: I recently came across a company by the name of 'Renovo Bikes'
: based in San Francisco and it gave me an itch to make my next
: project a wooden framed bike. After all, everyone with a strip
: kayak needs a matching bike for their car roof right? Anyway, i
: know as little about bike building (or serious road bikes in
: general) as i did when i started building my first kayak (night
: heron, pics to post soon). Does anyone know a good source for
: information on bike building such as this forum for yaks?
: Any/all info to help me kick start this project is greatly
: appreciated. Check out their website, simply
: beautiful/functional artwork. http://www.renovobikes.com/

: Thanks!
: Damian

I don't have information on internet forums on wooden bikes but I recall my father speaking of the one he had as a youngster, and once came across one in a museum. It was part of a display with a penny-farthing, the wooden wonder, an early steel bike with butt-welded frame (yes, that came first) then a slightly later frame with butted joints - much easier to manufacture - and a 50's era welded (buttless) steel frame, with alloy bars, wheels, brakes and other gear - similar to the one I had as a young man. The museum did not have the entire development cycle with alloy frames and later composites - no folders or recliners either - but what they had were all on the ground and accessible, even the penny-farthing.

I shamelessly brailled the wooden -framed bike, which also had wooden-wheels - it was far lighter than any of them except for the 1960's job. Looking at the P-F and imagining getting on and off one, and the challenge of performing an emergency stop, showed me as nothing else could why the familiar modern bike configuration was initially marketed as the "safety-cycle" . . .

I did not take a pic of the woody - sorry - but I recall noting with an engineer's eye some clever engineering particularly suited to wood, as opposed to metal construction. If you want to do the kind of stuff that Renovo do then fine, but the way it was done in the 1890's or thereabouts is much more suited to amateur construction. If you want get get a handle on that kind of construction I suggests you start with a round of the museums, armed with a good camera, a tape measure and perhaps a pair of digital callipers.