Introducing Buena Onda Bikes: US-Made Titanium Mountain Bikes

It’s always exciting to see friends and folks from the community put their best foot forward with new projects. Buena Onda is just that, a new bike brand founded by two friends from Durango: Mark Gomez and longtime website contributor Colt Fetters. Buena Onda [bwe.na own·da], meaning “good vibes,” a phrase popularized in Latin American surf culture, launched today with a flagship Durango-made titanium hardtail available as a frame or in one of several builds.

Buena Onda is built around locally made ideals. Their bikes are welded from US-milled grade 9 titanium tubing in Durango by John Siegrist, who started DEAN Bicycles in his garage in 1989 and has been welding bike frames ever since. They also used several other Durango businesses to bring these bikes together, including local branding artist Dryside Design Co., Revolution Jewelry (who designed and fabricated the head badge), and the company that makes their vinyl masking. Their custom Buena Bars are even made nearby in Albuquerque by Doom Bars.

Buena Onda Bike

According to Buena Onda, their flagship hardtail is a lifetime bicycle designed around a versatile geometry with plenty of mounts so it can be transformed into whatever you want it to be: a bikepacking rig, trail riding MTB, gravel grinder, or grocery-getter. It has a relatively large frame triangle for a generous frame bag and a reach long enough to accommodate some swoopy alt bars. According to founder Mark Gomez, who I happened to meet riding the Buena Onda prototype on the Wilson’s Ramble this past fall, “It’s the only mountain bike I need. From after-work rides to weeklong excursions, this is the bike I reach for every time.” Here’s the geometry chart from Buena Onda:

The Buena Onda bike has a nice set of specs that include sliding dropouts, a T47 bottom bracket, clearance for 29 x 2.6″ tires, and plenty of mounts. Here’s the full list from Buena Onda:

• Optimal Fork Travel for Suspension Builds: 130mm
• Rear Hub Spacing: 148×12
• Bottom Bracket: T47 Threaded, 73mm
• Dropouts: Paragon Sliding Dropouts: comes standard with traditional dropout except for Transmission build. See all additional dropout insert options here (available separately).
• Seatpost: Straight Seattube, 31.6mm ream, 34.9 Collar
• Cable Routing: Single port, non-driveside, internally tubed through downtube and externally routed under chainstays
• Bottle Mounts: 2x bottle cages in frame, Triple bottle cage mounting on downtube
• Rack Mounts: Lower rack eyelets on dropouts standard on all frames: frames can utilize a rack mount seat collar for upper compatibility (optional)
• Headtube/Headset: 44mm Headtube, ZS44/28.6 EC44/40 Headset
• Max tire clearance: 29 x 2.6″

Ordering Buena Onda Bikes is a little different than your average bicycle manufacturer. According to the company, they operate on a small batch, “community supported bicycle” model. Here’s how they describe it:

“Starting a bike brand is an expensive endeavor. The bicycle community is about the strongest community we’ve ever known, especially here in our hometown of Durango. What we’re doing isn’t all that different than community-supported agriculture (CSA). Farmers need money to get started, so they sell their crops in advance. As for Buena Onda, we’ll be putting out small batches of bikes every quarter. To get a bike, you’ll put down a 50% deposit, then when the bike is finished, we’ll send it to you. By supporting our brand via this ordering process, we’re offering low introductory pricing as a reward for helping us get off the ground.”

The Buena Onda bike is available now for pre-order for $3,350 as a frame, and builds ranging from $6,000to $7,350. Each comes with a five-year limited warranty on the frame. Find details over at BuenaOndaBikes.com.

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