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Showing posts from June, 2023

1994 Cannondale MT2000

 This bike started out with a story. Back in 2010 I was looking for a used tandem for family adventures. After a bit of searching, I found a nice-looking candidate at a good price on Craigslist and made an appointment to see it up in Marin. I took the kids with me and they got to see one of the strangest deals ever. We arrived and took it for a quick test spin to check fit and function. We decided this would be a great bike and began the required gentle haggle because one must at least ask.  As we were doing it, we discovered that another buyer had an appointment scheduled also and he arrived. We both wanted the bike. You could see the seller getting excited about the bidding war to come.  But no. Buyer #2 did want it, but was unwilling to raise the bid nor was I. Apparently, we both felt it was the right price and not one to bid up. So Buyer #2 and I agreed to flip a coin for it 🤷. The seller was clearly not thrilled but what can he say? We were both offering to pay the asking price.

2002 Ventana El Saltamontes

2002 Ventana El Saltamones as delivered So, what do you see when you look at this picture? Well, some dude up on Mt. Tam recently thought it looked nice but "totally obsolete" and I should get a new bike. (Of course, he was riding a 10k eMTB and his young daughter only a slightly cheaper one.)  Vintage rides get no respect in the MTB world. 😏 So what is it? It's a custom-built Ventana El Saltamontes that I gave myself as a reward gift years ago when I was living in the City and there were lots of MTB rides easy to access from the house. And yes, mountain biking has gotten more aggressive in the intervening years. This was a 'trail bike' bordering on an 'all mountain' bike as distinct from the 'downhill' or 'freeride' bikes at the more aggro end back then. But still full suspension with a generous (for the time) 100mm of travel front and back. The frame itself was built by Sherwood Gibson of Ventana out in Rancho Cordova. In theory, it was