wicked wrenching customs

In the winter of 2005 I was working in a bike shop in the inner suburbs of Sydney, but was not really happy there. I was on the showroom floor selling, which I have never really enjoyed. Sometimes I would be in the workshop building bikes, but the owners thought I was a good salesperson, so time on the tools was at a minimum. They also had some strange views on selling tactics, and myself and other sales staff had to sit through seminars on aggressive sales techniques that made me feel cheap and nasty, I imagined us all being like the cast in Glengarry Glen Ross, the loser with the lowest sales will have to go.

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My former employer and mentor Jeremy phoned out of the blue and told me that he had just started managing a store close by in Burwood. The owner David, had plans to revitalise the shop- adding new signage, brands and some fresh faced staff. Jeremy had told Dave he had some people already in mind. Would I be interested? You Bet! I handed in my notice the next day which made my current bosses quite displeased, especially when they found out where I was heading. They saw it as an unfaithful act heading across to the competition, and refused to write a reference that I could add to my CV!!! I knew then that I had made the right choice.

 

David had an excellent eye for brands, and wanted all of them to be available in his shop. At one point I counted 22 different brands on the showroom floor, which must have been fun for Jeremy when the invoices arrived. Two brands that really stood out at the time were Ellsworth and Ventana. I liked the Ventana more as the welds were finished nicer and the machining on the yoke and rocker plates was impeccable. We were the only Ventana dealer in Sydney, and It was our job to market the brand locally, so we decided to build up some exotic examples to take to races and events hoping to raise awareness.

 

We were given two El Saltamontes frames. Jeremy had a Lime Green one that he built up as a XC/ marathon race bike and I took a Alpine White one that was going to be a bit more aggressive trail. I asked Ventana to send me some extra long rocker plates so I could up the rear travel from 4" to 6". The Fox 36 forks and DH air rear shock were quite new to market at the time as well. The rims and saddle were urban camouflage, which really set off against the white.  Hadley hubs, Chris King Titanium headset and Answer Protaper bars, Thomson stem and post. XTR was used for the drivetrain, and the XT M755 brakes were added as well. I really miss the 755 brakes, I think they still are the greatest brake that Shimano has made to date, both in looks and feel, especially when paired up with Goodridge lines like this bike had.

 

The finished bike looked unreal, and rode like a bat out of hell. It was the first bike I had owned with that much travel, and I referred to it as the 'monster truck' - capable of simply running into and over anything in the way. It was also a big hit at the race track, people would come over to our tent and immediately gather round it, asking questions about the build and asking for a test ride. It helped us sell more Ventana bikes thats for sure. 

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One afternoon I found out that the monster truck did have it's limits when charging over obstacles. I was riding home from a friends house when a car came barreling down and out of the driveway onto the street. No time to react and bike and I found ourselves going straight into the side passenger door and crumpling it in half. Both the driver and myself were very apologetic to each other, and decided to not involve the police and insurance companies for certain reasons. The bike seemed ok as I rode it home, but upon closer inspection I found that there was a nice bulge and overlap in the downtube where the butting stepped down. I was shattered.

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The bike was stripped, and I sold the remains of the frame to someone in South America for parts. Years later I was visiting an online forum and saw that the frame had been repaired and was still in regular use! If only they knew what that bike had crashed into...