Ventana El Gordo Fat Bike with Rohloff Internal Gear Hub, Gates Belt, and Rock Shox Bluto Fork

Meet the Ventana Mountain Bikes USA El Gordo fat bike in Team Blue Sparkle that we built for a customer in New Zealand. This customer came to us looking for an adventure bike to take him off the beaten path, far beyond the limits of where traditional mountain bikes can go. Because the large tires on a fat bike would allow him to pedal through terrain and riding conditions that push the limits of where bikes can be ridden, he needed a drivetrain that was up to the task as well. He came across our Ventana El Gordo fat bike packages built around Rohloff's fat bike-specific SPEEDHUB XL 500/14 internal gear hub and Gate's Carbon Drive belt system, which are well suited for the adventures he had in mind. He got in touch with us to discuss a build tailored to his needs. He customized his build with a suspension fork, dropper post, and the largest tires available for the best all-terrain performance. As outfitted, his new fat bike is ready to ride through anything, will require little to no maintenance, and will keep him free from worry over mechanical setbacks. 

Ventana El Gordo Fatbike with Rohloff SPEEDHUB XL and Gates CarbonDrive belt

We were very excited when Rohloff called at the start of the summer to tell us they were sending us a pre-production sample of their new fat bike-specific SPEEDHUB XL. We had learned they were considering producing this 170mm wide hub only a few months prior, and now prototypes had already been built and tested and they were on to a pre-production run. Our sample hub showed up a week later and we marveled at how it dwarfed the standard SPEEDHUB 500/14.

The only problem on our end was finding a frame to use to build the new hub into a bike. Since we don't get snow in the San Francisco Bay Area, we planned to set the bike up for trail riding, which has become an increasingly popular use for fat bikes. This meant that the bike would be getting a suspension fork and dropper seatpost. It also needed to be belt drive compatible since we prefer the maintenance-free aspect of belts.