Renovo Hardwood Bicycles

New Renovo Bike Frame Gives Bikers Wood

Aha! I get to review a review. MJ had emailed to ask if they could photograph a Renovo for the front page of a bike review article. We were deep in the process of building 7 other bikes and didn't have a spare, so we had to build one in a rush. Fine. It had to be shipped to New York, and since we went to all this trouble, I suggested a ride review with the others. They agreed and did so.

So, after they'd had it for several weeks, I emailed the test rider to ask how he liked the bike. He wouldn't disclose the contents of the review, but he wrote back, "every time I ride it I smile and I'm not sending it back until my editor forces me".  Off to a good start.

After reading the review, I was a little dismayed, first with a misquote, then a comment that doesn't reflect our experience at all. Well anyway, here are the salient quotes, the good first, of course:

"It's pretty, but how does it ride?" "Damn well"  

"...It can hang with carbon-fiber rivals." 

But then, in a little stand-out box off by itself:

"Renovo claims wood is as stiff as aluminum or steel" Ok, you know they meant to include 'pound for pound'. (This has been corrected on their online review).

Next:

"we noticed flex at the bottom bracket on climbs and sprints"  Ok, maybe their rider was a gorilla and it flexed. But a number of experienced competition riders (up to 185 pounds) have ridden that very bike since it was returned, and every single one is impressed with the stiffness, which is nearly always compared to carbon.  See the frame stiffness tests.

And finally:

"Still, the Renovo is just too pretty for constant pounding" This one I'll take to mean that it's too pretty to harm. Well, yes. But of course so's a Specialized Transition, but you can pound the heck out of it, as you can with the Renovo. And yes you can put it away wet and dirty after a ride, but would you? Anyway, the bike takes constant pounding just fine, and the prettiness doesn't wear off.

Portland Spaces Magazine

A Renovo R1 was featured as a ‘Great product for life and home’ in the January/February premiere issue of Portland Spaces magazine, a magazine of design and architecture. They described the bike thusly; ‘as light, durable and rideable as carbon fiber but exudes the grace of a handmade boat.’ Thanks PSM, we’re stealing it.