Thursday, January 16, 2014

Garrett Rauck: Looking Out | Week One








Author: Renovo Bicycles
Location: Manufactured in Portland, OR; sold worldwide

Renovo Bicycles consists of a close-knit group of dedicated individuals with no prior training in woodworking. Instead, they are engineers and designers with a passion for bicycling who chose to use wood for their products because of its excellent properties.

Prior to modern technologies for wood fabrication, a hardwood bike would have been inconceivable due to the excessive weight it would carry. However, digital fabrication tools have allowed Renovo to create hollow wooden frames, resulting in bikes in the same weight class as aluminum, steel, and titanium bikes and just as durable. Wood also provides for a superior ride since it absorbs vibrations better than steel, aluminum, or carbon, giving a smoother ride. Finally, wood is sustainable. The fatigue life of wood exceeds steel or aluminum, and it ultimately approaches carbon.

It is amazing how we left a seemingly obsolete material behind by advancing our technology, only to return to that material once again with a greater ability to manipulate it. Technology continues to redefine what is the full potential.


Cheers.
Garrett Rauck


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