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MOAB TESTING: VENTANA EL CHAMUCO XDREAMTRAIL (XDT)

This is the bike that we chose for our current Moab rentals, for very good reason. When taking into consideration price, strength, handling, suspension action, lateral rigidity, and especially cosmetics, the El Chamuco XDreamTrail is certainly the best value and possibly the best performing among the many fine bikes we offer, especially for Moab's specific challenges. But we cannot sell it. Read on to get the dope.

THIS "LITTLE DEVIL" TAKES ADVANTAGE OF PROGRESSIVE SHOCK VALVING TECHNOLOGY

The first climb up Sand Flats Road reaffirmed just what a progressively damped Romic shock is really for. I never liked Romics' performance on Horst Link or ICT four bar bikes because they "burp." By this I mean that a certain frequency obstacle will send the shock through all of its travel and bottom it out on a relatively gentle bump, causing the next bump to be very harse INDEED. This is certainly caused by the initial progressive valving circuit that resists bobbing effects of rider weight inputs that when combined with the compression ratio of certain four bar bikes (not Ventanas, by the way) causes the shock to collapse on itself. The Romic has long been used to mask the fact that frames claiming to be without bob, bob like hell. If a bike is designed to pedal efficiently, then it should not be equipt with a shock that is designed to counter rider weight shifts or small inputs. The shock feels a moderate bump happen, and all of the sudden it lets go. BAM. It is a very annoying feature of this particular shock on non-Ventana four bars, BUT, on the El Chamuco single pivot design, the Romic is perfectly matched to the qualities of the linear stroke of the swingarm. It resists bobbing effects of pedaling motion, and works smoothly when the bumps happen. No burps, no complaints, just perfect suspension action from a simple single pivot. Wow.

To start out the initial climb on the XDreamTrail El Chamuco I dialed in compression and easily pedaled up the steep pavement in the big chainring out of the saddle. I got a bit winded, shifted down into the middle ring, and sat down and spun for a while to recover. The transition was smooth, effortless. I stopped and diddled with the brake levers, shifters, slid the saddle back and raised the seatpost a bit. After this initital adjustment all I did was tweak with damping on the fly for the demands of terrain. The bike fit me like a glove, balanced and working like a Swiss watch.

When at last I hit the slickrock, I dialed out the compression, adjusted the fork and shock rebound and within a hundred yards of the parking lot I knew the bike was working right for the undulating rock. The Chamuco was built up to a similar weight as other bikes I am used to, but for some reason it felt much lighter. This is probably due to the low center of gravity. There is a similar effect when riding the La Bruja, so I suspected it had to do with the lower bottom bracket and the fact that the bike carried the majority of its mass very low. I was climbing a lot faster than on other bikes I toy with. I was pleasantly surprised by the agility, perfect fit, and dialed geometry. Wow, again.

Ventana El Chamuco in Moab, Utah

MORE "WOW" AND SOME "HOLY SHIT!"

Yes, this bike so laterally rigid and balanced that it responds to a thought. I hate to have to say it, but for Moab terrain, this bike may be better than most of the non-Ventana four bar bikes. The bottom bracket and slack head angle keep it from being the ABSOLUTE PERFECT MOAB BIKE, but who cares, right. This bike has the handling that people are looking for when they dig through the long travel fun bikes that can pedal. Frankly, the last of the Ellsworth bikes in our fleet were doomed after building this particular Ventana El Chamuco with this grouppo. The Chamuco made me realize that lateral rigidity is truly the Holy Grail--the vessel Jesus rides.

THE CHAMUCO EXCELS IN SAND AND ANY WHERE BODY ENGLISH IS NEEDED

Ventana El Chamuco in Moab, UtahI ride a lot of sand to get to remote rock, so I purposefully headed for a deep sand pit and a few transitions that go from steep rock to sand and back to steep rock. The Chamuco XDT demonstrated that it could travel over sand as well as, if not better than, all other bikes in our fleet, even with narrower tires. Weight shifts have a much more dramatic effect on the way this particular bike handles, and because of that amazing Superlink pedal forces are not wallowed out by side sway in the rear end. If my front tire dug in I could recover instantly with a shift to the back of the saddle and a quick thrust into the pedals. Only once did I have to put a foot down when I put too much weight forward. After a while I found this mistake could be corrected so quickly that I could actually come to a complete halt, shift my weight back, push down and stomp of the pedals to get a grip and torque out of the sand bog. After a failed attempt at a wheelie on level ground, I made minor adjustments to preload and compression settings on the rear shock and found that sagging the rear about one third into the shock's useable travel allowed me to wheelie the bike much more effectively over ledges and weight the rear of the bike for even more effective sand pedaling. The geometry is so dialed in these situations that ledges and sand were attacked without worry. I managed to pull myself out of some very tight and dangerous situations as I became more and more confident in the bike's capabilities. Its turning radius is as tight as a tick on Rover's back--rock solid and trustworthy.

SINGLE PIVOT COMPROMISES ~ CHAMUCO NEGATIVES

TLBB4M Too Low Bottom Bracket 4 Moab---yes, my pet complaint. El Chamuco's handling characteristics are somewhat based on a low center of gravity which partially comes about through the low bottom bracket height. I cannot raise the BB with a longer shock. Increasing preload and compression keep it high, but at the expense of suspension plushness. A longer fork creates a much too slack head angle for my tastes, so with the El Chaumco I am stuck with the BB height. I will go with 2.4 tires to get another half inch off of the ground. The effects of the lower BB were really felt on surfing runs at Paddle Out, my favorite testing spot pictured here.

Ventana El Chamuco in Moab, Utah

I was banging cranks in situations where banging cranks could be very serious indeed, so I adjusted my pedaling style, as needed. I don't like to do this, but it worked just fine. I had to think about it though, and I don't like to think. It uses energy that I need for my legs. I like to ride through shit. Of course, if this is the only situation where the Chamuco is not absolutely fantastic, . . . then why complain? It is a fine handling machine, and maybe I have to just shut up about the TLBB4M deal. Most people don't find themselves balancing on the outside of a 200 foot high basketball made of sandstone for a living, so it is a moot point for all but those who want to pedal through large rocks, or over logs.

Another negative that may be of concern for some riders is the head angle. I measured my personal Chamuco at 65.5 degrees. Some may consider this freeride-inspired head angle too shallow for slower, tighter riding, but, like the weight of the bike, the numbers are misleading. The bike feels more like the headangle is around 68-- not too floppy. This is certainly due to the fine balance of the rig overall. A short stem helps.

Of course, single pivot bikes do have inherant quirks when it comes to braking and pedaling. A single pivot lessens the complications of rear suspension, allowing for a more rugged platform with less maintenance concerns, but this comes at a price. Pedaling torque effects in the small and large chainrings were almost completely eliminated by the Romic, so much so that I can honestly say that this bike pedaled as well as the four bar bikes we offer, except for a tad more pedal kickback over sharp bumps in certain gears. The rear end's Superlink stiffens the bike so effectively that there is not a hint of side to side movement under power or when the bike is torqued and turned in a tight situation then hammered to escape exposure. The bike actually pedals BETTER over uneven terrain than former and current non-Ventana four bars in our fleet.

In really rough situtations where you have to grab a handful of rear brake over stutters and loose rocks, I experienced chain drop in specific gear combinations. I quickly learned to adjust to this by keeping the chain line straight. Of course, chain growth is always a factor with a single pivot design--hence the pedal kickback. When building the bike I make sure to have enough chain to compensate for a stupid shift into the big to big cog cross gear. After that I pay attention to trying not to cross the chain when barreling through the stutters. Sure, that "chain growth" is going on, but the derailleur does have a spring in it. Big deal. There seems to be enough clearance back there to keep the chain from bouncing onto the swingarm and making a racket. The 2002 XTR derailleurs and Race Face rings shift without complaint. The chain stays on the rings as long as I think about the gear combo prior to a fast stuttering descent. Under torque, no problem at all. Braking on a single pivot DOES stiffen the rear suspension, causing the rear to skip a bit over those small bumps. On the singletrack in California this effect was noted on roots in some situations, but on the rocky terrain of Moab it is absolutely not a problem, even in the most extreme situations. While at the Ventana factory, and after my first ride on a Chamuco (built by others), I discussed this aspect of the single pivot design with Sherwood Gibson who was in the process of designing a floating brake for his new downhill frame. I thought, "Maybe I can convince him to piggyback the engineering to include an optional floating brake for El Chamuco." If this was done, I would be willing to say that this particular single pivot bike could conquer every riding situation thrown at it as well as any linkage bike, maybe even better. As it is, El Chamuco is the very best of its kind, superior to all other single pivot bikes by virtue of its perfect pivot placement, its linear spring rate, rock solid rear end and stunning looks. It is superior to the majority of the four bar linkage bikes out there in almost every regard, even without a floating brake.

I guess you could say that I like this bike and the frame!--a lot. It is hard to find fault in a bike that feels this good, even if, on paper, single pivot flaws are expected. I ain't riding the damn thing on paper. I am riding it in Moab where the trails are tough and the qualities of El Chamuco's solid construction excel.

FOLLOW UP RIDES

Since I have fallen in love with this particular bike, I have been using it to guide with over the past few days. Just today I used it to teach a skills clinic, repeatedly riding up and down really rough trail. The most shocking feature of this bike, as I have said before, is the fact that it feels a lot lighter than it's 33 pounds--A WHOLE LOT LIGHTER. Everyone who rides it comments on this slight of hand magic trick. It may be due to the low center of gravity, but I suspect it is because all pedal effort goes to the rear wheel and all handling effort is transfered directly to the tire patch. This bike is so stiff that it shoots forward with every pedal stroke and responds positively to every weight shift.

Sherwood Gibson visited Moab in early May to help us with our Spring Skills Clinic, riding one of our Chamucos the entire time. Within a few feet into the first ride he clipped a knee on the front cable guide and remarked that he was going to have to tighten the spacing to keep the guide more in the middle of the tube, away from knees, something I had pointed out to him before the ride. Since I ride bikes with triple clamp forks, I automatically point my knees out a bit without thinking about it. I never had this problem, but you might, and my wife did. Of course, it will only happen once. It seems that knees have a brain. Once they get whacked, they don't want to have it happen again.

THAT BOTTOM BRACKET THING: As you probably know already, I love a high bottom bracket. The El Chamuco is low enough for me to whack a pedal every now and then. The bike handles so well, is so responsive and stable, so light under rider input that I could be willing to compensate for the lower crank arms with a slightly more cautious pedaling style. This bike is so much fun that I would be willing to let it dictate how I ride it to some extent, if it were to be my main rig.

EL CHAMUCO CONCLUSIONS

If I were a civilian, I would buy this bike and be extremely happy to have it. El Chamuco may not be the perfect bike for tight singletrack, though it certainly is capable of handling it effectively in a pinch or two. I give it a B+ on the tight, steep, and twisting stuff--going down. It may not be the most efficient pedaling or braking platform, though it certainly feels like it is as efficient as more complicated designs I have tested. Give it an B+ on pedaling efficiency. It may not be the most expensive bike we offer and that means we cannot sell it. After a year the A+ in the looks department went down to a B due to ano fade. It gets A+ in the value per dollar column, and another A+ in the quality construction department. It may not be backed up with a ton of lies and faked-out reviews in bribed-out magazines, and it may not be the featured fat lady in a huge marketing campaign designed to make idiots effected by printed smoke and mirrors buy the bike. I do think it may be the most unsung, perfect machine that ever got canned.

El Chamuco (built right, by the way) sings to you on the trail and never complains or whines, dives or stinks. It is ridiculously simple to maintain and operate. It can do just about anything you ask it to do, and I have no doubt that it can do huge drops, too. If you are looking for a bike to drop off of cliffs, though, do us all a favor, and drop dead. You would be missing the point with this frame. It is a hardcore handler's bike, not a flopper's chunk, though it can handle the stupid stuff, I am sure. Which is why we cannot sell El Chamuco. It is out of the price range of most snot nosed whippersnappers.

All of El Chamuco's abilities and capabilties add up to the best bike for anyone's dollar Dreamride offers. The Dreamride Chamuco XDT is especially suited to rough XC terrain, a bike that is extremely versatile, and wanting to jump or wheelie drop at a moment's notice. If you are leaning toward a more All Mountain bike, then the DREAMRIDE MUTANT is now available for those who are looking for the absolute best quality in this category. Read on for more info, or click on the link.

After reading the initial reviews of La Bruja, El Saltamontes, and El Chamuco builds in our fleet, Sherwood Gibson remarked, "OK, you have tried three of my frames and you like every one. What does that tell you?" I had to reply, "It tells me that I like your frames." I more than like this frame, but alas, it is history. If you want one, there are a few left and we have them on sale.

Sincerely,
Lee Bridgers, co-owner, chief guide, beer glass washer and bike builder
Dreamride LLC
Moab, Utah

P.S. After a few months of renting the Chamuco, I have to admit that the cable routing on this bike sucks. Everthing else is near perfection.

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