Jason West's Ventum Tempus

Triathlon Forum
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Originally published at: Jason West’s Ventum Tempus - Slowtwitch News

After arriving in Lahti last year feeling like he was ready to push for the podium, Jason West ended up getting sick and not even being able to start the race. It was one of the few down points of a stellar season that included wins at Clash Miami and Ironman 70.3 Los Cabos, along with podium finishes at Ironman 70.3 Oceanside, the PTO US Open and the PTO Asian Open.

He’s back for another go at the 70.3 Worlds, but arrives in Taupo after a self-admittedly tough season. West spent much of the first half of the year fighting through injury and pain, and after taking a long break halfway through the year, has been steadily building back to his 2023 form. While most of the pros here in New Zealand are yearning for a break after a long season, West would love to keep things rolling.

The 31-year-old American will hit the course here in Taupo on the new Ventum Tempus.

“It’s been awesome to be on the new bike,” he said. “I think they did an incredible job with it. It handles really, really well … the responsiveness of it. It feels more like a road bike, which is great, ’cause you get on your bike and you feel like you can whip around corners. You feel really connected with your bike, like it’s almost an extension of you.”

West has also been impressed with the new bike’s front end – “it is super adjustable and super clean, and they are continuing to develop more things to provide extra reach and bridges to get bottles in the right place.”

West has tested the new bike and his position in the wind tunnel – “we know we’re fast,” he said.

FRAME: Ventum Tempus

COCKPIT: Profile Design Wing ultimate 42cm w/Asc pro

HYDRATION: Profile Design HSA/800 EVO and Profile Design Hsc250 gel bottle

DRIVETRAIN: SRAM Red 2x, 165mm cranks, 56/43 chainrings, Quarq Powermeter

WHEELS AND TIRES: Swiss Side Hadron Disc and 80mm front with Continental GP5000 tubeless tires

SADDLE: Wove V8 and what we hear to be a prototype cage from Wove.

PEDALS: Wahoo Speedplay aero

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Looks like it was developed with ideas, but not tested. for example, there is too much gap from frame to wheel for both the front and rear. Also, that top tube bento is intended to go behind a stem and is a sail. There are others available that will work better.

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That wing ultimate looks great… Kind of excited for that in general

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I see you potentially missed this sentence:

West has tested the new bike and his position in the wind tunnel – “we know we’re fast,” he said.

I would hazard a guess that they tested with all of those elements that you speak of and still came out with that. Obviously anecdotes are not concrete data, but nobody’s publishing a full white paper these days so…here we are.

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Surprising lack of seatpost showing… I wonder if he had to size up to achieve the required reach. I had to do the same on a Speedmax and it’s not ideal (for me).

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Says how clean the front end is, but mounts the bta and blips in a super ghetto way

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I said this when the bike was released around Kona and I’ll say it again. Why didn’t they include any top tube storage? Ventum sponsors long course athletes and primarily targets long course AG’ers with these bikes. Why not include an integrated/aero storage solution? Similar to what Factor just did with the release of the new Slick.

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Yeah, he went to a wind tunnel with the finished bike to get ‘fast numbers’. Here are my biggest problems here:

  1. The original Ventum One is a radical design, but ended up testing slower than most/all.
  2. They’re switching to a traditional double diamond, and borrowing some great ideas, but may be missing out some big ones. Gaps from frame to wheels, top tube storage, not dropping the seat stays, etc…
  3. Their website mentions their bikes are ‘aero optimized’ and ‘born in a wind tunnel’, but share ZERO data.
  4. I was very interested in the NS1 (in the market for a new road bike) because it looks great and is a decent price, but I don’t want to take the risk of it being an aero dog. I know a lot of this is splitting hairs, but dropping $5-7k+ is a big deal, and I wanna know I bought a fast bike.

For direct to consumer, QR shares wind tunnel data on their road bikes, and Canyon has been tested by Tour Magazine for years, and proves it’s very aero (sure, one can argue the German bias).

Not sharing any ‘aero’ claims is not good enough anymore.

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There are no other top tube boxes afaik that are a flask that takes away the need to mess around with gel packets. So the slight penalty of the square front hitting the wind is clearly outweighed by convenience.

And he stated that he knows there are more bits coming that will sort out the bta mount. I just need to make sure that happens.

As far as ventum not releasing data. When was the last time we had a credible white paper? Most brands just say it’s ‘x watts faster than our old bike’ and often x is just the decrement from the leaders, like the speedmax.

Of course I’d prefer to see all bikes launched with a comprehensive comparison to market leaders in a variety of configurations, but that costs a lot. I do know ventum have a bunch of pro athletes coming on board and some of those will be testing so we may get more data in time.
I can say that the basebar is the fastest PD has ever made according to cfd. As are the extensions. Can’t do real world testing yet as all the basebars are going to ventum at this stage. Once production ramps up hopefully i can organise something.

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What is your problem with it?

Jeroen

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2:13:37 fast (+14:46). He ran really well though.

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The 2:13:37 is a respectable AG time, not a pro time. There’re guys around place 40 among AG overall that rode faster.

Certainly Jason can run like almost no other, but nobody’ll buying Ventum based on his performance.

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He was out biked by every pro except five, and about 50 or 60 age groupers. Plus he got chicked by Knibb too. Different days but still.

Maybe he had an off day. Maybe the new bike stinks.

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Is there a better integrated BTA bottle mount with the PD front end? Jason’s setup seems rather clunky and very 2012.

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So who’s on board now:
West
Philips
Brandon
Beals
Laundry
others?

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this is the time of year these things get flushed out.
I suspect several athletes will be on new bikes in the new year.

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He got a 5 min drafting penalty.

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So the new bike only partly stinks? :wink:

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Haha what bike do you ride?

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The commentators did not make this known, but Jason received a five minute penalty on the bike.

Even without that penalty, his bike was not competitive at the current level of 70.3, but it explains things a little bit. I was impressed with his bike split at Las Vegas, and he was on the same Ventum frame.

Having checked out that Ventum in person, with my choice of any TT frame available, that is the one I am personally planning to use for the below build that will be on display at the Wove expo (and I’ll race):

  • Ventum Tempus frame
  • Evolve Slipstream aerobars
  • 172.5mm crank - Wattshop or 3T Torno
  • 58t ring - Dirigit (but maybe Aerocoach because the chain stays on a 1x metal ring better than on carbon teeth when in the 36-44t rear)
  • PM - SRM on Wattshop or Look pedals w/ Torno
  • Red XPLR etap AXS
  • XPLR XG-1271 12s 10-44 cassette
  • Evolve trispoke wheels (deep rear)
  • Wove V8 TT+Tri saddle

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