Unless you are a bicycle enthusiast, you probably don’t know that wood could be an awesome material for making bicycles. Yep. You heard right. Wooden bikes and the beauty of Aerowood Endurance Bike coming from Portland-based bicycle maker, Renovo Hardwood Bicycles, is it does not even look it is made of wood – thanks to its clever design and engineering. Billed as the first hybrid wood and carbon frame, Aerowood Endurance Bike is engineered to absorb more vibration and delivery a smoother ride than what wood and carbon alone could.
Renovo Hardwood Bicycles, who has been making bicycles with hollow wood frame since 2007, made an interesting revelation: hollow wood frame has higher level of vibration of absorption, four times more to be precise, over carbon and many times more over any material of similar stiffness. I know right. Who would have thought wood could be the answer to vibration absorption. Most makers would invest in high-tech materials that are born out of racing, never looking back at the nature for answers, but this Oregon company did. According to the company, the hollow wood frame has a the “highest ‘stiffness to smoothness’ ratio,” and therefore delivering a comfortable ride.
The company’s latest model, Aerowood Endurance Bike, is an all-American handcrafted pedal-powered two-wheeler that is a followup to the original introduced back in 2013. It boasts features like an elegant hollow frame construction of Wenge and Curly Maple, structural carbon fiber inside the down tube, FFSVD (full-frame shock and vibration damping), internally routed brake cables, electronic shifting only, full-range of seat height adjustment with 27.2 mm seat tube, lightweight wood aero seat fairing over the seat tube, handset/steerer tube (1 1/8-inch internal/straight), and 25 mm tire clearance – just to pick out a few…
However, all these exquisiteness comes with a matching sticker: expect the frame set to hit you will with $5,495 bill and a full build could run you back at anything upwards of $9,995.
Images courtesy of Renovo Hardwood Bicycles.
Submitted via TIP US Page.
