Mojo Raffle & The Tranny – that should be my new band name. I stopped by the Ibis booth at Sea Otter to say hi and see if they had any new toys to show off. They did. The Tranny convertible hardtail is finally shipping and they refreshed my memory about some of its key features. They also had a beautiful, Downieville-build Mojo trail bike for a raffle prize to support the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship.
The raffle prize bike is a complete Ibis Mojo worth over $5000. Brian Lopes spec’d the bike for Downieville and it’s a sweet setup. It has a Marzocchi coil shock on the rear and a Marzocchi 55 fork on the front – it’s pure trail fun. I took a close look at my Sea Otter photos and the raffle bike looks pretty close to the Mojo that Lopes raced in the Sea Otter downhill (see photo at bottom). All the raffle ticket money goes to Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship and will pay for new trails and trail maintenance in the Downieville area. Tickets cost $5 – that pays for about 20 feet of new trail, give or take a foot or two. The winner will be chosen on April 27th, so there’s still time to buy tickets! If you want to get in on the action, visit the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship Web site or the Ibis Web site.
The Tranny was introduced at Interbike in the fall of 2007 but it’s only just now becoming available. It’s a carbon fiber hardtail with a slotted, pivoting rear triangle that makes it possible to adjust the length of the chainstay. Basically, it works like an eccentric bottom bracket or horizontal rear dropouts so you can tension the chain correctly if you want to set it up as a singlespeed. You can build it up as a singlespeed or a geared bike by switching the derailleur hanger for the singlespeed dropout / bottle opener. As Ibis’ spiritual leader, the Reverend Scott Nichols wisely told me, “If you’ve got a singlespeed you don’t need a derailleur hanger – but you do need a bottle opener.” A side benefit of the slotted design is you can pull the bolts, separate the rear triangle from the front triangle, and throw the whole thing in a suitcase.
The Tranny also benefits from Brian Lopes’ influence. He’s been racing the Tranny on hardtail dual slalom courses and passed on a lot of feedback on the frame feel. The result is supposed to have a more compliant feel with some flex designed in to smooth out the ride. I haven’t ridden it so I can’t confirm, but I think the Lopes input makes the Tranny a much more interesting hardtail frame choice. Not that Ibis doesn’t know how to design a bike – they’ve got tons of hardtail and singlespeed bike experience. But getting Brian Lopes’ input takes the bike design to another level.
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