Ibis Mojo Mountain Bike
The Return of a Classic
 Originally founded in 1980, Ibis Cycles became one of the most respected bicycle companies in the world. In 2002, under new ownership, the company closed its doors. Later that same year, Ibis was reborn with a combination of old and new principals, most notably Hans Heim as one of the latter.

The new Ibis Cycles visited IDE's Scotts Valley facilities in May, 2004 for an evaluation of our design and modeling capabilities. Knowing of the award-winning carbon fiber frame designs we had created for Kestrel Bicycles, Ibis was considering using us to help them develop a new mountain bike with a carbon fiber frame and rear triangle.

Ibis returned to IDE in the fall with an industrial design concept for their new bike, which was christened "The Mojo." The initial industrial design concept of the bike was the work of Roxy Lo, Ibis' in-house industrial designer. Roxy's design concepts for the front frame and rear triangle were developed using sketches, 2D profiles and preliminary 3D surface files. Using Roxy's concept files, IDE was able to create a design and development plan for Ibis which would include a complete 3D manufacturable solids database for four different carbon fiber frame sizes (15.5-inch, 17-inch, 19-inch, and 21-inch) and a common-to-all rear virtual-pivot suspension carbon fiber triangle. The bike's innovative suspension design was licensed from DW-link.

Concurrent Development

With a green light from Ibis to proceed, IDE began concurrent development of the 19-inch front frame, or triangle, and the common-to-all rear triangle. With one of our senior industrial designers, Tem Kuechle, working on the 3D sculptural surfaces of the front triangle, our senior mechanical engineer (and the project manager), Niall Macken, tackled the rear triangle and all the suspension details. These included links, bushings, bonded inserts, custom hardware and drop outs. Then, when the front frame CAD model was completed, the IDE team worked closely with Ibis to finalize the 3D sculptural surfacing of the common rear triangle. Also, during this phase, Niall and Ibis worked out all the geometry hard points for the rear triangle and the DW-link suspension.

Previewing The Suspension

Once details of the rear suspension components solidified, we were able to fully exercise the entire frame and the working suspension using the dynamic solids modeling capability of IDE's Pro Engineer Mechanism Dynamics software. By doing this, the entire design team was able to see the full suspension with shock absorber articulated through its virtual pivot point path. This proved extremely helpful with the design of several forged suspension components, allowing the engineering team to utilize the maximum space between the two triangles, thus giving the suspension design an incredible torsional stiffness.

While this development process continued, IDE's model shop CNC machined several high density foam models of the two frames for real-world evaluations of the design. Using these foam models, we were able see subtleties that we couldn't see on a computer screen. The model shop also made a complete CNC prototype of the entire bike, including working suspension parts and front and rear triangles, precision machined from solid ABS plastic, allowing Ibis to assemble an accurate prototype of the Mojo. With this prototype, the members of the design team were able to verify clearances and fine tune the details of the design prior to releasing CAD files for the development of production tooling. At one point, this evaluation led to a redesign and retooling of the rear frame, not because the design was wrong, but because the real-world evaluation showed that it could be even better.

With the design finalized based on the parts and prototype evaluations, IDE was able to complete the 3D CAD files database. We then completed the 2D drawings, specifying critical tolerances and process data, identifying specific materials and finishes for all parts. Once all this done, we electronically transferred the entire database to Ibis' toolmakers, molders and machinists. Now we had to repeat the process for the three other front frames until all four designs were tooled, tested and ready for production.

Rave Reviews

Ten months after the start of the project and after 1780 design hours, the Ibis Mojo was introduced at the Fall 2005 Interbike trade show in Las Vegas, where it received rave reviews and immediately became the star of the show. In fact, the entire first year's production was sold out by the end of the show.