With any cursory glance around a typical local bike shop — with all the carbon fiber and aluminum hanging about — you’ll quickly realize that Renaissance Bicycles is about 20 years behind in terms of technology.

But that is not necessarily a bad thing.

In fact, we would say that it is the one real difference between our business and your LBS (okay that and we don’t sell kid’s bikes, helmets, water bottles, floor pumps, or even do regular repair work.) Instead, we hold to the idea that steel is still the best all-around material for making, customizing, and long-term enjoyment of a bicycle.  And we recognize that steel has one inherent quality that the others lack … the ability to flex enough to accommodate a variety of drivetrains.

Furthermoreover, and this is where things get a little tricky, we do believe there have been some solid improvements in components and drivetrains in the last 20 years. This is why we mostly use new components on our custom bike builds. This provides the benefit of time-tested designs that have steadily evolved over the past decades.  Not only are the components lighter, they also improve the overall reliability of a bike, and make it more enjoyable to ride.

Sure, there are some aspects of modern components and accessories that have gone too far towards favoring the “club racer” where durability is sacrificed, but this just reiterates our original point … that classic steel (especially lugged steel) frames allow for us to have our cake and eat it too. Want a classic 3-cross wheelset on a Campy 11-speed drivetrain? How about bar-end shifters managing an all black compact drivetrain? Even a 650B setup on a “race” bike is possible.

In other words, we are blissfully unaware of the latest technique in carbon fiber lay-up or aluminum hydro-forming processes, and we hope to keep it that way for many years to come.