First Impression: Ibis Mojo HD

By Josh Patterson

So a guy walks into a bar…

He spies a girl sitting alone. She’s attractive. Gorgeous, actually, with curves in all the right places. The guy buys her a drink, walks over and strikes up a conversation, but to his dismay, quickly discovers they have very little in common.

This is how I would describe my first ride aboard the Mojo HD. For the past several years I’ve spent most of my time riding 29ers, 29er singlespeeds in particular. So the initial transition from big wheels with little travel to smaller wheels with 160mm of front and rear travel presented bit of a (re)learning curve.

What’s a guy to do? Persevere.

As a co-worker noted, it’s funny how a 26" all-mountain bike can feel big and small at the same time when making this transition. It took me several rides to establish my air pressure, rebound and compression settings. Then it took another couple of rides to really adjust to the fit and handling of the Mojo HD. Slowly, the HD and I got to know each other. I learned she is fast and nimble, but don’t let the sultry carbon curves fool you; this bike means business.

After playing the field and getting acquainted with other 160mm bikes on the market, I can say the Mojo HD provides a firm pedaling platform thanks to its dw-Link suspension. So much so that it took quite a bit of bracketing to get the rear matched to the more linear feel of the Fox TALAS fork.

So how did our chance encounter end?

See my review in issue #155 to find out.