This just in, and making us very very happy…

Outside Magazine-that little monthly out of Santa Fe with a combined circulation of more than all the magazines in the bike industry combined-just awarded us with mountain bike of the year in their Gear of the Year issue. We got a two page spread, linked below for you to see.

Click on that image for a big ol view of our luscious double page spread. We happy!

One of the things I like about Outside is they really test the products, rather than paying lip service to an actual test, they really get out here and whomp on things.

Here’s a note I got from Editor Aaron Gulley about what they did with the bike.

we rode the hell out of that bike. with nary a mechanical or a complaint.

our test trip was to tucson this year, where we probably logged 200-some miles between four riders over the course of a long weekend. all manner of trail: from tight desert single-track to fire roads with banging, rocky descents.

one of our testers rode the bike at the 24 Hours of Old Peublo a month later, just north of tucson. and once again, the bike held up beautifully. that’s saying something, too: lots of racers bring mechanics and or back-up bikes to those events. but with a little lube, the mojo just kept going strong all night.

finally, i rode the bike on a local race/ride, the San Ysidro Dirt Century. it was a 125-mile race outside of Albuquerque, and i love the bike. my partner rode a hardtail (for the weight savings; his bike is 20 pounds). i got five inches of travel on the mojo and still saved the weight. obviously a big factor in staying fresh.

i also rode the mojo tons around our local santa fe trails, too. i bet altogether, we probably put 1,000 miles on the mojo. and like i said, no failures and no problems.

Not bad, PLUS he used the word ‘nary’. Nice.
On newsstands now.

…don’t tell Paula!

Brian took delivery of a couple Tranny’s last week, and tomorrow he’s off to Poland and Slovenia for an invitational 4X followed by the first World Cup of the season.

Here’s the poster for the 4X, Brian said the promoter was really really good.

Here’s Brian’s note to me from last week after his first ride. I think he likes it!

Rode the bike tonight at the track and it was so friggin bad ass.  SUPER stiff and the head angle was perfect.  A lot of people at the track were tripping out on it, couldn’t believe how nice it looked.  The only thing that I can say right off the bat is I need to drop some weight off it.  I am running saint cranks on it  because xtr just flex too much on a stiff frame like this.  The new saint cranks will drop like 150 grams when I get them.  Hopefully I will get the new 15mm Marzocchi fork which will drop 3/4 pound.  I will be riding it a bunch more in the next few days, but I am SO happy with it and thanks SO much for getting me this before these first few races that I most likely will really need this hardtail.

Good Luck over there Brian!

Chuck and the Ibis Crew

Last year on Earth Day I showed off pictures of solar panels on Ibisians houses. This year I missed earth day but today’s only the day after earth day, and I don’t want that mother to think I’ve forgotten her. I still want to talk a bit about solar panels, and some of the other stuff in the post from last year.

Back when Jimmy Carter was in the White House (30 years ago), there was a huge nationwide effort in renewable and alternative energy. The country still remembered the gas crisis of 1973. One incongruity: for some reason, Detroit kept building cars as big as the hairstyles of the day. There were a lot of government programs trying to solve the energy crisis via various avenues. Mr. Carter put solar panels on the roof of the White House. Nobody on the ground could see them, and I’m not so sure it really provided much of the White House’s energy needs, but it was a good symbolic gesture. Then something happened on the way to energy independence.

When Ronald Reagan moved into the White House-as a symbolic act of his dickishness-HE HAD THEM REMOVED. I’m still astonished by this. All solar research stopped, and the best and brightest scientists turned their brainpower to the ill-fated “star wars” missile defense system. The good news is that other countries are funding massive research in alternative energy. The cost of a kilowatt of electricity from a Photovoltaic panel has been reduced by over 90% in the last 15-20 years, and as fossil fuels begin to live up to their name and go away and die, solar electricity suddenly looks like it’s worth checking out again.

As mentioned, back then there was a lot of talk and action on energy independence and finding alternative ways to keep us warm and cool and mobile. And cycling enjoyed a huge boom in the 70’s.

A friend sent me this little gem from yesterday’s Missoulian (I’m going to jump out on a limb here and guess it’s a newspaper in Missoula MT). The cartoon is by Greg Siple, done 30 years ago, and was reprinted this year and accompanied by a nice, to the point editorial written for small town Missoula.

My, how things haven’t changed…

Speaking of traffic and planning, here where I live in Sonoma County California, there’s a fair amount of divisiveness on the road. Many cyclists are puzzled by it, because all it takes is a tiny switch in viewpoint to completely diffuse the issue. Greg’s editorial says:

I understand that a few people will never consider riding a bicycle under any circumstance. But they should applaud those who do ride, and also support investment in public bicycle facilities such as trails and bridges. Bicyclists do not compete for fuel and parking spaces, and they shorten the lines of cars waiting for green at our intersections. In addition, more bicycle riding and less driving overall means less wear and tear on our roads, which extends the life of the pavement.

That sounds like reason enough to me to accept cycling, without even talking about health benefits or the reduction in carbon footprint.

While we cry over $4.00 a gallon gas in the mean time, several European cities (Paris, Lyon, Munich, Bilbao are the ones I’ve seen personally) have wonderful public bicycle fleets allowing their residents to travel relatively hassle free around their cities. We have squat.

We were on the way there 30 years ago buy got lost. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another thirty years to find our way again.

Check it out.

Spotted just outside the world domination hq in Scotts Valley (not related), two Trannys appeared. Didn’t know we had any of those in hippie Santa Cruz did ya?

If your name is Brian Lopes, these are for you. If it’s Charlie, sorry Charlie. Even if it’s Chuck, sorry to you too.

The white is tight!

Anticipating the inevitable question… sorry, no delivery update, except we think June. A bit delayed. We apologize but we had a couple of things to work out on the frame. Sometimes when you’re doing something that no one has ever done before it takes a bit more time.

And colors? No decision yet. We’re trying different colors on the different prototypes. Two of our protos got stolen in transit, so that put us behind a bit. I’ll be looking for those on eBay.

We’ll let you know what Brian thinks.

[Humor me here, having fun on a Friday]

The Audacity of Lopes:

Riding for Ibis
Winning his first two races this year on a Mojo…DOWNHILL races(!)
Entering (and winning) 4X races on the same Mojo
Gaping 33′ on a Carbon frame
Keep racking up those frequent flier miles, Brian!

Our boy Brian Lopes has been spending a lot of time in the air lately. You can see evidence of this just below in a few pictures from a little session down near San Diego recently. The shots were all taken by Russ Hennings, Oakley’s staff photographer.

And more sick air…

He’s also just flown half way around the world, to the Philippines where he’s attending the Terry Larrazabal Bike Festival

Brian sent me a text message today, here you go:

Ok, so Ibis got its first international dh win today. I had a bit of a problem with a branch getting caught in my rear cogs about 5 seconds into my run so my gears were jumping around the entire way down, which really made it difficult to lay down any power. The course was pretty good and there were a few fast guys. The national DH champ from here was really quick.

Its been a huge success. I can’t recall being at any event where the fans were so stoked to have me a part of their event. I have taken more photos and signed more autographs than anywhere I have ever been. Its crazy! And the hospitality has been great, only second to the mangos they have. So good!!!

Anyway, tomorrow is the 4x, so I will put some single ply tires on, air up the suspension and drop the fork, morphing the dh bike into a 4x machine.

So there you go, one Mojo, two events. One win so far. Stay tuned to see how Brian does.

Here’s another picture of Mr. Lopes

OK, one more

We got Brian Lopes his first Mojo one Thursday recently, he built it on Friday, rode it around a bit and then took it racing on Saturday. Here he is on his winning run at the 2008 Leapin’ Lizard Downhill.

NOTE: TWO PICTURES HERE, BE PATIENT, TAKES A SECOND TO LOAD

Brian’s been getting some frequent flyer miles on his Mojo lately. These shots courtesy of Stikman in a casual springtime photo jaunt only yesterday.
Lupines eye view:

And why not a few more.

and..

and…

Now, before you send your hate mail (sorry comments are off anyway) about no helmet, look at these, here BL’s wearing one. OK?

Re-entry:

Thanks for the sweet pix Stik!

Brian Lopes sent me a couple pictures of his latest practice session on his new Mojo. That’s a 33′ gap for those of you wondering.