Estonia, a small country within the USSR, was particularly famous for its production of household appliances. Its sound equipment was always “sold out” to the Soviet republics. There was a queue for them; people signed up and were on duty at night under the stores, hoping to become the owner of such an everyday “miracle.” Such a high appreciation of the company’s products was deserved due to their high quality and very beautiful design, which was given special attention in Estonian production. But with motorcycles in the current country, everything was not so successful. Its history in this direction is rather modest.
An attempt to create their production was made twice – in the 30s of the last century, the development of which was hindered by the war, and then in the XXI century, local engineers wanted to return the country to the title of motorcycle manufacturer, trying to revive the brand, which ceased to exist 70 years ago. Thanks to them, we can say that Estonia has become a country of one brand – the only producer of two-wheeled machines, which preserves the country’s status as a country that has the right to be considered one of the European motorcycle manufacturers.
Renard
Such an original name of the brand was acquired thanks to the logo – the graceful face of a chanterelle. The founder of the company, J. Lään, was a fan of everything French. In Tallinn (Estonia), he opened the production of bicycles with engines based on the frames of French bicycles, including the “tandem” version. The company became known as Renard Cycles. During the German occupation, the production of the first motorcycles, which started before the war, continued. They sold well to German officers. But a direct bomb hit in 1944 halted the work without any further restoration. In 2008, a group of Estonian enthusiasts decided to revive the brand by recreating the Renard GT prototype in its modern form.
The brand’s logo is a stylized “fox,” formed by an inverted isosceles triangle with smoothly rounded corners and a slightly downward curved arc-shaped line in the upper part, forming “ears.” The color is a gradient steel silver. The interior gives the impression of volume. In it, it is really possible to guess the shape of the fox’s face, which has closed its eyes, which is strengthened by the black-colored figure resembling the letter “V,” decreasing in thickness towards the bottom, visually creating the appearance of the animal’s nose. Under the sign, there is a text – the name of the Renard brand in black color. Below it is the inscription in very thin letters – “MOTORCYCLES.”
