Renovo Bikes, the premier manufacturer of hollow frame wood bikes, has more than doubled its production capabilities with an investment by Texas businessman Al Spinks, which has enabled Renovo to ‘meet the resulting sales demands of its change from custom to production frames’.
A centrepiece of this change is a state-of-the-art five axis CNC router. The planning and installation of this complex machine took six months. According to Renovo, it has since dramatically increased production capabilities. Renovo is now building-to-inventory instead of building-to-order, meaning the time from ordering and shipping is reduced to just a few weeks.
Beginning as a customer that simply wanted his bike to be delivered faster, investor Al Sprinks called Renovo Bikes Owner and President Ken Wheeler to learn how he could help speed the process up — to which Wheeler playfully replied, “bring money.” And over the following week Sprinks flew to Renovo’s shop in Portland, Oregon, to see the full operation of making wooden bikes.
“As a long-time cyclist, I’d been following Renovo for several years and was blown away by the size of their operation, their technology, and of course, the performance of their bikes,” Spinks said. “I immediately made the decision to invest upon seeing their state-of-the-art machines, tools and configurations in-process and watching their new designs come to fruition. And with this production-bike capability boost, our partnership becomes even more exciting and rewarding.”
Renovo is steadily stocking its inventory shelves with gravel, road, mountain and urban models, with the brand’s sights ‘keenly set on its ever-broadening horizons’.
