While there have been some rumblings for awhile about what exactly Ibis has been working on for a 29er, and when it will be released, so far not much has materialized in the way of evidence. After seeing and hearing a lot of speculation from many about what the new bike will be, and when it may possibly come to market, Ibis has issued a statement on their website that answers a lot of questions about the new bike, but doesn’t totally spill the beans.
What has Ibis revealed about their future 29er? Find out after the break!
From Ibis:
We have made no secret that we are working on a 29″ wheeled suspension bike. As a result, there has been a lot of speculation about when we will release it and what features it will have.
With the Mojo, the Mojo SL, the Tranny and the HD we’ve set a standard that we feel obliged to meet or surpass with each new bike. With each new bike we release, we’re in competition with ourselves, a challenge we don’t take lightly. We want to produce the best bike we possibly can.
It takes a lot of time and effort to do this, and we don’t think that our loyal Ibis fans would accept anything less.
Here’s a little bit of information about our process:
After we decide among ourselves what kind of a bike we want to build and how we want it to ride, Dave Weagle of dw-link fame is consulted on the suspension requirements. This is a big and important step in and of itself. From there we develop gestural drawings with Roxy, our designer. Then we bring those sketches into a CAD program and develop them further with our engineer Colin and Roxy working together. When we’ve got a lot of that work complete, we go 3D. Colin and Roxy begin to work with our ace CAD jockeys and refine, optimize and beautify over and over, until we get the functionality, performance and aesthetic we demand.
In the case of the Mojo that came out in 2005, this was a three year process that cost us half-a-million dollars, and 1900 hours of time on the CAD machine. We’ve gotten better and faster, but it’s still by no means a fast process.
When we began development on the 29er over two-and-a-half years ago, we decided we wanted to try some things that have never been tried before. The frame is going to be very lightweight and will have some revolutionary features. It will be the most technologically advanced frame we have ever done.
Here’s what we can tell you right now. We hope you understand and we appreciate your patience.
- It will not be ready this riding season.
- We hope to have the first prototype by Eurobike (Sept 1ish).
- It’s going to be carbon fiber and dual suspension.
- It will be very lightweight.
- It will feature the dw-link suspension.
We’re stoked so many of you have expressed an interest in our upcoming 29er, so we wanted to let you know where it stands. We won’t have you riding it this season, but stay tuned–it will be worth the wait!
