Ibis Bow-Ti content

[Woz]

Yeah, that's how I see it. More to take the buzz out, attempt to keep the back wheel on the ground with no linkage slop.

 

[M-Power]

I have a castellano fango, the aluminum version of the silk, and it’s definitely an interesting feel for my uses of riding on gravel and railroad ballast
I can see why it didn’t see a huge amount of success, the short travel rear suspension concept in general, at least during its time of relevancy. It’s good at one thing and not great at a lot else. It’s outright uncomfortable on really harsh terrain, because the rear starts to flex out of sync with the obstructions on the ground.
But on fairly consistent gravel, where the bumps turn more into vibration? It’s amazing, you could sit and sprint as fast as you want and would barely feel the ground, while not losing too much power pedaling like you would on proper full suspension.

Wonderful to get a proper ride review on these . Never tried one and tbh its not to my taste visually.

 

[fennec]

Wonderful to get a proper ride review on these . Never tried one and tbh its not to my taste visually.

I commute to and from work on one daily, because most of my commute is not asphalt, its a very rough gravel access road and singletrack. Like a full suspension bike would be overkill but a rigid bike is a nightmare on it.

I really like it for being fantastic on gravel like that, i think something like this would make a lot more sense on a modern gravel bike. Instead of any kind of linkage on the rear, just being more flexible in the frame would be great on gravel bikes.
The cannondale scalpel line kinda does this with the flexible points on the chainstays but still has linkage and a larger rear shock.

 

[ti_pin_man]

An old picture of mine. I still have it more or less as it is in this picture.

I’ve owned for many years and just yawn when people say it’s ugly or didn’t work or too expensive … it just shows naivety in the workings of the bike industry and, in this case, usually lack of experience in riding this particular model compared to its competitors at the time. It is indeed all relative.

Yes there’s better looking bikes. True.
Yes there’s better performing sus bikes but not many from that year.
Mines never broken. I’ve tried on many an occasion and it’s still going strong.
Price wise 5k seems about right. That’s about what the frame cost at the time. 269 were only built and production stopped because the cost to produce was too expensive and Scot Nicol has said this. Then design moved on at pace and better solutions arrived. Hardly surprising when you buy a bike today it’s usually “out of date tomorrow” as something else arrives.

Love to you all

 

[PanoIgano]

I have a castellano fango, the aluminum version of the silk, and it’s definitely an interesting feel for my uses of riding on gravel and railroad ballast
I can see why it didn’t see a huge amount of success, the short travel rear suspension concept in general, at least during its time of relevancy. It’s good at one thing and not great at a lot else. It’s outright uncomfortable on really harsh terrain, because the rear starts to flex out of sync with the obstructions on the ground.
But on fairly consistent gravel, where the bumps turn more into vibration? It’s amazing, you could sit and sprint as fast as you want and would barely feel the ground, while not losing too much power pedaling like you would on proper full suspension.

Thanks for the review lad! I was always interested on these frame and especially dig MOOTS but didn't know how they ride. It makes sense that in rough fireroads or singletrack it can be downright a liability that type of rear sus. Still though...for loose gravel it must be a blast and that's enough reason for me to want to try one in the future.