Some of the many advantages to owning a USA bread and birthed Ventana frame:

1. Sherwood, the man behind the engineering wonder and artistic ingenuity, is practically a minor cycling god among men: humble, forthright, completely honest – he embodies all that my own mother tried to teach me about integrity and hard work (sorry Mom). With a background in aerospace engineering, his Ventana frames will really get you flyin'.
2. Teresa (or Mother Teresa as I refer to her) Ventana’s business manager, is just about the sweetest woman on earth; so genuinely helpful and concerned.
3. With the probable exception of the actual bolts, EVERYTHING associated with their frames is made in-house, including their proprietary tubing and rocker arm.s
4. Ventana is truly focused and driven, occupied with, even obsessed with developing and manufacturing only the BEST mountain bikes offered in the world.
5. In their search for the MTB Holy Grail, Ventana doesn’t get distracted with gimmicky suspension designs, ever changing trends, or anything else that could potentially blow them off course.
6. Seen any Ventana ads lately? How about EVER? Yeah, they don’t poor hundreds of thousands of dollars each year promoting their “latest” MTB weapon, which unnecessarily drives up the cost of the frames and requires them to sell more volume at higher prices. I mean think of it, with Ventana the ONLY thing you’re really paying for is the frame itself; no corporate leaches, no massive employee departments, no expensive brochures, no full page ads in magazines (which buy high rated reviews) – just sticking to what they do best, which is BEING the BEST!
7. How many cycling manufacturers could survive without advertising? How many companies in general? Percentage wise it’s very low
8. Absolutely phenomenal customer and dealer support, including custom frame geometries for only $200 more.
9. Own a bike that is a universe away from ordinary. Avoid blending in as another lemming by avoiding a cookie-cutter brand that stamps out frames in a way that would even make Henry Ford roll over in his Grave – stand out!
10. You certainly cannot be accused of following all of your other yuppie riding buddies who bought popular high end boutique brands who pump themselves up with marketing.
Boutique brands in general have some HUGE advantages that may not be obviously beneficial at first, like proper customization, upgrading frame geometry the moment they discover an area of possible improvement so that year models really don’t matter, offering staff that is actually available to service your needs, etc., etc., etc.

Now here are some advantages to riding a USA bread and birthed Ventana frame:

1. This is a purchase you can make with the utmost of confidence, knowing that in two years when other frames have “entirely brand new revolutionary designs” that make your friends think that your Ventana is “old fashioned,” your Ventana will still be kickin’ all of their “you know whats” with the same proven design.
2. Lateral stiffness and horizontal continuity are at the heart of every thought. This means no washing out as a tire seems to slide out away from you, not even a hint of it as you barrel into a gnarly turn at high speeds because your rear is tracking straighter than the nose that you broke last year because you didn’t have an amazingly unyielding Ventana.
3. With years and years of full suspension designs in Ventana’s past, without ever having to go back to the drawing board, reviewers today are saying exactly what they always have, even though today’s riders are far more scrutnizing: “Wow this is such a fantastic climbing and pedaling bike that it is hard to keep up with. And then just when I thought I had it beat downhill, Ventana’s suspension goes to work again with sublimely intuitive feel and perfect predictability. Man those guys know what they’re doing!”
4. It is nearly unfathomable that you could get on a bike this expensive and still feel totally blown away by its far surpassing performance, believing you got a steal of a bike – but it happens!
5. Ventana uses entirely unique leverage ratios, which several companies can boast as well, but how many companies today have those suspension leverage ratios licensed out to envious high end competitors, like Moots?
6. Sacrificing nothing, Ventana leaves not an ounce of performance to be desired. So then why not utilize the Horst-link and make their frames a “true four-bar” instead of a “faux-bar?” Good questions, with an equally satisfying answer. With present day technological advancements, the Horst-link essentially benefits the frame in one way, which involves isolating the braking forces from the compression forces while simultaneously braking and descending rough terrain. Answered by the Horst’link is the question of whether suspension can remain fully active under such intense braking. Yes it can, but conversely at the cost of lateral flex and developing “play” (movement) that results from that same isolation. You see, the Horst-link design places dropouts entirely free from the frame itself, attached by sets of bearings located on the chain stays and also to by bearings located on the rocker arms. Bearings do provide greater stiffness than bushings do, but when the dropouts have no direct attachment to the frame, there cannot be sufficient means to hold the rear dropouts securely straight and true to the frame – they aren’t attached to anything solid or substantial enough to keep them horizontally static. This is of course all in comparison to a design that places the dropouts on the chain stays that attach directly to the secure front triangle. Ventana concedes no flex, for mainframe stiffness is the most potent boost to performance that the rider will truly benefit from, at such a miniscule cost to suspension performance under braking because Ventana has attacked that braking issue entirely separately.

Until you get on a Ventana, it’s impossible to comprehend the amazing benefits of secure, predictable steering, and confidence building handling when the rear makes no hint of independence or wandering. It opens up a whole new view point of how you evaluate frames.