Back in April, I got a text from Nils Nilsen at Ventum about their new gravel bike coming out. Little did they know that Ventum was already on the list of companies I was interested in calling to see if they wanted to roll the dice with our new video format review series.

I have always been curious about Ventum over the years. They certainly made a large splash in the triathlon world, and they seem like they had made some headway as they moved into road bikes. I assumed they would be doing a gravel bike at some point. When I got a text from Nils after my first review of the Argon 18 Dark Matter, I sent him a screenshot that Ventum was on my list.

The arrival of the first fleet was supposed to be at the end of May, which turned into end of June and that turned into July. Bikes are pretty popular these days! And with the factories all having gone through COVID-19 shutdowns, the industry (and the world) is still playing massive catch up.

Finally I got a text: “The Bikes come in next week.” I hopped in my van and headed up to Ventum’s HQ in Heber City. Six hours later, I had watched the complete build process of the bike, got the lowdown of some of the minor changes the bike would have on the production run (mostly paint and cosmetic modifications), eaten an amazing burger for lunch, signed my release waiver, drank a Red Bull, and I was off down the canyon with a fully built lilac “pink” Ventum GS1 and many adventures waiting for me.

I won't go into any more details here because I talk about it in the video. The only thing I don't cover is the geometry of the bike. Why? Because I’m not an expert on it and Ventum has all the geometry charts on their website.



I know I enjoyed the time on the bike, I'm pretty sad to have to give it back.