Guest Poster: Jeffrey Jantos
Oh the Places You’ll Go!
Hi I’m a fellow Bike Dad and this is a guest post review of my favorite bike to ride, Ventana’s full suspension TANDEM, El Conquistador de Montana’s, ECdM for short. These bikes are not well known; the reviews on them are decades old, and certainly not geared towards the modern rider with kids. So I’d like to share my personal experience over the past 3 years, because they are a great solution for parents who ride.
I’ll admit I always thought tandems were pretty LAME until I met a couple who owned an ECdM and absolutely ripped on it. It got me thinking if I could rig this for my kids (and they liked it), it would ultimately mean more quality ride time for me. Not to mention a few other side benefits like sharing my favorite hobby with my children, burning up their endless energy, teaching them to suffer in the saddle, and of course post-ride fro-yo!
I have 4 kids ages 3-12 and I have been a mountain biker for almost 25 years. I learned on a full rigid hardtail on the techy trails of New England, spent a dozen years in the Colorado Front Range where I wrenched while in Engineering school, and now call the rowdy trails of the Central Coast of California my home where I recently started up a small shuttle business. Did I mention I have 4 kids? These days if I want to get more than 1 ride a week, one of them has to be hauling at least 1, if not 2 kids while possibly chasing the 3rd.
Ventana’s basic full suspension tandem design has really not changed much in the previous decade other than a few minor upgrades to maintain compatibility with current component standards. What does this mean? It’s a tried and true workhorse with many traditional “couple” teams putting thousands of miles into their bikes at “super-Clydesdale” levels of abuse. Which means for us dad’s with lightweight kid stokers, it’s more than strong enough to be ridden on any terrain that you’re comfortable riding with your kids. Ventana’s current model ECdM advertises itself with 102 mm of rear travel and up to 140mm of front travel. You can get it in 27.5+ 29er, or even 26+ configurations with a 12×142 spaced rear end stock. You can also get a 12×148 Boost rear end as well as custom geometry too if you ask. Or even a non-suspended fat bike version called the Gran Jefe. Sizing wise they come in several combo’s of captain/stoker seat-tube lengths. Stoker TT length does not change across the range, so you will want the smallest stoker size (14) paired with whatever fits your captain size. With crank arm shorteners I have fit kids as young as 5 on the back of a 14” stoker-sized “ShredSled” and we were able to ditch the crank arm shorteners around age 8. Hurray for increased stoker pedal leverage and power!
Depending on build kit, brand spanking new you can spend anywhere from $5,800 to 10k, or just like any other new high-end bike these days. However you can also find them used on the MTBR/Pinkbike forums or the tandem classifieds in the 2-4k range. My first tandem was a 10 year old ECdm with a 100mm front fork. I quickly discovered I hated the shorter travel fork and happened to have a Dual Position 140/160 Rock Shox Lyrik in my garage. Swapping to this fork made a huge difference in downhill stability while still keeping the bike close to “stock approved” geometry while climbing. While it’s not officially sanctioned, there are a lot of ECdM’s out there with 150-160mm travel forks and I personally wouldn’t ride it any other way. If your local terrain is more rolling and you put higher priority on “cross-country” riding and sharper steering then shorter travel may be better for you. The other major modifications I made were modern wide handlebars for leverage to throw around a school bus sized bike, a captain dropper post, 2.5” wide aggressive tires, and a rear wheel tubeless conversion with Schwalbe’s ProCore system. In particular the ProCore tubeless conversion is a must for riding with kids on our trails. When climbing our combined power output vs the miniscule stoker weight over the rear wheel requires us to run 13-15psi in the rear wheel in order to maintain traction. When going downhill there’s no way to ride light on a tandem, you just plow through everything, and if we didn’t have the ProCore protecting the rim and keeping the beads seated we’d have instant tire burps when drifting around corners and destroyed rims in minutes. The final kid specific mod was getting rid of the grips on the stoker’s handlebars and just wrapping them with a couple layers of cloth athletic tape. A child’s small hands will fatigue very quickly by trying to hold onto grips that are too large. Make it easy for them.
My current tandem is the ultra-rare El Testigo. About a decade ago Ventana made a limited quantity of a long travel DH tandem that was well ahead of its time and really beyond the capabilities of dampers and shocks of that vintage. Ventana agreed to swap out and slacken the headtube to a modern tapered unit so I could run 180/150 Dual Position Lyrik up front. A Fox DPX2 controls 150mm of travel in the rear and we roll on 2.8 tires. For most bikedads this is completely excessive but given our rowdy local terrain and my plan to race Enduro with my son it’s PERFECT for us. FWIW, there are reports of people bumping up the ECdMs travel to 5”using rocker arms from Ventana’s other bikes. They don’t endorse this and won’t sell you one, but maybe if enough people ask, Ventana will reconsider or you can sometimes find them on eBay.
So what’s an FS tandem ride like? Freaking awesome, that’s how. It’s a true head-turner and everyone out on the trail automatically thinks you’re awesome. Which you are, because you out there shredding with your kid. If you have good technical riding skills, there’s almost no place you can’t ride an ECdM, especially downhill. Super sharp hiker-style switchbacks are really the only trail features that require a mandatory dismount and occasionally taller obstacles where you might get high-centered, or very technical climbs. Steep rocky ledgy drop-ins and chutes are easy on a bike with a 72” wheelbase because it’s almost impossible to go over the handlebars. Plan your corners wide and well because your rear wheel is going to take a completely different line. Not as big a deal if descending, but can be a show stopper when climbing. Also your stokers feet are timed to yours which means you have to avoid pedaling their feet into rocks. Sometimes it’s unavoidable but it’s also another technical skill you’ll learn by necessity (OWWW DAD!) And of course it’s a great workout. Mileage wise on a 2 hr ride with my 10 year-old son we cover maybe 60-75% less ground but I’m still getting a 100% workout and my son is covering 400% of the ground that he’d get to cover otherwise. He’s now also doing longer rides on his own bike and I can ride with either 1 or 2 nonpedaling pre-schoolers on the bike. Two is an absolute sufferfest and I can’t keep up, but 1 is a perfect handicap and we can get out there and dragrace together with the 4-year old talking smack the whole time “Go faster! I want more Gummies!”
It should be obvious, but start small and don’t overwhelm your child with a multi-hour death march on super scary terrain on your first ride. Bring lots of fruit-snacks, candy, and whatever else you need to help motivate them along and don’t be stingy with it. Stop often and then offer rewards for making it around the next big corner or to the top of the next big hill. And don’t forget the classic tandem rule “The Stoker is ALWAYS RIGHT.” Build their trust, be safe, have fun exploring, and you’ll have a great teammate for many years. And of course always finish with post-ride ice-cream.
If you’re not in the US or not yet convinced, check out Guy Kesteven’s enthusiastic review of his German made Nicolai enduro tandem. The Spanish brand MSC also makes a stock full-suspension as does Calfee and Da-Vinci in the USA. MTB Tandems in the US are the go-to online experts on off-road and gravel tandems but your local shop may be able to help you as well. Jackson and Rose Green designed and built their own tandem frames and are the gold-standard for pushing the limits of what’s possible racing the enduro and downhill circuits in New Zealand. Follow them on Facebook for some incredible pictures and videos and you can follow us on Instagram @bikechurchshuttles .
