Photo submitted by Wendy Skean, “After I saw the Renovo bikes on Bikerumor I dreamt about them.
Then I had to have one. Now I don’t want to ride anything else.”
Wendy Skean is a 65+ year old endurance racer, we saw her riding in the Breck Epic a few years ago where she retains the title of Oldest Finisher and came in 4th in the 50+ age group. We love Wendy, she IS Bad-ash!
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@Robin, just to name a few: the bottom bracket shell would break free from the frame, head tube separation due to improper grain orientation and frame splitting (as in straight down the middle along the glue joint). Oh, and they had to recall all their mountain frames a little while ago because the steer tube would break free from the head tube. Not exactly what I want to happen as I’m riding down the trail.
@Derf, I don’t know if it’s just sad or entertaining when folks are so eager to display not only a stunning lack of knowledge, but to state unfounded opinion in an authoritarian manner. However, slandering someone’s product in that mode is well, well it’s downright unfriendly, if not suspicious.
1. ‘the bb shell would break free from the frame’. We’ve built some 300 frames and that has never happened, period. It’s called engineering, Derf. And testing. We’ve tested many, many frames to destruction, (pic on our website) and it takes some 3000 pounds (the weight of my Volvo station wagon) pulling down on the bb to break a frame, but we’ve never failed a frame at the bottom bracket, and boy have we tried.
2. Frame splitting, oh no! Sorry, engineering stopped the nasty frame splitting problem before it ever happened too. Fortunately we don’t solicit advice from forums because we’ve found that engineering works so much better than opinion. But since you brought it up, I’ll tell you how the head tube fails; it’s when we pull down on the bb with a load equivalent to a 15g impact for a 200 pound person (now that could kill you there, Derf), that’s the 3000 lbs suspended from the bb shell again. Oh, and it’s not glue Derf, we use epoxy.
3. Every frame we’ve tested to failure has failed at the head tube. That’s because the 1” steel bar we use in place of a fork pries the head tube off as it moves away from the frame just as a fork moves on a bike when loaded. Even then, it takes around 10 minutes for the failure to occur at 3000 lbs. (By the way, most carbon or steel forks fail at around 1000 lbs)
4. Ah yes, the famous recall of all of those frames, now that was just awful. Over a year ago we recalled the very first five (5) mtb frames that had been shipped because in ongoing testing we failed a (1) frame. We then tested the rest in production and none failed, and none had failed for customers. Nevertheless, we recalled all five (5) frames we had shipped and replaced them with a revised head tube attachment. None have ever failed outside of our testing.
5. So, since you only named a few, Derf, go ahead and lay the rest on us. I’m pretty busy, but I’ve got time for you…
Regards,
Ken Wheeler, founder of Renovo
@Ken Wheeler, nice response to the troll. The frame is absolutely beautiful in person. A picture cannot do it justice. I have been preaching the gospel of single/rigid to her for years. It took your work of art to make it happen, and now I am not sure we will get her back on the Siren except for bike packing. Cheers.
@Derf, you obviously like to represent your self as some sort of subject matter expert and that is just sad. Folks have their paradigms about how things are and then there are those people who are willing to explore alternatives to the norm and that is greatness is discovered. I purchased a pre production frame and I received a phone call telling me to return it as I was opening the box it was in, it was a beautiful frame so I didn’t want to return it but I did. About a month later I got the production that frame I now ride daily. I still have a Yeti and a Trek, but I only ride those around the neighborhood anymore, because when I want to ride hard I ride the Renovo, which btw is almost every day since last July. I have ridden it at Mountain Bike Oregon and a 24 hour race and I am soooo not worried about braking this frame that when I see irresponsible comments like yours, it annoys me. I weigh about 195 lbs and I have broken frames before, but not this one, being it a 29er, I have more issues with rims than anything.
As an independent Mfg Engineer I can tell you that before going into production almost any product out their has flaws, that is why things are prototypes with Quality and Volume validation. Otherwise product would be as flawed as your opinion of them.
The bottom line is that wood is a great material for a frame, when designed in the right package, smooth, quite and tough, oh and looks great too.
Derf- have you bothered to visit the Renovo website? Ken designs and builds airplanes, so I’m pretty sure his engineering is sound. Also these frames are not solid blocks of wood carved into bicycle shape (well actually they are), they are monocoque frames – hollow inside. The wood grain has been oriented with the same care they use in manufacturing carbon fiber frames, giving strength and flexibility in the exact location and direction it is needed.
I have a couple of Renovos (1 roadie scum bike, 1 badash trail bike)
I’m riding them all over the place, and the badash is my #1 race bike this year. I am loving it so there’s nothing but smiles from me so far. My Mojo is sitting in the bike rack for now (BTW, i’ve seen a BB drop out of one of those). Thumbs up guys.
Al
Trolls should ride bikes, not keyboards.
