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About WOOdman Components

The hands that moves WOOdman

What takes a person to establish a company focusing on quality products and advanced technologies?
Passion, Devotion and Determination.
These qualities are evidenced in WOOdman’s founder, Philippe Van Houtte.

Born in France, Philippe showed interests and talents in mechanics and design at an early age and decided to devote himself to bicycle innovations. He built his reputation nation-wide for custom-made frames and wheels. In his early twentieth, he developed several components, such as aerodynamic handlebars (known as bar ends now), clipless pedals for MTB, disc brakes, double stage transmission, which were featured in American and European magazines. These inventions were considered “avant-garde” (radically advanced) at that time and later became standard equipments in bicycles.

After working for some of the best known companies of the bicycle industry, Philippe started his own in 1997 in pursuit of manufacturing quality products with intelligent design. With his many hands-on experiences in all aspects of bicycle business, Philippe not only understands the demands of bicycle riders, he also knows how to make good ideas come true. Now he is the soul of WOOdman products, the problem solver for manufacturing, and the hand that moves WOOdman into one of the fastest growing bicycle components manufacturer in the world.

WOOdman’s Product & Development

WOOdman products cover most of the bicycle component demands. Currently there are more than 15 product families and 20 product lines.

Currently you can find WOOdman components for HEADSETS, HUBS, FRAMES, FORKS, STEMS, HANDLEBARS, BARENDS, SEATPOSTS, BOTTLE CAGES, PEDALS, SADDLES, DISC ADAPTERS, HEADSET CAPS, QUICK RELEASES, FENDERS, CHAIN PROTECTORS, TOOLS and others.

WOOdman products are renowned for their light weight and toughness. It’s because WOOdman uses the best materials available for its products, such as carbon fiber, aluminum, and titanium. WOOdman develops products based on different requirements for different use. Therefore, riders can always find the components according to his needs and riding style.

WOOdman Factory facility

WOOdman Factory

When asked why WOOdman manufactures its products in-house, Philippe said, “I am from an engineering background and from early on I had been working with machines. I believe that it’s the best that we manufacture in-house what we design, for we do not rely on other companies’ quality management. Because quality is easy to promise but never easy to achieve, and I want our quality to be the mark of WOOdman products. Performing quality control in-house also gives us an extended possibility for advanced product development.” All WOOdman products are shipped from its own factory located in the “bicycle town” - Taichung, Taiwan. The factory is equipped with CNC machines and advanced testing machines, some of which are inventions of Philippe’s. All products that are key elements for safety concerns are tested following, and often exceeding, the highest standards in the bicycle industry. For example, when a seatpost requires 100,000 times of heavy pounding on the testing machine, WOOdman sets its own standard at 300,000 times. Most WOOdman seatposts actually sustain that torture all the way to 500,000 times and the new Carbo OF plus seatposts even reach 1,000,000 times, which is 10 times more than they require! When asked “why setting such high standards?” Philippe says, “Because most testing standards are not actualized as fast as the sport progresses. I don’t think anybody in the test lab took into consideration the development of Free-ride or even trial, not talking about just how much faster X-country riders or roadies are going today compare to that 10 years ago. We do test almost everything, for example we are one of the few companied in the world testing our bottle cages.” The unique testing machine has been developed in WOOdman’s factory to make sure all WOOdman’s bottle cages are ready to be used even in the most abusive conditions. It also allows WOOdman to learn a great deal about what happens to a bottle cage while riding proceeds and helps to develop some of the most innovative design, some of which were granted a patent.

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WOOdman’S Signature Products

DBS HEADSET   Dual Bearing Headset
DBS (Dual Bearing System) is WOOdman’s revolutionary design for headsets using 2 stress-specific bearings to handle different kinds of loads efficiently. The headset performs much more smoothly and offers trouble-free operation. That’s why WOOdman’s patented DBS headsets are the world’s cycling champions’ best choice!

PIONEER CARBON BOTTLE CAGE carbon bottle cage
WOOdman, if not the first, is one of the earliest manufacturers of carbon bottle cages. WOOdman’s patented design provides toughness while carbon fiber construction make them light weight. As small details as the screws, WOOdman uses 1-gram Lite Screws to make sure that even the screws don’t weigh you down. But WOOdman doesn’t stop at Carbon fiber and some new design with innovative material will be available early 2006.

ELITE SERIES FRAMES – UNIQUE OF ITS KIND
The first of all frames packed with fun and pleasure, eliTe frames are "toys" for riders who seek fun. In other words, eliTe is created for the pleasure that both a CROSS COUNTRY frames and a TRIAL frames can bring. EliTe possesses the combined advantages of both types of frames: the ease for riding even on long distance, incredible cornering ability, climbing like a dream, etc… EliTe series frames can be assembled in a lot of different configuration (from purely X-country, to trial, through urban assault or even light free-ride) it always performs at its best. EliTe are available in three sizes: eliTe for regular-size riders and/or riders looking for a more “extreme” use, eliTe ML for tall riders who enjoy X-country and eliTe S (available early 2006) with a shorter handlebar reach for petite-size riders, such as women. All eliTe frames feature 400 mm RC and remain low stand-over while the length of top tube provide comfort for long rides. EliTe frames can be assembled with almost any brakes available today from disc brake to Magura® HS or Canti/V brakes with WOOdman’s optional HS11 adaptor. All eliTe frames have a huge tire clearance that allows you assemble those huge comfy tires you have been dreaming of. The tire clearance also offers more mud clearance for those who love these winter rides.

INTELLIGENTLY STRONG CARBON SEATPOST
WOOdman knows the weakness of most carbon seatposts, so rings are placed at strategic spots inside the tubes. This intelligent technology not only prevents the deformation of the carbon tube in the clamp area, it also stops the carbon fiber from delaminating in the head area.

FUNKY SPIKY PEDAL
Spiky Plus pedals are made for those seeking pedals of devil-like tracking power. The concave design and 48 spikes let a rider get the best hold of the pedals while the strength of the axle and bearing allow rider to enjoy the excitement of the extreme riding without being weighing down!

2014 ALLOY HANDLEBAR
WOOdman MTB handlebars are all made with the same tough aluminum 2014. When you know it is also the material of choice of the best motorcycle handlebar manufacturers, you imagine the rest!

Winning with WOOdman