I have been decidedly absent from a few rides recently and even more guilty of not contributing to this site for some months, but what better way to stage a comeback of Armstrong proportions (that way I have an excuse if it all goes quiet for another year!) than with something right up my street.

In recent months, through no fault of my own, I seem to have been appointed within the Moles camp, the Double Entendre King whilst also filling a lesser role as Consulate to Smut. Quite how it happened is frankly irrelevant but I have set a precedent to which I simply must live up to (plus the fact our chief moderator is on his hols at the moment so this is a carpe diem moment). Enter the Ibis Tranny.

Risqué naming conventions are nothing new in the biking world; Cove has dined off it nicely for years. But with the Tranny you sense it’s not just about a cheap marketing gag, rather it is more representative of the bike’s personality (whether you agree their design is a descent job or not).

Whilst I’m new to hearing about the Tranny, it has been around since the beginning of last year, joining the seemingly more high-profile Mojo and Mojo SL models in the Ibis stable (along with a Ti hardtail). The essence of the Tranny is it’s a three-in-one bike, thanks largely due to its adjustable and removable chain and seat stays.

Ibis Cycles has designed the bike to be run as a regular (albeit hellishly expensive carbon) geared hardtail or as a singlespeed. And because the chain and seat stays can be removed it is being marketed as a travel bike too – one that can fit in your suitcase that is. Now there’s a new niche surely.

The Ibis Cycles site can give you a better description of how it all works than I can, but in essence the adjustable chainstays allow for a genuine conversion to singlespeed that negates a ‘heavy’ eccentric bottom bracket or ‘unsightly’ chain tensioner (are they really?).

It is all made possible thanks to what Ibis are calling the “Slot Machine” – a magic box – if you will – to paraphrase Ibis (this is ‘DE heaven’). They even have images on their site showing how easy the slot is to open and close, nice.

In short, it’s a nice tidy idea of facilitating a simple (if not quick) change between running one and multi gears, but isn’t it just an example of being just a bit too clever and over-engineering something? As for the travel bike slant, I guess this might have some big-spending followers in the States where planes are used like buses, but over here?

Surely the whole point for us mad-keen bikers is that we are always hankering after another bike (even if we can’t afford it) to add to the collection even if we know the one we have is pretty versatile anyway.

Although that said, a Tranny decked out with Rubber Queens. It’s beginning to sound like my kind of bike!

About the author

As Baz Luhrmann said in his Sunscreen song: look after your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone. Well, until they do finally give up the will to live and screech to a halt like a knackered bottom bracket, I'm just going to keep riding because that's what I love.

Whilst I'm more full time parent and part-time biker these days, I still make the best of the time family life affords me, even if the fitness yo-yos massively.

I ride a Cotic Soul, which is currently single-speeded, and also a 2010 Trek EX-8 for drier times.

We are a pretty lucky bunch to live in such close proximity to the Surrey Hills, which gives us an embarrassing amount of trail choice. Some of my all time local favourites have sadly now been 'decommissioned', but with the likes of BKB, Summer Lightening and China Pig, there's still plenty to smile about whichever way you turn.