Peter Oosterlinck and his brother, Tom, are steering their third-generation family business, Achielle, back to the front of the continental peloton. “When my grandfather Achiel started building frames in 1946, there were about 250 companies in Europe doing the same,” says Peter. “By 2000, there were only four.” The cause of this decline? Cheap Asian imports of steel bicycle frames. Rather than go toe-to-toe on price, the Oosterlincks changed gears, deciding to construct entire bicycles using high-quality European-made parts and accessories, including Brooks England saddles and Busch & Müller headlights from Germany.

“We went from making 30,000 frames annually and supplying some of the biggest companies in Europe to only 800 bikes in 2007,” says Peter. “I didn’t pay myself a salary that year.” Today, Achielle builds and assembles about 2,000 bikes annually and is part of a resurgence of European manufacturing that places quality over cost. “Bikes are becoming more luxurious so we’re aiming to have a bigger turnover while making the same number of units,” he says. Achielle brazes and welds all its frames in its atelier in Pittem, West Flanders.

It even powder-coats parts in-house, allowing clients to choose from a palette of 30 colours. “Twenty years ago nobody wanted a brightly coloured bike,” says Peter. “Now cyclists want their bike to fit them not only in form but also in style.”
achielle.be

Read next: These €70,000 bikes are helping German athletes to make faster tracks