I can think of a dozen good reasons why you would want to buy a wooden bike (ride quality, superb stiffness, environmentally friendly, etc.). My reason to buy one was different though.
My parents run a custom wooden furniture building company for as long as I can remember, called DW Meubel. When I was a child I spend countless hours in the workshop, looking at furniture being built and building my own (mostly silly) things. Although I never really got any good at it, I did develop a passion for wood craftsmanship during my childhood. That is why, when I first came across a Renovo wooden frame online, I knew I had to have one some day.
Whilst I am very passionate about the things my dad builds, he isn't exactly thrilled about the bicycles I build. That said, he was very excited when he saw the Renovo wooden frame for the first time. In the picture below you can see him holding the frame in the workshop. Maybe we should combine our skills and try and build a wooden frame together some day.
Recently I picked up a rather special Pearson Weka time trial frame. The frame was made by a builder from New
Zealand called Pearson, who is not in business any more. The design is based on the mountain bike frame, built by the same company.
The wheels that came with the frame are
'Elite-Shape', which I believe was a Russian (USSR) company that also
made kevlar disc wheels. The wheels look quite fascinating and have seen
very little use. According the previous owner Jan Svorada took these
with him for the USSR.
I already managed to find an ITM Dual CX handlebar that looks very nice with the frame. The seatpost and the saddle on the pictures are just two items I had
lying around. The frame requires a 27.0mm seatpost and the only one I
had available was a Suntour Superb Pro. The saddle is an Ultra Pro, made
in France. I believe it is the same as the ones made for Corima.
I just finished uploading pictures of all the Eddy Merckx frames I have sold over the years onto my Flickr account. These include MX-leader, Corsa, Corsa Extra, Strada, Pista, Lo Pro and many more models. Go ahead and take a look:
[url]https://www.flickr.com/photos/quality_vintage_bikes/collections/72157633199178136/[/url]
Here are a couple of teasers:
I just finished uploading pictures of all the Colnago Master frames I
have sold over the years onto my Flickr account. Any self-respecting Colnago (Master) enthusiast should really check it out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quality_vintage_bikes/sets/72157633198472249/
I will be adding more pics of other Colnago models and more information about the frames in the coming days.
Here are a couple of teasers:
You may have already seen these wheels on the latest build of my Renovo R1 bike, but for some reason I forgot the take some pictures of the wheels on their own up until now.
The wheels feature H Plus Son's beautiful 23mm wide polished Archetype rims, ultra smooth Dura Ace 25th anniversary hubs and snowflake spoke lacing.
In case you are wondering if low tubular rim with tan tubulars look good on every bike, the answer is yes!
I
got a chance to buy a pair of Tune Mig Mag / Ambrosio Montreal tubulars
wheels with Vittoria Corsa Evo CX tires glued on (prototypes from
Rabobank) that I plan to use in a couple of races I have planned for
this spring. This will be my first hands on experience with tubular
tires, so I am really looking forward to it.
Here are some pics of the bike in it's new setup. Enjoy!
Sanomagic makes very special bike frames, but not nearly as nice as Renovo. What sets them apart from Renovo though is that they do all wooden bike, including forks, stems, handlebars, saddles and ... wheels! I might need to get a pair of these wheels someday.
