Long Termer Update - Ibis Mojo SL Special Blend
In recent weeks we have been getting some good miles under the belt on our Ibis Mojo SL Special Blend Long termer, testing mudguards, winter jackets, gloves and a cracking ride out over the open moorland of Dartmoor.
We have only really made one real change to the bike since it's arrival at the MoreDirt offices. We swapped out the handlebars to a set that are considerably wider than come specced with the bike. The head angle on the Mojo SL is quite steep and especially when combined with the skinny bars it made the handling a little lively for my liking. We installed a set of Funn Fatboy bars, which aren't really an ideal match for the superlight nature of the Ibis, but they feel great even if they are on the weighty side.
We are lucky enough to have Dartmoor smack bang on our doorstep. A simple 10-minute drive and you find yourself on some of the most remote and beautiful scenery in the Southwest. We packed up the bikes and headed out to Manaton on a crisp and sunny Saturday morning at the start of December in convoy with some other riding buddy's who had done the loop before and were singing it's praises so Carl. We decided it was about time to see what all the fuss was about!
Straight from the off the ride was pretty intense with a rocky and technical descent down what felt like a river bed with water flowing under your wheels. We had our first casualty of the day on this descent only five minutes into the ride when one of the guys Crank Brothers 5050 pedals deciding it no longer wanted to be attached to the spindle and made a break for freedom. Some top bush mechanics ensued and the pedal was patched up and managed to stay put for the rest of the ride!
Check out this little GoPro taster of some of the terrain we had the pleasure of riding during the day!
These first descents were long and my fitness or lack of it was starting to show!!! My arm's were starting to get pretty pumped even with the Ibis's 140mm bump swallowing travel provided by the X-fusion Velvet RLX forks and I was beginning struggle reading the leaf covered trail as it was coming up so fast! All the leaves were making the already technical singletrack a pretty loose affair but underneath lay a mixture of hard granite and tacky mud that provideded some awesome traction. It definitely took some getting used to, with one minute having no control to the next minute feeling like your on rails. I had plenty of foot out sketchy moments but it all added to the fun of the ride!
Some of the climbs on the ride were pretty horrendous and parts of which were almost certainly unrideable unless you had come from a trials background. The majority of the time that I did spend climbing, I was thankful for the granny ring on the SLX Chainset.
When the bike first arrived with us I had some reservations that if the old school three chainring setup was actually necessary and not just a little overkill. I soon realized if your doing this kind of riding on a regular basis it seems to make sense. If your just out to smash out a loop of your local trail centre, I still think 2x10 is the way to go and if you're fit as a fiddle 1x10 with a chain device is the ultimate set up.
More awesome descents and brutal climbs followed across open moorland and down through the valleys until we eventually stopped for lunch and spent some time picking some lines through one of Dartmoor's infamous granite boulder fields. It provided some awesome and technical riding against an incredible landscape that gave me a great opportunity to flex my photography muscles and grab a much needed breather before continuing the ride and pushing through the last few climbs.
The ride as a whole was an awesome experience and the Mojo SL stood up the challenge amicably. After a quick wash and some basic maintenance, she was ready go again the next day even when my body most definitely wasn't.
It really brought it back to me that there's something pretty special about really hammering it through a trail completely blind with no idea what's coming next which you only really experience the first time you ride a new section of trail. The whole ride really encompassed the true spirit of mountain biking for me, with the aspects of adventure and discovery, which from time to time I think we all become guilty a little guilty of glazing over.
I can't wait to get back out on another adventure onboard the Ibis.
You can check out the full gallery from our trip here...
Ibis are distributed in the UK by 2Pure.
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