Monday, January 15, 2007

Ventana El Rey rates on top of F.S. 29er shootout

The highly respectable folks at MTBR.com have just released the results of their comprehensive full suspension 29er review, in which 8 of the top XC 29er frames from different manufacturers were compared head to head by 7 lucky testers!
The full results can be viewed here: http://www.mtbr.com/spotlight/29er/
Clearly the team have done an excellent job, minimising the bias in results with uniform tire choice and by allowing riders to swap often.
The big news is that the El Rey, one of Ventana's new 2007 models scored top points with many of the riders.

Details on the El Rey including some serious bike porn can be found here:
http://www.mtbr.com/spotlight/29er/29er_fs_shootout_bike_ventana.shtml#bike_ventana
Riders noted it's balanced handling, lateral stiffness and dialed geometry as common traits.
This from Ty Brookhart: "Ventana makes some very beautiful bikes, I think. But while art is subjective, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone out there that doesn’t think Ventana manufacturers one of the most solid bikes out there. The machining and welding is just impeccable. So, how does the bike ride? In one, errr..two words, confidence inspiring."

Seems like Sherwood has nailed the design once again, and plans are afoot to get one of these beauties for the Mountain Pedaler NZ test fleet!