Wooden RENOVO R1 road bike

[prendrefeu]

If only you could have a wooden fork.
Or somehow paint that fork to match the frame.
That would make it "complete" because right now the fork, in black, is the only thing that is not in sync.

[mrfish]

Veneer for the fork? Or a bonded wooden shell for the exterior?

I preferred the wooden rims. The snowflake stuff is for hipsters.

[BeeBee30]

What a shame the stem is only available in a -10 degree angle, it looks a bargain.

This week I could finally pick up the new stem for my bike. I really needed a new one, since the old one was a bit to long for my back. However, because I wanted something special it took a while to get it the way I wanted.

The new stem is a Spin Monolithic titanium stem. I my opinion the stem itself looks great and it is about the cheapest titanium stem available. I was not a fan of the bulky faceplate though and of course it had to be polished to match the look of the other components on the bike.

The company I asked to do the polishing for me, was also able to drill a hole in the faceplate the size of the Spin logo. In my opinion the end result looks great.









@GramStrong: thank for the tip.

[SWijland]

Since my last update I have done some serious mileage on the Renovo. The best miles were during the Marmotte GranFondo last weekend. For those of you who don't know the Marmotte: it involves riding over the Col du Glandon, Col du Télégraphe, Col du Galibier and the Alpe d'Huez, which is saying something.

Climbs during the Marmotte were pretty tough, mostly because I did not want to change the original DA crankset for a compact or triple. That is why I ended up climbing every mountain on a 39 up front and a 27 in the back. Descending on the other hand was great. The bike just seems to want to accelelarate all the time, which led to some tricky situations in a couple of hair pins. Fortunately I was on aluminium rims, which provided perfect braking performance.

Here is a nice picture of me on the bike climbing the Col du Galiber.

[leosantos]

I like this bike even better in action, great view and angle on the pic as well!
btw, what's up with wearing gloves? 3 guys in that pic w/out it..

[Roeboe]

I saw you on Alpe d'huez, hmm, that bike looks familiar...

[SWijland]

You must have been riding up the Alp a lot easier than I did. The only thing I saw when I was riding up the Alp were black spots, lots of them . Man that last mountain was a tough one!

[Roeboe]

You must have been riding up the Alp a lot easier than I did. The only thing I saw when I was riding up the Alp were black spots, lots of them . Man that last mountain was a tough one!

It was on wednesday before the marmotte, i even said to you i recognised your bike...

[SWijland]

Ooh wait, now I remember . What a small world we live in.

[jerade]

What happened to your wooden rims? You said something like damaged...

[SWijland]

In Spring I rode the Liège-Bastogne-Liège GranFondo with the bike when it still had its wooden rims. The weather conditions that day were terrible (rain, snow, etc.). Because of these conditions lots of sand from the road surface was able to get between the brake pads, essentially making them function as sanding paper. When the rims dried up after the ride, the rims showed some serious wear marks. Cerchi Ghisallo refurbished the rims and they are currently on route back to The Netherlands.

[jerade]

Really said. But I guess that would also happened with carbon rims.

Next time, don't ride bike in bad weather...at least, with your woody.

Cheers!

[bikemaniack]

You should be interested
http://www.bikerumor.com/2012/07/19/bik ... -galibier/

[SWijland]

I was already a big fan of Bikerumor.com and now even more

[SWijland]

The mailman just dropped of the refurbished Ghisallo wooden rims. Either they did a tremendous job refurbishing the rims, or they just sent me new ones.

I plan on selling them, so if you are interested then let me know. They make a great dry weather wheelset, but switching wheels for dry or wet weather just isn't for me.