The fire roads of Northern California is where, according to scripture, mountain biking was born. Who can't name a good dozen members of the We-Were-There-On-The-Repack club? Some of them were truly inventive, and (in a quite familiar story of human success) some simply had the good luck to be in the right place at the right time. But being there during those days seemed to have one effect on all present: Almost all pursued careers in the manufacturing sector of the bike industry. It was as though taking one of the first bomber runs down Mt. Tam made them feel blessed with the inside skinny about what would and wouldn’t pass muster on the trails of the rest of planet Earth. And, indeed, one or two of them spent years innovating and became wealthy for it. But generally speaking, the inventive ones sold out long ago and now serve as corporate figureheads, many languish in a perpetual state of hazy-to-lost focus, and the rest moved onto greener pastures altogether. The real story is this: If you want to assess the current value of northern California to mountain bike culture, our advice is to quickly genuflect to those tales of the birth of the sport and then steer your attention to a new generation of minds intent on yet again re-inventing cycling as we know it.

Leading the way of the new northern California braintrust is Ventana Mountain Bikes, based just outside of Sacramento. As though they're aware that they live in the shadow of the heritage of the Repack crew, their frames are groundbreaking in design and living proof of an engineering axiom: Obsessiveness begets results. Measuring up to the legend of this legacy is what pushes them to constantly re-think the limits of mountain bike technology. One ride on the trend-setting suspension of El Saltamontes, or one long look at the jewel-like elegance of El Chiquillo will prove to you why Ventana owners are such a zealous breed.

No matter which Ventana suits your riding style best, there are certain qualities shared by every model. Every aspect of Ventana production is completed in-house to ensure absolute manufacturing integrity. They build their frames from custom drawn 6061 aluminum tubing -- double-butted where weight savings is permissible, straight-gauge where toughness is required. Suspension innovations aside, one major ingredient behind the ride quality of a Ventana is the way in which its raw tubes are shaped and manipulated before ever being touched by a welding torch. It’s a tedious, difficult, yet essential production step that sets a Ventana frame noticeably apart from a frame made of stock tubing. All of the CNC work, too, is done in house, which is why the small, yet vital bits of their frames look and function flawlessly. Take a look at the suspension linkage, the dropouts, and the cable stops -- few other purely functional things in life have such intense beauty.

Perhaps the most outstanding detail of Ventana's commitment to complete in-house production is their "Electric Sex" welds. Mountain bikes are often considered rugged beasts of burden in comparison to lithe road bikes. As such, many mountain bike manufacturers feel like they can get away with rough, heavy industrial-looking welds that would never be tolerated by a road connoisseur. Rest assured, when it comes to welds, Ventana lives up to a road standard. Combine these welds with the incandescent powder coat paint applied to every Ventana, the end result is a frame whose beauty is an equal match for its ride.