The Ventana Wiki - 1985 to 2021

[jimi911]

Sorta playing catchup with bikes and builds here. Sorry for the SPAM.

I am going to start a thread on a bit of a lesser known brand by vintage mtb standards and one that deserves a lot more recognition
- Ventana Mountain Bikes

http://www.ventanausa.com/

Feel free to add your own bikes and info. I have few bikes I have been entrusted with to restore and share, but it be cool to see what everyone else has.

Ventana was started by Sherwood Gibson and a Partner in '88 and still exists today. They have been behind numerous advancements in design and Sherwood has been the torch behind many other brands success including the Fat Chance reboot. Sherwood is one of the nicest guys in the industry, and not a guy that seeks the spotlight. He was also a heck of a racer and rider.

Prior to the Ventana brand, Sherwood was doing BMX components and building bikes. In 1985 he got into MTB and never stopped to this day. Here is bike number 1 ... The Sherwood Gibson "Dirt Bag #1". A nice place to start

 

[jimi911]

I was on the lookout for an early Ventana for quite some time. Finally a very early Marble Peak showed up. By Serial number ... the 17th made.




The Cone Peak

 

[jimo746]

I never realised they made such cool hardtails, that Cone Peak looks great.
I'm more familiar with their full-suspension design, which I believe was used by many other companies. Several years ago I briefly owned one which had a Ventana rear end.

 

[jimi911]

I never realised they made such cool hardtails, that Cone Peak looks great.
I'm more familiar with their full-suspension design, which I believe was used by many other companies. Several years ago I briefly owned one which had a Ventana rear end.

Sherwood did a lot of the development on frames, and suspension parts for a lot of companies. Similar to FTW in that respect.

 

[jimi911]

The Marble Peak frame is one of the nicest Aluminum frames I have ever seen and I have owned a ton. It needed a matching stem though ... so I contacted Sherwood to see if he had one lying around. He had 3, and then the floodgates opened and I got some super cool stuff to restore and share.

 

[al]

Looking forward to the build.

al.

 

[Dr Dremel]

Nice, also waiting for the packages being unwrapped!

I seem to remember the green/violet Cone Peak from somewhere in a mag? Pic certainly triggered my spidey senses ...

 

[jimi911]

So Sherwood was excited to see some of his old treasures go to a new home that would restore them.

Moving forward a bit to ‘88, Ventana almost became a components company. It debuted a set of prototype hubs at interbike. 2 sets were made. Only a rear is left … others just disappeared in moves and what not. This will end up on the Marble Peak rear above.

Ventana also debuted a couple of frame designs as well and things moved in that direction.

 

[jimi911]

Here's another bike Sherwood sent me. Before Ventana and BMX/mtb parts, Sherwood built some steel frames. That blue on above is Dirt Bag #1 ... the first of 3 he built for himself (he still has one).

This is Dirt Bag #4 built in 1985. The first frame he ever sold. The frame, fork, stem, and bar were all built by Sherwood.

 

[Dr Dremel]

That´s what I call patina, nice frame! Scratching my head though how it´s cabled up. I get the roller for the RD (in fact I´m loving it!), but were there top pull FDs in 1985?