Ventum Discussion Thread
The new EN Ventum deal was too good to pass up....
I ordered one, I know at least one other purchase within EN, and a few on the fence, pretty sure we are gonna have a few of these in EN very soon.... Thought this would be a good time/place to start a discussion about this new super bike.
What I ordered and why - First and foremost was FIT...The Ventum 51 frame stack/reach 510/394 vs. my DA2 frame stack/reach 515/391.... Doesnt get much closer than that.... But more importantly was the arm pad stack/reach... My current DA2 arm pad stack is 610 vs the Ventum range of 600-630 = perfect -giving me a little room up and down... My current DA2 back of pad reach is 420 vs the Ventum back of pad range of 424-437 = 4mm more reach than current but if anything I would choose more reach and rode all of last year with 3cm more reach and a different stem ... All of my data calculations were from Todd at TTbikefit.com and confirmed with the Ventum peeps... There would be more options with other stems etc but would rather the perfect fit out of the box so to speak... Of course all that sound fine on paper so hoping its perfect in real life... I tend to over purchase and really held back here.... I wanted ETAP but that became a little more complicated to order, build, not to mention more expensive... I've ridden Dura Ace di2 vs Ultegra Ui2 and cant tell the difference... So I went with 51cmi Ventum Ui2 build , sans wheels (I like aluminum brake track wheels) and seat (Cobb) for a credit. All I need is a pair of P1 pedals and I'll be good to go....
Will write up a review in a couple weeks after a few rides on it. Once its up and running and I'm sure I really like it... I'll be parting with my DA2 which has recently been converted to 11spd Ui2... Anyone interested can PM me for more info but I'll post something when available. It will be a good deal :-)
OH..... OF course the new bike hydration tank is RED.
Comments
http://www.fitandfind.com/stack-reach-search.htm
Nice Bike!!!!! Add me to the jealous list. Interestingly when I went through the TTbike fit process last year Todd also recommended a 51cm Ventum for me! Will definitely be considering a ventum for my 'next bike'. Was there a 1x option?
Good idea on the thread TC. As we've talked I'm on the fence and leaning heavily. I'm working to find one in the vicinity to check out before I commit. Curious to hear the thoughts from others once they get out for initial rides.
We should keep a list of who jumped on this. Based on what I've seen I think the commits thus far are:
Tim Cronk
Rich Strauss
Ed Eovino
your old bike wasn't a IA, P5, SHIV series, right? Liking the Dimond, Ventum, etc... but thinking next generation is when I jump again, but then again, a good dealio...
I'm moving from a 4 year old mechanical P3 so this will be a substantial upgrade for me.
@Satish- no X1 option , could always go with frame and DIY , but why ? I want gears! You'll be happy to have your x2 at IMMT :-)
@Scott- yep my DA is a 2012
@Ed- ride yet?
Hey Clark,
Yep, the deal is soooo good it's too good to put the details in print. So you'll need to reach out to Mariah to have a conversation with her about having a conversation with Ventum about the deal.
Basically, if the details get shared with non-EN members outside of the site it puts the entire relationship at risk so we need to have very tight controls on how/to whom we pass this information.
Thanks for understanding!
So I got the bike on the road for a quick easy spin last night...
First things first... I'm not the guy to do this. I signed up for my first triathlon (Branson 70.3 '12) not knowing how to swim and not owning a bike. I bought a road bike after trying 3 different ones at an LBS and just dove into a HIM plan. After successfully finishing...I knew I wanted to do a full (AZ '13)... So I needed a tri bike. I searched online and found that Cervelo was one of the top brands and opted for the P3 instead of a P2 because it looked WAY cooler! I guess the point I'm trying to make... Triathlon takes a huge time commitment and when you have a lot of things competing for the precious few hours you have left...somethings got to give. In my case it's definitely been knowing way too little about these bikes I ride for countless hours.
I view the bike as a tool. The same as I would view a hammer if I were building a house....(I don't know how many ounces this thing is.. But it feels sweet when I hit the nail and it doesn't slip outta my hand when I swing it.) so here goes....
The deal is good. Mariah connected me with Rachel of Ventum. She was great to work with...quickly responded to questions and when she didn't know something got the tech people involved to be sure. I was going to just purchase the bike... But when I asked about what PM option works best with the frame she suggested that they use Pioneer and could install one at the factory and the discount would apply. She also offered ceramic pulleys... In this deep... I said "suuuurrreeee".
Bike specs.. 54"...Dura Ace DI2... 53-39 11-25... 172mm cranks.. CeramicSpeed oversized pulleys ( these are crazy big... Cartoonish looking... In a good way)... Zipp 808's
I had the bike shipped to my house and I brought it to the LBS to build. His notes about the build....
Said that Ventum had done most of the work.... Wires were run through frame... All the components were on... Simple and he charged me the lowest cost they charge for assembly.
2) To mount the Pioneer power meter on their frame the left crank arm needed to be shimmed out a little to accommodate a sensing magnet. In doing so they had to omit the retaining ring for the left crank arm. I could tell he didn't like this at all. So if the bolts on the crank arm loosen... There goes the crank arm with me attached to it. Needless to say... Whenever I oil the chain I'll be checking those bolts!
3) He was able to transfer all the measurements from my last Retul fit on my P3 to this bike except for the elbow cups. He was a centimeter off but said that's the closest he could get.
4) Wheels had two tubes with pinch flats... They had to install new tubes
Test ride... I wanted to go out and just get a feel for the bike. I've never ridden a DI2 bike before so I needed to figure that out. Seemed ass backwards to me. To shift into a higher gear you use the lower button?..... Seemed weird and is definitely not intuitive for me. I know they're reversible...but I'll give it a chance this way. Needless to say... I was missing a lot of shifts when I rode.
I felt the different cup position and they seemed to be way less padded then the ones I use now. The aero bar extensions were a little short too. I'm going to move them 3/4 inch forward for the next ride. After a 1/2 hour on this ride I could feel some tingling in my hand. This could stem from the different style of bar... My P3 extensions are bent up a little... These are straight.
I didn't wear gloves and it was 95 degrees. I was sweating a lot and my hands were slipping on the base bar grips. It was a little unsettling... I'll have to change out that tape. I'm mentioning all this stuff so that you don't try to make a apples to apples comparison from my Strava data. In fact I put my Garmin in my pocket and didn't even look at it.
The bike was smooth.. A little more chain noise than I expected ( ceramic pulley/di2???). Like I said... I was having a little trouble shifting... So I crossed chained a bit... So the noise may be completely my fault. During the ride I stopped and took a few pictures...made a couple low speed turns and kinda just tooled along. Toward the end I did hammer it on a segment I know just to see what would happen. The bike responded well and I posted my second fastest time on the segment. If my shifting were more crisp I would have definitely beat my PR in less favorable temps/conditions. So... I'd say it's pretty fast
I'm gearing up for Wisconsin and I haven't been doing any FTP work. I've been instead trying to consistently increase the amount of time I can push 200-210 watts. So the real chance to compare will be this weekend when I try to take it out on one of these kind of efforts. I'll update this after I get a little more time on it...
Anyone who want's confirmation that the Ventum is fast...here it is. I set up this segment (FTP) last season as a course to test my outside FTP. I ride this route all the time... not just to test so there are a lot of data points. I road today at a moderate effort... HR and watts all confirm this.... the difference...Ventum...
https://www.strava.com/activities/663237962/segments/16239137106
Ed - do you have that segment marked private? When I click on it it takes me to your overall ride summary
Not sure if when you view you have access to all my data points... I've ridden this route 70ish times... nothing special about today other than a KOM...
I've asked him to take lots of pics during the build.
I will tell you, that I'm a little reluctant to throw down significant cash on a frame that I haven't ridden, or even seen in person. I have a tendency to REALLY torque my existing frames, with my size (210+lbs) and power profile (especially capable of high short bursts of high power), so the tri frames I've tried in the last decade have all seemed to flex too much for me. Can anyone speak to how the Ventum handles all the stress?
I see you're running a Torhans bottle. I'm going to give this another shot. What are you using as a computer mount? I have a mount from Xlab but it won't work above the bend of the bars, as the diameter increases a tick as you get closer to the shifters. I like to keep the computer near my hands.
Slammed the next couple days...full detail and RR coming.
The short of it....the bike seem REALLY slick. I had a material bike PR on below targeted watts. Handled great...very solid.
Rich - I use a barfly mount for my computer.
Just finished my first ride on the bike, about 30 miles of bike paths. Yesterday I ordered:
For training and racing I'm going to roll with (I think):
The bike is very smooth, fast, and solid. Strange seeing my shadow, as it looks like I'm riding a geometry problem vs a bike
. And a little odd to look down between my legs and see no downtube and instead a gap between the BB area and front wheel. And the front of the BB looks like a missile nosecone. Bike feels totally normal and plenty stiff when standing. On Thursday I'll climb Chantry so I can see how it handles on a technical descent, and then about about another 2k of gain.
One nitpick and maybe you guys can answer this for me: I went with their aerobar system and I found that I couldn't tilt the bars up. I know that some people like to ride with the aerobars tilted up, to get into a Landis-esque praying mantis position. I think you can run TriRig or other bars but you'd clearly need to use a different stem...which isn't a problem, I'm just point out that if you want to ride with the bars tilted up you'll need to work with Ventum to get the right parts and configuration.
Tririg just came out with parts that can make their aero extensions point up.