Ibis Cycles

Ibis Cycles This is the official, real, authorized, not fake fan page for Ibis Cycles of Santa Cruz California. Purveyors of fine Mountain Bicycles
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In the 90’s we worked with John Castellano on a few memorable bike projects. John is an MIT educated engineer who has be...
05/15/2026

In the 90’s we worked with John Castellano on a few memorable bike projects.

John is an MIT educated engineer who has been building cool things all his life. Take a peek at his motorized unicycle in one of the photos. We devoted three entire posts in our 25 stories history that you can find on the Ibis website. It’s a fascinating read. Go check it out!

John is well known for his Sweet SpotĀ® full-suspension patent. Using his technology, we first built the Szazbo, an aluminum full suspension bike with 5” of rear wheel travel.

Next came a remarkable bike that John ruminated in his giant brain for quite some time. It was call the Ibis BowTi. Made from titanium, it had 5” of rear wheel travel with no pivots. No pivot means less maintenance and lighter weight. At about 5 pounds for the frame with rear shock, we could build the BowTi into a sub-24 pound full-suspension bike.

Here’s some BowTi marketing speak from back in the day:
“The BowTi features a custom designed tubeset of Ti-3Al/2.5V manufactured to our specifications by Ancotech. The frame “pivots” around the point where the down tube and the bow-stays cross. Because this virtual pivot is located at the Sweet Spot you get 5” of plush travel without bobbing when sitting, standing or sprinting.

And it’s durable too. Just like metal springs, or the leafsprings in your truck, the BowTi’s flexing members will hold up ride after ride.

Continued in comments…

Ibis Factory Tour“We Bring Good things to life” Was a slogan General Electric used from 1989 to 2003. Indeed, GE did bri...
05/07/2026

Ibis Factory Tour

“We Bring Good things to life” Was a slogan General Electric used from 1989 to 2003. Indeed, GE did bring good things to life, for Ibis, back in 1988.

Their steam turbine and generator production division in Lynn, Massachusetts closed in 1987, and a huge multi-day auction took place. We flew back for the auction, and with the help of Gary Helfrich (of Merlin Titanium fame) we purchased approximately 80,000 lbs of good ol American lathes, milling machines, tool cabinets, surface plates and miscellaneous tooling. Prices were ridiculously low, we were basically bidding against scrap dealers.

Gary loaded a 40’ container in Boston (well actually he overloaded a 40’ container) and sent it on a rail car to Oakland, CA. When it got to Oakland and the trucking company went to pick it up from the rail yard, we got a call, telling us we had to reduce the weight inside the container by over 30,000 lbs! The max gross weight for a container to be transported in California is about 44,000lb, when the weight of the truck is added to the max gross vehicle weight. And we had loaded it to nearly 80,000 lbs! So we rented a flat bed and unloaded a bunch of the tools.

With those tools, we outfitted our shop in Sebastopol. Here is a montage of moody (mostly) B & W images of these machines (and maybe a few we acquired elsewhere) and of the steel and titanium frame building process.

The last frame is from our 45 years, 20 stories section on our website, showing a few photos from the actual auction.

Which one of these decals doesn’t belong?The top one of course.Our friend Arnaud from Chamonix used to put Ibis logos in...
05/05/2026

Which one of these decals doesn’t belong?

The top one of course.

Our friend Arnaud from Chamonix used to put Ibis logos in interesting places (or hand them to famous cyclists as evidenced by yesterday’s post). Here’s an old school Ibis logo that Arnaud lovingly placed on a very fancy storefront in Chamonix. He tells us that the Ibis logo stayed on the window for 10 years (!) and they only took it down when they remodeled the store, removing the entire window.





Here’s a fun, never published series of photos compiled by our friend and a big departure from our normal story lines.F...
05/04/2026

Here’s a fun, never published series of photos compiled by our friend and a big departure from our normal story lines.

Fans of road cycling will know who these people are.

For a few years, Arnaud took pictures of famous road cyclists holding our “Ride More Work Less” sticker.

In order, we have
Bernard Hinault: One of the greatest cyclists of all time, “the Badger” is a 5 time winner of the Tour de France, 10 time grand tour winner and the 1980 world road champion.

Paolo Bettini: 2006 and 2007 World Road Champion, 2004 Olympic road race gold medalist (among many others)

Andy Hampsten: 1988 Giro d’Italia winner and also winner of the 1992 Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France (among many other legendary results). Andy rides an Ibis Ripley these days.

Pedro Delgado: Won the 1988 Tour de France, as well as the Vuelta a EspaƱa in 1985 and 1989. He finished in the top 10 of eighteen Grand Tours.

Francesco Moser: Winner of the 1984 Giro d’Italia, a race he podiumed six times. He also won the world road championships in 1977 and three consecutive wins in Paris Roubaix.

Alessandro Petacchi: Super sprinter Petacchi has won 48 grand tour stages along with the points jersey in the Vuelta, Giro and Tour.

~Derby~Some of the best days ever on a bike happened every year around April Fools’ day. A group of mainly Marin County ...
05/01/2026

~Derby~

Some of the best days ever on a bike happened every year around April Fools’ day. A group of mainly Marin County (California, eh) folk would meet over on Angel Island for the annual April Fools Derby.

Angel Island is in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The group takes the ferry over (with the obligatory bike pile on the ferry), then rides part way around the island to the “Derby Bowl”. Angel Island is now a State Park. It was used as an army post during the civil war, and a POW camp for German and Japanese prisoners during World War II. Most famously though, it was used as a quarantine station, often called the Ellis Island of the West, where Asian immigrants were detained before being allowed into the country. You can see the abandoned buildings in some of the photos.

This Derby is somewhere between Roller Derby and Destruction Derby. Think of it as a bicycle mosh pit. The pictures shows what happens at Derby, so there no need to describe it. The rules are nebulous, except when someone called out “COCKTAIL RULES” then you needed to participate with a cocktail in one hand. We don’t seem to have any photos of a cocktail rule session.

In the 90’s we did a limited run of single speed hardtails. We did 26 of them, one for each letter of the alphabet. Scot snagged H for Heywood and you can see Scot talking to Chris Paretich (RIP 💔) and another with Chris riding a wheelie on Heywood. Chris was an amazing metal fabricator and perfectly bent all of the handlebars that we put on another limited edition bike, the 100 Ibis Scorchers we did in 1993. Chris died in 1990 after a long battle with cancer. We miss you Chris!

Continued in comment section..

BorneoIn 1995, we received an invite from Malaysia tourism to go scout on the island of Borneo for a location for a 24 h...
04/30/2026

Borneo

In 1995, we received an invite from Malaysia tourism to go scout on the island of Borneo for a location for a 24 hour race. They were popular back then. We had a crew of racers, journalists (talking to you .dondo ), Laird Knight who was the godfather of 24 hour racing back then and for some reason Ibis got an invite too.

So we boarded a plane for Kuala Lumpur and headed to the tropics. Where it’s hot. And rains a lot.

Also along for the trip was photojournalist Gilles Mingasson who took all of these amazing photos. Thanks Gilles, for digging these out and scanning them for us.

So our search for Singletrack in the jungle began.

As you can see from the first few photos, the rains had done a good job of hiding the Singletrack. The water varied from knee to neck deep. And yes, there were leeches.

Moving to the 5th photo, you can see Scot found a road that wasn’t flooded. Behind him is Jacquie Phelan. Must be a borrowed bike because it doesn’t have drop bars.

We took some long boats up the river in search of Singletrack. Still nothing but we managed to find a bridge to get us above the water.

Did we mention it was hot? The photo in the boat shows Scot’s t-shirt covered in sweat. A head douse was a welcome cool down from the heat in the 9th photo.

Then we took a break and tried to dry off a bit.

We found a ferry to get us out of the water but still no Singletrack.

All in all, it was a great and memorable trip, despite the lack of Singletrack. The food was incredible. A highlight we still remember was watching Gilles the photojournalist (with his delicate French palate) get completely drenched in sweat during our meals.

The last photo, taken in a torrential rainstorm, shows you where all that water was coming from.

Thanks a ton to Malcom Jitam for an absolutely memorable experience.

Checking Malcolm’s insta just now, we can see that he’s still trying to keep people out of the water!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DR_M92ngf9A/

We’re getting back to our series of 45th birthday retrospective posts. Sea Otter and our New Oso launch distracted us fo...
04/24/2026

We’re getting back to our series of 45th birthday retrospective posts. Sea Otter and our New Oso launch distracted us for the last week, and now we’re determined to get the ball rolling again.

Early Artist Collabs

Over the years we have had fun engaging artists do various t-shirts and other designs for us.

The first image of Uncle Fester riding a Scorcher was done by Sheryl Chapman. She’s on insta and is posting a lot of dog photos these days. Sheryl also did the recently retired oval Ibis logo in 1993, a logo we used for 30 years! You can find her at www.sherylchapman.com

Second is the t-shirt we did for the 2008 Single Speed World Championships

Third is our “Elvis musette” done by Sue we forgot your last name Sue, sorry! This was done in the department of not taking ourselves too seriously where we tongue in cheek compare Ibis to Elvis, the pyramids and Easter Island Moais.

One our customers back in the day took the musette to the grave of Elvis and sent us a photo.

Next is our ‘break on through to the Ibis side” shirt done by Colleen. We have a shirt (and a very bad photo) but these old designs often get lost in the shuffle.

Captain Moron was done by Bill, our painter back in the 90’s. This is a preview of some other ‘billistrations’ we’re going to feature in a later post. Another bit of art poking fun at ourselves.

Finally, we have Chuck sliding sideways down under. A while back he took a trip to Australia to give a speech at a mountain bike conference and visit a few dealers. Unfortunately we forgot who the artist was. Both first and last names this time!

and throwing down in the Saturday finals on the loose Sea Otter slalom track. Photo:
04/20/2026

and throwing down in the Saturday finals on the loose Sea Otter slalom track.

Photo:

~Tandem White Rim Tour~Start with tander_white_rim then up to you. Sorry about vert and horizontal! You can skip the ver...
04/16/2026

~Tandem White Rim Tour~

Start with tander_white_rim then up to you. Sorry about vert and horizontal! You can skip the vert shots if it’s too weird

Back in the day we made a lot of tandems. Some for the road and some for dirt. Under the right two riders, they are fun and very fast. Under the wrong two riders, they are divorce machines (we’re not sure how many divorces we’re responsible for).

In the fall of 1991 we gathered a few Ibis tandem owners and headed to Moab. With our good friends at Western Spirit Cycling, we did a several day tandem tour of the White Rim Trail. It was catered and supported so we didn’t carry luggage. Glamping at its finest!


Guided Multi-day Cycling & Adventure Trips

One frame. Three personalities. Endless adaptability.The Oso platform adapts with your terrain and riding preferences:-c...
04/14/2026

One frame. Three personalities. Endless adaptability.

The Oso platform adapts with your terrain and riding preferences:
-choose any of the 3 travel lengths.
-change wheel size (29”/27.5”)
-adjust chainstay length (4 modular dropout options)

Powered by the Bosch CX 5 motor with a 600Wh battery (plus optional 250Wh PowerMore for 850Wh total), it keeps weight low and centered for better handling.

Photo: Tanner Stephens

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Santa Cruz, CA

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+18664247635

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