Renovo Hardwood Bicycles

Wood, Craft, Technology

First, you should probably forget what you 'know' about wood;

...because even woodworkers rarely have experience with the methods, materials or many of the wood species we use. And the word ‘wood’ itself is meaningless, because until we identify the particular species, we don’t even know if it floats (17 species don’t), let alone has the stiffness, hardness, and other properties required for a bike frame. And the few species that have those properties aren't usually found in the local lumber yard. Comparing a utility-grade 2x4 stud against two of our woods, Satiné and Bubinga, reveals the difference; Satiné is nearly 6 times as hard and Bubinga is 5 times as stiff. Because of these and other properties, special techniques and cutting tools are required to work with many of the woods.

Consumer wood products are not engineered for light weight and high performance, nor are they joined, fastened or finished to endure challenging outdoor conditions and high loads, so knowledge of wood based on commonplace wood products is no more relevant to a Renovo frame than it is to other high-tech, all-wood structures like: a 350' laminated wood bridge in Norway, the magnificent 154' wood yacht Scheherazade, and the Falco all-wood 200 mph airplanes. These modern engineered applications of wood are designed to last a lifetime in highly stressed, adverse conditions.

The Renovo frame does not face the stresses or continuous outdoor exposure of bridges, boats and planes, but we wanted to make it just as tough while retaining it's beauty and performance. So we combined their state-of-the-art adhesive, sealer and finish technologies with our cutting-edge (heh) wood manufacturing technology, to produce a bicycle frame that will endure a lifetime of hard use without the problems of consumer-grade wood products.

More tech details of the Renovo at Wood. Seriously.