Ibis Bikes

A NOTE FROM SCOT NICOL A long time ago, 1981 to be exact, the first Ibis bicycle was constructed in a funky little workshop up in Mendocino California. The short of it is that someone saw this first bike and asked, “can you build me one?” I said yes. One thing led to another. And for 30 years (give or take), the motley crew called Ibis built some of the finest, most innovative bicycles on the planet. It started with me as a one-man show doing everything, and wound up an internationally respected company of many. We built road bikes, mountain bikes, cross bikes, tandems, rigid, suspended, titanium, aluminium, steel and carbon. We did a bit of everything. And one thing we always did was to build bikes we wanted to ride. In 2002, Ibis went through a nice change. It started with a phone call from Hans Heim, an industry veteran whom I’ve known since the early days of Ibis when he was serving his Specialized masters. After Specialized, Hans was an instrumental force growing the business at Bontrager Cycles, and after that was an instrumental force in growing a little company called Santa Cruz Bicycles. If you see an instrumental habit developing, it’s probably due to 30 something years of piano playing. Hans and his partner in Santa Cruz Rob Roskopp decided to part ways in 2002, and Hans left Santa Cruz Bicycles. Hans was not done making his mark on the bicycle industry, and called me to inquire about Ibis. One thing led to another, and now Ibis has a fresh new set of partners. Our new “Velo Club” consists of Honch Hans and myself, and we’ve added a couple of youngsters to keep us geriatrics fresh. Tom Morgan is another industry veteran, and you can read all about him in our interview with him here [link]. Tom knows how to get things done, as you should be able to tell from his résumé (as they say in French), or Curriculum Vitae (as they say in Latin), or whatever you want to call it. The fourth member of the posse is the one who brings aesthetics and reason to Ibis, and reminds us to put the toilet seat down. Her name is Roxy Lo and she responsible for all things involving beauty, including the now iconic designs of our frames. Scot Nicol