the artful curves of its shorter travel sibling while adding some serious attitude.
Roxy at Ibis is their industrial designer and a lady that has an eye for flowing lines. You can thank her personally for the attention to aesthetics at Ibis. The Mojo looks as good today as it did when it was released 9 years ago. If I were to liken it to a car it would be an Aston Martin Vantage, a design that still looks really crisp and modern today even though it was first shown in concept form in 2003.
The Mojo has seen various iterations over its 9 years, morphing subtly to meet the changing needs of the market. The most recent iteration was the HDR and Cam rode that model recently and his thoughts can be found here. He discovered it isn’t just a prom queen; it backs up its looks with a stellar ride. So when photos of a prototype Ibis frame popped up at one of the EWS rounds this summer heads were turned. Would Ibis really be replacing this classic?
The 2015 Mojo HD is a totally new frame designed around 27.5” wheels and a full 6” of travel. Now that a couple of seasons of racing have passed in the EWS. the needs of the enduro racer are becoming more clearly defined, and with Anne-Caroline Chausson on the team it’s no surprise her feedback had an influence. You don’t accumulate hardware the way ACC has without being able to figure out how to make a fast bike.
There is a lot going on with this new frame and some of the details can only be appreciated in the flesh. Here are some of the highlights;
- Longer top tubes, with about 20mm added across the size range, this translates to the large frames top tube measuring in at 24.4”
- Head angle is 67 or 66.6 degrees depending on whether you run a 150 or 160mm fork
- The traditional threaded bottom bracket (hooray) has been lowered, now sitting at about 13.4”
- A new iteration of the DW Link design suspension platform designed to work with smaller chainrings (not many people are running much more than a 34 tooth rings now) and provide better mid-stroke pedalling characteristics
- 16.9” chain stay length which was achieved with shorter rear suspension links
- The headset now uses an internal lower cup to lower the head tube
- Front derailleur compatible
- Accepts a bottle cage on the top of the down tube
- New internal routing ports for running everything but the rear brake line internally
- Increased tire clearance to allow a 2.4” rear tire when fitted to the Ibis 741 rim
- ISCG tabs and a down tube polycarbonate protector that is foam backed and removeable
- Frame weight for the large frame is 5.9lbs with shock
The bike will be offered with various build specs but for the top spec Ibis are offering has a Shimano 1×11 XTR set up, using a Raceface Turbine crankset over the currently next-to-impossible to secure XTR. The stock build has a Pike up front with a Fox Float CTD rear shock. An upgraded “Werx” package is available with a Fox 36 up front, a Cane Creek DB Inline rear shock and Ibis’s new wide 741 carbon wheel package, which now come with DT Swiss 350 hubs standard.
Some of the finer details can’t be appreciated until you get up close. The suspension yoke might look similar to that found on the Ripley but it is all new and sculpted out of solid carbon fibre. Roxy has gone to town on the surface finishing creating another frame with flowing lines from the head tube down to the rear drop out. The Mojo HD looks so good it seemed a shame to get it dirty.
Bring on the shame. The trails close to Santa Cruz in the Soquel Demo Forest have plenty enough burl to give the Mojo HD a workout, so a crew of shredders headed out to get first impressions on the bike. Our ride wasn’t a quick spin either – we did a good 17 miles with 3,330ft of climbing, so plenty of up and down to test the bike out on. The conditions were amazing too with some rain the previous day making the dirt almost perfect.
Initial riding impressions are very promising. The new geometry gives the bike a better fit for starters, even with a 50mm stem, the extra length in the top tube makes for a roomy cockpit, which was appreciated on the long climbs. It also feels like you sit in the bike rather than being on it. With low stand over height and short seat tube, when the trail points down and gets steep, the bike feels very maneuverable under you and fun to throw around.
As promised the new DW link tweaks means that when faced with a punchy climb the Mojo HD doesn’t wallow as you stamp on the pedals. The bike’s light weight (the bike I was on was roughly 28lbs with pedals) helps on the climbs and on the descents too, willing to get airborne off of the smallest lips. The geometry overall feels nicely balanced front to rear. With more time I’m sure I could become more aggressive on the bike, particularly as the example I rode had the wide Ibis rims fitted. Those take some getting used to with the wider profile tire profile they provide, but we still had some rowdy trains going on the downhills that even had ACC grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
Pricing for the frame only is $2,900 USD with the Fox Float CTD shock, the Cane Creek being a $60 upgrade. Full bikes start at $3,950 USD for the special blend build and rise up to $9,200 for the full 2x XTR bike with carbon rims, Fox 36 fork and the Cane Creek shock. If I had to pick one for myself, the standard XO1 bike with a SRAM XO1 drivetrain, XT brakes, Pike up front and the Fox Float CTD out back riding on Stans Flow rims at $6200 USD looks like good value.
The first batch of frames will be available in early December and there is a fleet of demo bikes heading out for folks to throw a leg over before they lay down their hard-earned coin. All the details on the various builds available and the bike went live on the Ibis website this morning so head there for all the nitty gritty details.
Ibis has a serious new contender in the 6″ travel 650b market. Tell us what you think of the new frame and the passing of the old Mojo below.
Comments
benhump
9 years, 4 months ago
How does it compare to the Canfield Bros Balance you guys recently reviewed ? I realize it's aluminum vs carbon so a bit unfair but they seem otherwise similar apples.
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Poo Stance
9 years, 4 months ago
So it is a Pivot?
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Jonathan Harris
9 years, 4 months ago
Pivot and Ibis both use DW Link suspension designs. I'm not sure if Pivot is using the version 5 of the DW link on the Mach6 that the new Mojo HD is or not.
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Poo Stance
9 years, 4 months ago
Mojo looks good for a bike, but I dunno, I moved on from them a few years ago. How slack is that STA anyway? Spec'ing the DBA Inline shows this bike isn't geared towards the most enduro-est of enduro-ers.
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Billy-D
9 years, 4 months ago
Not sure if Mach 6 is DW version 5.0, but that bike rips! And it's DW feels like no other DW I've ridden. And that's with only a 66 degree HTA. Haha.
Unfortunately I think the pivot dropped the ball on the Mach 6s cable routining, the HD3 looks way cleaner.
Can't wait to read NSMBs take on the Mach 6.
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Nicolas Boulle
9 years, 4 months ago
WOWWWW !! Ibis definitely enters in the 650b competition !
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John
9 years, 4 months ago
So they're "using a Raceface Turbine crankset over the currently next-to- impossible to secure XTR."
In what way are the new XTR cranks impossible to secure?
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Cam McRae
9 years, 4 months ago
Must be a supply issue John.
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Jonathan Harris
9 years, 4 months ago
Exactly right cam.
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Cr4w
9 years, 4 months ago
Well the new XTRs are incredibly ugly.
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Cr4w
9 years, 4 months ago
I came here to say something that would irritate Boomforreal but it turns out the XL is actually pretty big.
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Rob Gretchen
9 years, 4 months ago
The numbers on this frame look good… similar to my Xprezo Adhoc and the 66.5 HA is enduro enough for B.C. We are not all racers after all.
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Butterloam
9 years, 4 months ago
Rear suspension design stolen from specialized?
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Tom
9 years, 4 months ago
Yup. You nailed it. Ibis stole the DW-Link design from Specialized. Here comes the lawsuit.
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Nouseforaname
9 years, 4 months ago
67 degree head angle? What is this 2010?
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Jonathan Harris
9 years, 4 months ago
It is steeper than other bikes of the genre agreed. I suspect that it will make the bike more rideable for most of the riding that we realistically do and puts it at the all-rounder end of the Enduro realm over the decidedly more DH oriented bikes out there.
It will also make the bike better to climb technical trails, which has been my issue with some of its competitors that I've ridden. The type of riding I do always has some sort of technical punchy climb to get up and the slacker head angles make those bikes a handful to get up some of that stuff, especially when they also tend to get deep into their rear travel without some kind of lock out.
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Nouseforaname
9 years, 4 months ago
[quote]Now that a couple of seasons of racing have passed in the EWS. the needs of the enduro racer are becoming more clearly defined[/quote]
Enduro is racing, racing is Enduro. Not racing is just biking. 67deg is not Enduro.
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Jonathan Harris
9 years, 4 months ago
ACC has a 160mm fork on her bike and I am guessing that 66.6 degrees was slack enough for her.
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Nouseforaname
9 years, 4 months ago
Honestly that's a bit of a BS answer. The whole "well it's good enough for XXXX" is a pretty one way route for innovation, and takes no account of what she is actually running for a HTA. Bike companies have plenty of history of running slack HTAs for racers and production bikes with steeper HTA for the joeys. Eventually we get there, as we've seen with DH bike HTAs over the last few years.
I don't think that it's fair game to tout your new bike as EWS ready/slacker etc etc and then have some half baked 66.6 HTA (I'll give them that - it's 66.6 according to their numbers when run with a proper fork). That's just not a current geo choice, as I pointed out in my first post. It's a perfectly acceptable number for general pedaling around, but it's not slack and it's not EWS.
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DrewM
9 years, 4 months ago
As Jon mentioned -- that is the static head angle. Assuming that, despite any tweaks, this bike rides a lot like a Mojo HD, ACC is probably running 30-35% sag out back to try and get through the initial harshness of their bikes. With ~20% up front that makes for a substantial geometry change when you are standing on the bike.
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Tom
9 years, 4 months ago
I too like to pass judgement on a bike solely on the head angle. Way to go.
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boomforeal
9 years, 4 months ago
coming from the guy who rode and loved a (ews approved) 68* hta jekyl for a few years recently, this seems a bit over the top
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Nouseforaname
9 years, 4 months ago
Yeah, back in 2012 I tried to make a bike with a 68deg head angle work by jamming a longer fork in it. Still didn't work that great, with a circa 67 degree head angle and now a high BB, but boy did I love the Dyad feature! The reason I'm not a current Jekyll is the head angle - it made the bike feel too XC then, it still does. Though the revamped damping in the DYAD shock was better.
The Jekyll is just like this bike - a Euro 'All Mountain' bike - I bet Ibis sell great in Germany.
Right now my bike IS more biased towards the descent - hell I'd ride something with a 63 head angle and low BB if I could without buying a Nicolai - maybe someday.
This is the sort of thing that was leveled against DH bikes with sub 67 head tube angles - OOH you'll never be able to turn etc etc. Now Norcos releasing a 63degree head angle Aurum (plus other changes).
MBR magazine and Chris Ball did a solid series about bike geometry that was right on the money, but I'm struggling to find the link right now.
Anyway, resume hating.
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boomforeal
9 years, 4 months ago
"didn't work great" is a far cry from "best all mountain rig i've ridden"
http://bb.nsmb.com/showpost.php?p=2625016&postcount=9
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DrewM
9 years, 4 months ago
If you were being fair, instead of trying desperately to prove your point you would note:
A) Everyone and their dog were using HTA adjusting headsets in 2k12 -- a trend that lasted almost as long as steering dampers.
B) 68-degrees was still reasonably slack in 2012.
I wonder if you have changed any of your options on bikes/geo/set-up/tires/etc in the last 2-3 years? I have.
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Nouseforaname
9 years, 4 months ago
Yup - best All Mountain rig I had ridden in 2012. Adjustable Geo on the fly, light, decent descender, stiff. I'm happy to stand by that. I wish all bikes could use something like the dyad. I'd love to check out a Canyon Spectral.
My next bike that was 2 degrees slacker in the HTA, same Reach and same travel definitely changed my opinion WRT the Jekyll and the position it could occupy. But that was comparing a fresh design in 2013 with a design from 2011. Time moves on. Which I think was my point at the top.
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Poo Stance
9 years, 4 months ago
I thought DW Link is built in with "Anti-Squat" so shit stays upright? And helps with the 70˚STA these DW bikes like to come with.
Turner needs to release the alloy DW RFX and crush the pretenders.
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Pete Roggeman
9 years, 4 months ago
Steering dampers!
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MJ
9 years, 2 months ago
Thats hystrical. Great catch.
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MJ
9 years, 2 months ago
Yeah dude, busted. Your own comments tossed back in your face. Ouch, that had to hurt. Bwhahahahaha
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MJ
9 years, 2 months ago
By the way hypocrite, if you dont like it, dont buy it, but saying this crap here especially after being caught with your past comments is beyond funny, and pretty shameful. Oh no, the HA. Never rode the bike and you condemn it. Absolute Moron.
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reformed roadie
9 years, 4 months ago
Don't buy one…
About a half degree slacker with a Fox36. Sorry that doesn't work for you. For those of us that like to ride technical downhills AND uphills will get along with it fine.
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Poo Stance
9 years, 4 months ago
Don't worry, I won't!
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sashaS
9 years, 4 months ago
So in your world my 2010 sanction with 65.5 deg is better and more modern bike than this?
I really like my bike but I'm pretty sure this is much better ride.
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