- That's what I do when I'm scared, just lean back.
Ah!
Yeah, exactly.
(upbeat music)
Hey everybody, I'm Mike Levy
and welcome back to another Field Test video.
This time we have Ibis's fourth generation Mojo.
Now that name has been in Ibis's catalog
since way back in 1994, when it was actually a Hardtail.
But this new version is 130 millimeter travel-trail bike,
with 140 millimeter fork and 27.5" wheels.
Now the fourth generation frame is entirely new
and it features updated geometry, a metric shock
and internal cable routing.
It's an all new frame,
but it's still using DW-Link suspension.
And that's exactly what we're going to talk about now.
DW-Link is a dual link design
that uses a relatively high amount of anti-squat
and a shock with a light compression tune.
And speaking of tunes,
there's something else interesting about this bike.
It's running something that Ibis calls "Traction Tune"
and not only is the compression tune light,
because the DW-link doesn't need it,
but the rebound tune is light as well.
With the thinking there that it lets the rear wheel
move up and out of the way quickly,
because of that light compression tune,
but also return quickly and stay in contact with the ground
thanks to the light rebound tune.
Ibis says that it provides more traction,
hence the name "Traction Tune".
Now that lowered link, it's running on bushing's still
that come with a lifetime warranty.
And you'll also find bearings instead of bushings
up in the upper link.
Okay, let's move on to the rest of the frame
and Ibis says that as an all new carbon layup
that improves the way that it feels on the trail.
Now gram counters are going to be happy to hear
that the frame is actually about half a pound lighter
than a HD-5 frame.
There's frame protection everywhere,
including the bottom of the down tube,
on top of the chain stay where he expect to see it,
and there's also a neat little fender above the lower link.
The idea there is that it's going to keep rocks and stuff
from getting jammed into that link
as the suspension goes through its travel.
Now there's also room for a regular size water bottle
inside the front triangle.
But to do that, Ibis has had to run
an inline Fox shock as opposed to one with the piggyback.
Over the years,
we've seen companies come up with all sorts of different
ways to carry stuff on their bikes.
Trek and Specialized have holes in their down tubes.
Other companies are doing other things.
Ibis? Well, they've made a bag
that slots right into their front triangle
and zippered on one side,
and it's big enough to hold a tube, pump,
a donut, whatever you want.
It's actually not even bolted or strapped to the frame,
it's a spring loaded fit.
It's pretty neat, pretty convenient.
Ibis has done pretty well with the rest
of the trail bike checklist.
That includes a threaded bottom bracket,
a removable set of ISCG chain guide tabs.
Pass through cable routing as well.
So you can just push it right through and it just magically
comes out the other end without you having to scream at it.
And as well as a short seat tube,
so you can run a longer travel dropper post.
Okay, let's move on and talk about geometry now.
Seat Angle, 76.6 degrees.
Head tube angle, 65.4 degrees.
That's almost two degrees slacker than the previous version
Now going right along with those numbers
is the bike's reach,
which is a 485 millimeters for a large.
Again, that's the longest Mojo that Ibis has ever done.
The 27.5 inch wheels allow them to use
short 425 millimeter chain stays.
So that's a pretty short rear end and the bikes are all
using short 37 millimeter offset forks as well.
One last thing to mention,
all of these Field Test trail bikes,
feature adjustable geometry,
except for the Ibis.
Now some of those bikes,
the geometry is only adjustable by about this much.
You know, you're changing the bottom bracket height by
four millimeters and the head angle by a third of a degree.
Ibis? Well, you're going to ride it exactly how it comes.
No adjustments whatsoever and I'm a fan of that simplicity.
Okay, let's look at some more numbers.
There are five different complete Mojo bikes to pick from,
built with either Shimano or SRAM parts.
You could also get a frame and shock combo
for $3,000 American.
Complete bikes start at $4,500 American,
and that gets you a Deore drivetrain.
If you want something really fancy,
the other end of the spectrum comes
with an AXS drive train.
$10,700.
This is the SLX model that retails for $5,400,
but I've got a couple upgraded parts on here,
including Ibis's carbon wheelset
and their carbon handlebar
that bumps that up to $6,267 American.
And on the scale,
it all adds up to 28 pounds and 9 ounces.
So those are all of the details
and all of the numbers on the new Mojo.
Up next, let's talk about how this trail bike rides.
(upbeat music)
Let's cover set setup first and this is the field test,
so that means control tires.
And it's the same as the other trail bikes,
a Dissector on the back and a Minion DHF upfront.
Pressures, 21 and 23 PSI.
Now, as far as suspension setup goes,
I went for manufacturer suggested setting in the back,
and that gave me between 25 and 30% sag.
(upbeat music)
All right, let's talk about climbing now
and Ibis has long been known for bikes that have been pretty
fast and efficient feeling on those climbs.
But this new Mojo, well it's slacker and longer than ever.
So does it feel like a worse climber?
Well, actually Ibis has done a pretty impressive job
of combining more capability on the downs
without losing any of that Ibis-ness on the up.
Let's talk about pedaling first.
The bike feels extremely quick and it really rewards you
for your efforts that you put in.
At no point did I feel like I needed to reach down
and flip that switch even out of the saddle efforts,
didn't really get the bike and moving all that much.
If you plan on doing the odd
cross country race on your Mojo,
yeah, you might want to reach down and flip that switch.
But for day-to-day trail riding,
I don't think you're ever going to need to do that.
Let's talk about some comparisons on the climbs now.
And the first bike I want to mention
is that Giant Trance X with the live valve suspension.
Now that basically, it turns the bike into a rocket ship.
And, while the obvious is quick,
it wasn't as quick as the Giant on our timed climb.
We're going to talk about those times in a minute.
But, when traction is questionable, well,
I think the Ibis has got the advantage over the Giant,
especially if it's wet and the ground is loose.
The Ibis seems to keep rolling,
even with these 27.5 inch wheels.
In those slow speed technical sections, it's this Mojo
and it's the Giant that really come out ahead.
Those other bikes like the P-Train and the Salsa,
they feel substantially bigger.
Even the Stumpy feels bigger than this bike,
which is worth noting.
Now all of the bikes are pretty decent technical climbers,
but I'm definitely going to give the nod
to the Ibis Mojo on that front.
(upbeat music)
We're going to talk about handling first.
And, well bottom line,
this is easily the most capable Mojo that they've ever made.
But the truth is, is that everybody else's trail bikes
have moved on as well.
They're also longer and slacker and even more capable.
And at the end of the day, where this bike is positioned,
it's kind of in the same place as that classic trail bike
that's meant for all sorts of terrain,
instead of being capable
on just the most challenging terrain.
The Mojo is a bike that dances easily.
And what I mean by that
is that it leans on its quick handling.
When you're coming up to a rough, tricky,
or challenging section on the Salsa or the P-Train,
you can really lean on those bikes,
get over the front end and just charge right through them.
Whereas on the Mojo,
you're better off to dip and dive through that stuff.
So if you're an active rider that reads the trail and
responds to it, the Mojo might be a bike for you.
Whereas if you're the kind of rider that takes the
straightest fastest line all the time,
then a bike like the Salsa or the P-Train
is going to be more your speed, quite literally.
So the bottom line is that well,
Ibis calls this thing and all mountain play bike,
and I really don't want to use those words,
I sort of have to agree with them.
The shorter rear end, because of the smaller wheel,
and the slightly steeper head angle,
they make for a bike that is easier to toss around
and slightly quicker handling
than even the Stumpy and the Giant Trance X.
(upbeat music)
All right,
let's move on to something a little less subjective,
the timing.
Now we tied both the climb and the descent.
We're going to talk about the climb first.
It came second,
19 seconds behind the Giant with that live valve suspension
that turned that bike into a rocket ship.
So I'm pretty impressed.
Now that climb was a mix of smooth single track
at the bottom.
Before you rode into some steep,
tricky rooty and rocky stuff that really tested
the bikes technical abilities.
Our descent trail was a good mix of technical challenges
for these trail bikes.
With the healthy dose of traversing that really tested
the bikes efficiency and low speed handling.
Not only that,
there were a couple of steep sections there
that really gave us a feel for this new geometry
that all the trail bikes have.
And in that setting,
the Mojo came forth out of five bikes.
The fastest bike was the Actofive P-Train at 4:27.
The Mojo's time? 4 minutes and 51.
(upbeat music)
Moving on to the build.
Let's talk about the components that impressed me first.
And the SLX drive train with that hyper glide plus design,
shifting under power...?
I mean, I don't know how many times I could say this,
it is just damn impressive.
When you're going up a steep climb
and you need to grab an easier gear
at the worst possible moment,
you used to have to ease up a little bit.
Eh, like that.
This bike? No, you just keep pedaling.
It doesn't matter.
This hyper glide plus stuff has been really impressive.
So one more note on the Shimano drivetrain,
before we move on,
is that there's no real performance difference between
this SLX drive train and an XT drivetrain
that we're seeing everywhere.
And I want to give Ibis some kudos for specing
an SLX bike and giving riders the opportunity to upgrade to,
well, the higher end carbon wheels
that I'm going to talk about next.
Ibis debuted carbon wheels many, many years ago,
and I had those original, super wide wheels.
I used them for I think, four years
and then I gave them to a buddy.
He's still using the damn things.
I had zero trouble with the latest version
on this bike as well.
They didn't give me a single hiccup.
I've inspected them for cracks
or even gouges that might look kind of scary.
Not a single one.
Let's talk about suspension next,
and Ibis has taken a more traditional
trail bike approach on that front.
And what it means is they've specced a Fox fork
with a FIT4 damper cartridge with the pedal assist switch.
As opposed to some of the other bikes
have the higher performing GRIP2 damper,
that gives you a bit of an edge
when it gets really rough and fast.
When it does get rough and fast,
there is a difference in performance.
The front end has a little bit less traction
and requires a little bit more air
to keep the fork higher up in its travel
than the bikes with the GRIP2 damper in their forks.
We also have to talk about Ibis's Traction Tune
before we move on,
and that is that lightly damped rear shock.
It has a light rebound tune
and a very light compression tune.
And that creates a fast rebounding bike
and Ibis recommends running
basically no rebound damping for the shock.
Now, when this first came out,
both myself and Kazimer tried it.
Kazimer wasn't a fan
and now that I've ridden it again on this latest Mojo,
I'm still not a fan.
I don't like the way that it creates an unpredictable
and slightly uncontrolled ride.
I just didn't have much confidence
in what the bike was going to do.
Thankfully, I can turn that rebound adjuster,
which is exactly what I did and slowed it down
and made it more traditional.
And I prefer my rebound slightly slower, to be honest,
and the bike rides way better in my mind.
Okay.
Let's talk about the components that didn't impress me.
I'm going to start at the back of the bike
with the Ibis branded rear hub.
The hub's axle, not the through axle,
actually unthreaded itself so much,
that I thought the hub axle was broken.
It turns out that it wasn't,
but if you have an Ibis branded hub
on the back of your Mojo,
you definitely want to keep an eye on it.
The other thing I'm going to moan about,
it's that SLX rear brake.
It's not the fact that there are only two piston,
I think this bike is properly specced
and the brakes have plenty of power,
it has a migrating bite point.
Now we've seen this loads from Shimano recently,
and it's getting really annoying.
And bleeding doesn't fix it.
They're going to have to sort it out.
(upbeat music)
Let's talk about pros and cons first.
And the biggest one for me is how well rounded the Mojo is.
Yeah, it's not great at this super aggressive stuff,
but pretty much everywhere else,
this is the classic capable trail bike.
A big reason for that is how fast
and efficient the bike is.
And that's the next big upside to me,
this isn't a bike that I ever felt like I needed
to reach down and flip that pro pedal switch.
Lastly, it's a new trail bike on 27.5" wheels
and that's pretty rare these days, isn't it.
(upbeat music)
Let's move on to the cons
and well Ibis has created a very well-rounded bike.
It's still not going to be the descenders choice,
regardless of that new slack and long geometry.
Like I've said over and over again,
it's more focused on all around riding.
And when it gets really rough and tricky,
it can't match some of the other bikes,
including the Specialized Stumpjumper,
which is probably its most direct competitor.
(upbeat music)
All right, let's wrap up the Mojo.
Trail bikes are becoming incredibly capable these days
with some of them approaching what was used
on the EWS circuit only a few short years ago.
That increased descending ability has come at a cost though.
With some of these bigger feeling bikes
being far less well-rounded and therefore suiting
less riders and less terrain than a trail bike ever should.
But the new Mojo, it doesn't fall into that trap.
It uses its updated geometry
for increased capability on the downs,
without losing those trail bike vibes everywhere else.
That's it for Ibis's fourth generation Mojo.
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(upbeat music)