# Ventana/MRP Fat Tandem Forks Pics



## Ciclistagonzo (Dec 10, 2001)

I know a few of you may have heard about Ventana getting together with MRP to produce a Fat Bike Fork that is also Tandem rated.
At the recent NAHMBS Ventana debuted the fork, albeit in 36" form!! Yes those are 36" wheel/tires for their other project Dirtysixer bikes.

But it does give you a first look at the clearly wide set Triple Clamps that Ventana is producing for the MRP forks. I believe Sherwood stated that in this configuration it was 100mm of travel and for Fat Bikes/Tandems it would be 120mm of travel.
















Just in case you were curious, this is what a size XS Dirtysixer looks like. The XS is for folks 6' - 6' 3" or so. ie the whole concept is bigger wheels for extra tall folks.


----------



## davidfrench (Jan 25, 2011)

Thanks Aaron! Indeed awesome work from Sherwood on these triple clamps.


----------



## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

It's great that Sherwood is building the crowns for these forks, though I wish they'd gone with the Dorado as a base fork as it is a lighter fork (6.5#) and far more adjustable, ie higher performance damping and travel adjustable.

The MRP is a very heavy fork (7.5# plus the addition of wider crowns, so likely ~8#) and inverted, damper is pretty basic, and although it has a triple clamp, it will have torsional flex unlike what you might get with a typical fork. 

There is also the Wren fork, an inverted single crown fork that weighs 5# and can be had in 110, 135, and 150mm widths, with travel/A-C options from 80-150mm. MTB tandems has been installing the Wren on the El Jefe and so far there have been no complaints.

I run the Wren on my fat bike and am about to add one to my El Jefe. I had an initial damper failure out of the box, likely due to miss-assembly. The damper is very effective and should be really great for tandem use. The ability to adjust A-C without a major rebuild or additional cost is awesome. The travel can also be limited without changing A-C.

These are all inverted forks, kinda cool!


----------



## Ciclistagonzo (Dec 10, 2001)

Ben, All valid points, but for Ventana, a super small boutique builder, Manitou/Hayes won't work with them directly, where as MRP has always been good about small specialty runs. So you work with what you can.

One thing to note, I'm not sure what damper is being used, since I noticed the Ventana/MRP has the piggyback reservoir on the right leg, that I do not see in the Groove pics on MRP's site.

-A


----------



## TandemNut (Mar 12, 2004)

The Dorado guts don't play well with tandem weight teams. We have one here we've worked with, but the spring rate is way to steep when aired up for proper preload. Manitou isn't nearly as good as MRP for working with us little guys on such projects.


----------



## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

Just added a Wren 110mm Travel fork to the El Jefe. 

I had plans to drop it to 90mm of travel using the 20mm spacer (a 10mm travel reducing spacer is in the works), but I decided to try it at 110mm and see how it rides. I also swapped to a 45mm stem, so now the cockpit it nearly the same as my Mutz.

Bench test impressions: Stiffer than a Bluto, no stiction, good dampening control, looks burly.

No ride impressions till later this week...


----------



## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

Ciclistagonzo said:


> Ben, All valid points, but for Ventana, a super small boutique builder, Manitou/Hayes won't work with them directly, where as MRP has always been good about small specialty runs. So you work with what you can.
> 
> One thing to note, I'm not sure what damper is being used, since I noticed the Ventana/MRP has the piggyback reservoir on the right leg, that I do not see in the Groove pics on MRP's site.
> 
> -A


Where are you seeing a "piggy back reservoir"?

All I see is a stanchion protector.

I'm assuming that change the damper, running heavier oil.


----------



## Ciclistagonzo (Dec 10, 2001)

Nurse Ben said:


> Where are you seeing a "piggy back reservoir"?
> 
> All I see is a stanchion protector.
> 
> I'm assuming that change the damper, running heavier oil.


On the full side shot zoom in on the right stanchion at the bottom. The silver chamber is the piggyback.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

Ciclistagonzo said:


> On the full side shot zoom in on the right stanchion at the bottom. The silver chamber is the piggyback.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Okay, now I see what you're talking about.

So that's odd, why would they want an external damper?

Apparently it is standard on the Groove 200 because it shows up on picture of the Groove shot from the right side.

At $1279, plus MRP custom damping and travel limiters, plus Ventana custom clamps, this is gonna be an expensive fork!


----------



## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

Has anyone got a time frame for when these forks go live?


----------



## Ciclistagonzo (Dec 10, 2001)

Nurse Ben said:


> Has anyone got a time frame for when these forks go live?


Not sure but I will try to find out.


----------

