Ventana's new Alpino model based around 650b wheels.
this one is my personal bike built on the lighter weight side of things. Final build weight came out to 26.5# as pictured. It's the Butte 100 bike for me this year and I wanted something fun yet still light enough to get me over the 15,000 ft of climbing. So when ventana announced the release of a new "light weight" 650b with shortish travel I was all over it. I personally really like the feel of the very active single pivot design....traction is a premium and typically ventana's are super stiff when leaning into them while cornering hard. I like bikes like this.
so.....to enhance the build we focused on a light and wide set of wheels. In this case, the new Industry Nine Torch hubs (240g rear, 126 front) and laced these to a set of Pacenti TL28's (390g) and finishing them off with Dt Swiss Supercomp spokes and aluminum nips.
On top of this we rounded out the build with some parts from companies that we really like....Sram X0 derailleurs, Shimano XTR trail brakes, Chromag handlebar, saddle, and grips.
i'm thinking this years hundy is going to be about as fun as it could possibly get. From the perspective of a Butte 100 rider and hopeful finisher.