The Pandurban by Renovo

The Panda is Seriously Green

The Pandurban: A Four Season Commuter

Why Laminated Bamboo?    The ride is nearly as smooth as suspenspension --without the weight. Of all the materials we’ve worked with, laminated bamboo has the smoothest ride of all—perfect for a commuter, and with shorter chain stays, ideal for the fixie and sport bike too. While not as stiff as the hardwoods, bamboo is nevertheless ideal for recreational bikes; stiff enough, strong and lightweight, it's a superb natural engineering material. But when laminated into planks, it’s stronger, tougher and stiffer than the stalks from which it’s made, and flaws in the original stalks are eliminated. Moreover, with our computer aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM) process, we can precisely tailor wall thickness and tube shape to control ride quality.

The Pandurban is different from the custom Renovo frames in several ways:

1. It is a complete bike, sold as equipped.
2. Available only in laminated bamboo, not wood.
3. The top tube and seat stays are straight, not arched.

Our thoughts on commuter style bikes:

Some folks think commuters should be cheap, disposable bikes. Not us. Why? Because we, and most folks we know in Portland, commute, shop, explore, tour, and play on bikes. Some of us have cars, but they're seldom driven, even when it snows, and never because of rain. For us, a day-in, day-out commute should be as reliable, capable, bullet-proof, good-looking and fun to ride as we can make it. A ride on a daily commuter in particular should be anticipated pleasure every time. But wait, that defines all our bikes.

Anyway, we don’t necessarily believe bikes are sacred or anything, but we do believe there can be a close personal relationship between a bike and its owner, especially when the bike is required to be 'ol reliable' every single day. So we build embraceable bikes.

So, what's a Panda then?

• Butter smooth: Bamboo delivers a stealth-quiet ride, the smoothest this side of suspension; but without the weight penalty. Actually, it’s a little better than that, there’s some other, still undefined quality that that will bring a smile to your face when you ride. Honest.
• Crisp, responsive handling is not sacrificed for the smooth ride; a remarkable feat brought to you by laminated bamboo... and our designers, of course.
• Lightweight! Surprise, the Panda’s hollow frame usually weighs no more than an equivalent bike of man-made materials.
• Tough! The Panda frame will survive impacts far better than frames of butted aluminum or steel, or carbon.
• Green? Oh yeah!

Made On Our Side of the Ocean:

Some of our workers get bored and just lay down on the job...

Panda’s are made in Portland Oregon.

 

The Pandas are Seriously Green (with no apologies for performance)

• Bamboo is arguably the most sustainable resource on the planet.
• Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world.
• Bamboo is critical in the fight to end global warming; it absorbs nearly 5 times the amount of greenhouse gasses while producing 35% more oxygen than the same amount of trees.
• Bamboo is 100% biodegradable.
• Obviously, laminated bamboo has a greater carbon footprint than tubular, but not by much, and its superior performance outweighs the penalty.
• Man-made frame materials aren't even in the ball park.

The Pandurban: A Commuter in Two Versions