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 a standard size, but when I went to order, I learned that they didn't stock them and were totally build-to-order at this size. Since they were local, I actually went out to the shop and talked with the owner/framebuilder about the options. He recommended adding the extra top tube for extra strength for a rider my size. Probably a good call.

This was before I started building my own bikes, but it was a gateway drug. There was a shop in Berkeley, Wrench Science, with a very cool website with a configurator that let you pick custom parts and get confirmation of cross compatibility, cost and weight of the build before you placed an order for them to build it for you. At the time, this was unheard of and really well done. They were (are) a physical shop too, so I could go in for the final check and discussion about the options. (For example, going for wheels built with XT hubs and Mavic 317 rims for sturdiness and performance at a value point. They've never wobbled) Really a great experience for spending what seemed like an obscene amount of money back then. (They are still around but I don't have modern experience for reference but the online reviews are solid)

As built, it was a dual suspension rig. Air shocks at the time were considered marginal for someone my size and coils were preferred. So, the rear shock was a Romic coilover and the front was a Fox Vanilla RLC (coil spring and 'all the things' for control). The drivetrain was a 3x9 XT setup with Raceface Turbine cranks (way cooler looking). Also noteworthy was that it was built with disc brakes which was not a given at the time. You may see that the forks had cantilever mounts AND disc caliper mounts. Cable actuated Avid BB7 brakes saved many hundreds over decent hydraulics and worked as well as people said. (times change, see below). The rest of the parts leveraged the red and black theme as you can see.

As first built:

Time passes

I rode this quite a lot in the first years but life things came to play and it sat underutilized for years. As I got back into playing with bikes a few years ago, I ended up doing more than just a service and restore, but a few upgrades.

Challenge number one: Bottom Bracket. Yeah, it had gotten a bit gritty being ridden in dirt and mud. Sure, just get a new one, right? Well... yeah. But this was from the early days of modern, splined BBs. It was an ISIS type which aren't really used anymore. Fortunately, there are still BBs available but they take some searching and aren't cheap. Replacing them however, is simple. Standard dimensions, normal splined BB tool. Problem solved.
Taking it out again, I realized I would really prefer bigger rotors (it had 160mm which are road/gravel size today not MTB). I learned that it is very easy to adapt to bigger rotors. Just a simple metal spacer. The only constraint is the max size the fork or frame manufacturer specifies as safe. So upgraded to 180mm rotor in the front.
The bigger rotor was better. But in the intervening years, I'd ridden hydraulic brake bikes and liked them better. I found some Avid Elixir hydros on CL for a song and decided to give them a try. Drop in replacements which did have a better feel, but not much more stopping power. FWIW, the BB7s were really good. Their only real design issue in my mind was that they only move one piston and rely on flexing the rotor to contact the other one. This works. But I don't think they are as easy to set up as dual sided action systems nor quite as good of a feel.
Now for tires. Back in the 'early aughts', 2.1" tires were seen as pretty wide. Yeah, not any more. My gravel bike tires were about the same width. So, since they were too old anyway, it was time to see how far we could go. The challenge wasn't frame clearance. Plenty to work with. But, the rims were only 19mm wide internally. Rather narrow by current standards. After a bit of research, I decided that I could go as far as 2.4" and rigged up with tubes, it would be fine. (Trying tubeless would not be recommended and pointless since ultra-low tubeless pressures recommended would be unstable when turning). There are also some limitations of what tires are available in 26" format. So I needed up with Maxxis Minion DHF 2.3" and DHR 2.4". Wider, softer (17psi), and more knobby made for a way better offroad ride.
Now for some really modern stuff: A Hite Rite. Just kidding. A dropper post. Obviously no internal cable routing for the common ones. But there are still externally controlled droppers available. I ended up putting on a PNW Pine to replace the Thompson post that had been there. 110mm of ability to get the seat out of the way and pop right back up for pedaling. A great modernization even if it adds to the cable clutter on the bars.
Unfortunately, after all the service and upgrades and riding for a few months, I found that the rear shock was not only damping poorly, but leaking. Ugh. I guess it needs a service. Well... Turns out that Romic went out of business years ago and there are no service parts available. They were good enough for a while, that there are a couple of shops that do custom service work on them, but the work costs as much as a new shock and takes a month. So time to see about a replacement. Well, the fun of older gear is learning how standards have changed. There aren't really any shocks still made in exactly the same dimensions. Particularly not coilovers as those are now only used for really long stroke applications not the 'little' 100mm travel types. But after digging around, I found that a Fox Float could be found in a close enough size to fit. I managed to find a closeout Fox Float DPS, F-S, K, 3pos-Adj, Evol LV on eBay for a good price and went for it.

Then I got to learn about needing unusually sized mounting hardware and had to hunt them down too. Offset Bushings in the UK not only makes their namesake funky offset bushings, but also odd kit sizes. Tell them what you need and they send a baggie of parts.

Saga over, right? Nope. Turns out that as mounted, the inflation port makes a tiny bit of contact with the transfer arm at full stroke. I didn't notice that as I was assembling it in the slack position. Care to guess how I learned it? Well, as I was doing the recommended bounce during inflation (balancing the sides of the chamber), it clipped at the bottom and broke. Ugh. So write to Fox about a repair. They were great. Quick response, shipped it off, had it back in a week and they treated it as a warranty issue even though I'd told them what happened. Bravo.

So, did it work, you ask? Yeah. The Ventana was built with an option to change the travel by moving the shock mount bolt. In order to prevent breaking the inflation value again, I decided to shorten the travel a step. Sad to do it, but surprisingly, the net effect was an improved ride. I don't go hucking down jumps etc. so I don't need max travel anyway and the combination of leverage ratio and air spring rates just works well. As a bonus, the lockout setting works way better than on the original Romic ever did. Nice and fluid in open mode, and truly locked out for pedaling in lockout mode. I never used to use it because it was pointless. But I use it all the time now on smoother climbs.
The last upgrade was another brake swap. While the Elixirs were an improvement, they still weren't quite what I knew they could be, so I kept looking for some alternatives on the used market. Eventually, I found some SRAM G2 RSC brakes (the distant descendants of the original Avids) that are fantastic. Way more powerful and great modulation and adjustable for the feel you want. A significantly better experience when trying to control the bike with this Clydesdale rider on board.

Up at Gold Lake with Nicolas in the original kit before the upgrades

Yes, if you're dumb enough, a lift-service bike park (China Peak). Only one major wipeout that might have been survived upright on a proper downhill bike.