The Ibis of old was a totally cool company. Scot Nichol, who founded it, is a great guy, and I have exchanged a few emails with him. I really REALLY want to own a vintage Ibis Tandem MTB one day.
I run an Ibis titanium stem on my Merlin.
The sculpted hand you refer to is called a "Hand Job Cable Stop" (I kid you not) and was an option on all steel Ibis frames. They also had the option of a sculpted foot for a pump pep (which was called the Toe Jam pump peg).
Ibis = great stuff!
QUOTE (Mr. Smith @ Feb 27 2010, 06:36 AM)

Recently I worked for a Teacher who showed me ... NO NO NO ....
his IBIS MTB. The cable holder/ stop for the cantis was a sculpted hand !
F'in AWESOME. And then the features just went on and on.
I seen one on ebay for $699 or $799 a steal but it was a for you TALL sob's 6'2 plus.
or I'd bought it and sold all of my Cannondales !
Rob