Ventana Philosophy

Written by Sherwood Gibson
Owner/ Designer of Ventana USA

I am a fabricator, a machinist, a welder, an engineer, an avid cyclist, and above all an artist. I like to build cool stuff, and I especially relish seeing others benefit from my passion for excellence. I have taken my passion and infused it through out the Ventana brand and product line. Our frames are beautiful, our designs are elegant, and our manufacturing capability and execution is legendary. At Ventana we design and build artistic pieces that can be enjoyed as much on the trail as at the post ride hang out. There is a common thread that runs throughout our product line that I call the Ventana Philosophy. The make-up of that thread is detailed below.

Tube Selection

We tailor our tubing selection for each specific frame design based on its intended use. We select between Ventana proprietary, 6061 custom butted, and straight gage US manufactured 6061 aluminum tubing allowing us the flexibility to build frames that will perform up to our standards without the penalty of retaining excess weight.

To further enhance our tube performance, we sometimes manipulate the tube profiles to various shapes for better stress distribution, and increased chassis stiffness. We have invested a lot of effort into developing tube shaping techniques that will yield the performance we demand without over stressing the raw tubes. Consequently when one of our new designs requires some tube shaping, we have the technology to design and build the form tooling in-house to do it. This really aids in the artistic flow and lightweight performance of our designs.

In addition to proper tube selection and shape, we will sometimes add custom gusseting at high stress areas to boost frame life and increase strength locally. We have found this to be the most efficient use of materials by putting extra metal only where we need it and not where we don't. Like our tube shaping, we have developed extensive technology to form our gussets to the desired shapes required for optimum benefit.

CNC Machining

The machine work on a Ventana is not just functional, it is, for lack of a better term, sexy. From our suspension components down to our cable stops, we painstakenly refine the shape, the weight, and the performance of every piece and then CNC machine them in-house to meet our precision and aesthetic standards.

Welding

Our welding excellence has long been revered throughout the industry. This reverence is achieved through diligent pursuit of what we call the perfect weld. The perfect weld has smooth evenly spaced beads, imperceptible start, stop, and restart transitions, and flat stops with no shrink crater. While easy to achieve on flat coupons but quite difficult to achieve on round tube junctions of varying thickness, the perfect weld is a nebulous charge. Granted, our welds are not always perfect, but I guarantee that we continuously strive to reach that goal. And while I don't personally weld every frame any longer, and haven't for quite some time, I do train and supervise every welder we hire to assure that they adamantly pursue that perfect weld, the Ventana weld, every time they strike an arc and lay down the beads.

Powder Coating

We go to some pretty extreme measures to produce a Ventana quality frame, and we won't compromise that effort with a cheap finish. We have tried many different finishes to top our aluminum art pieces, and powder coating simply offers the most durable finish with the most succulent colors we have found. Our powder coat colors are so juicy they have been described as looking like jewels in the sun. And, like the richly detailed hat that crowns a King, our powder coat finishes are the ultimate compliment to a Ventana frame.

Final Assembly

Our final assembly process is intense. We machine the head set and BB bores, faces and threads, and ream the seat tube on our frames after powder coating to ensure the best fit. So, your seat post will slide smoothly, and lock down securely, your head set will fit squarely, and hold tightly, and your BB will thread in easily. We not only align our complete frames prior to delivery, we align each and every welded component as a sub assembly prior to final assembly. It is a tedious process that rewards our efforts with frames that roll straight and is a key factor in establishing the celebrated Ventana ride.