Starting a bike company in 2026 might seem a little unhinged. The market is still weird. Shops and distributors are still sitting on inventory. Riders have options. And yet here comes Baumier, a new Montreal brand betting that some cyclists still want something built closer to home, with a smaller footprint and a clearer story.
That story starts in Montreal, where Baumier is making its carbon rims, carbon tubes and complete bikes in-house, or as close to in-house as it can manage.
“What makes us different is really the base and the ethos and the vision of Baumier,” said Benjamin Grenon, who handles business development and marketing for the company.
As their marketing material states: “At Baumier, we want to build a high-performance bike that will last for generations. And we want to build a business that is sustainable and transparent, and puts people first.”
Baumier officially launched last year with wheels. Its first complete bike, the Baumier B01, is set to launch April 10.
Made in Montreal, not just assembled there
That local angle is the hook.
Baumier’s wheels are made in Montreal. The frames use 3D-printed titanium lugs and carbon tubes. The tubes are laid up, molded and finished in Montreal. The lugs are still produced in Asia for now, simply because buying a titanium 3D printer is not exactly casual.
“Once we have 2 million dollars to invest in a titanium 3D printing machine, we will make them here,” Grenon said.
Until then, the rest of the work stays local. And unlike most bike companies, the company is pushing a repairable system. If a tube breaks, Baumier’s pitch is that the frame is not dead. The damaged tube can be removed and replaced.
“If you break a tube, you didn’t break your frame, you broke a tube, that’s it,” Grenon said. “We’ll open it up, we’ll replace two tubes and then we’ll glue two tubes in again and you’re on your way with the same bike so it doesn’t end up in the landfill.”
That is a pretty different pitch from most carbon road bikes. And part of the reason Baumier can say their bikes are guaranteed for life.
Resin Transfer Molding
One of the more interesting pieces of Baumier’s in-house production is how it builds its carbon components, starting with a reusable wax mandrel that forms the backbone of each rim or tube.
“We use this process that we call resin flow composite, but it’s an RTM, resin transfer molding process,” he explains.
Liquid wax is poured into a mold to create a precise internal core, then CNC-machined before layers of carbon are laid over top in a controlled schedule.
“All our molds are in wax. The tubes are machined in wax, and then we do the layup on top of those wax tubes.”
The part is molded, injected and cured under heat and pressure, and in the final stage, that wax core is melted out, collected and reused for the next build. The payoff, he says, is structural: “The beauty of the wax is that with the heat it expands and then pushes extremely hard against the carbon,” helping refine the material balance.
It’s a process that is both highly controlled and deliberately circular, reducing waste while allowing Baumier to fine-tune the shape and structure of each component coming out of its Montreal facility.
High end, but not chasing scale
Baumier is not trying to be Trek. It is not even pretending to want that.
Grenon said the company is aiming to stay small, with long-term goals of roughly 200 bikes and 200 extra wheelsets a year. That is not mass production. That is careful production.
The bike itself is an all-road platform, available in five complete builds ranging from mechanical GRX to electronic setups. Geometry comes in five sizes, from extra small to extra large, but the buying process includes a fit session so cockpit dimensions can be tailored to the rider.
The result, Baumier hopes, is something more personal than grabbing a stock 56 off the floor.
“It’s custom in a way that we include in the purchase a pre-purchase fitting,” Grenon said. “Actually you end up with a bike that is to some extent really your measurement.”
Pricing lands firmly in premium territory, with bikes expected to run from around $16,000 to $25,000.
Built on values as much as bikes
Baumier founder Benjamin du Hays came to the bike world after helping build mobile payment technology later acquired by Apple. Grenon said that after that experience, du Hays wanted to create something smaller and more human.
“He always says it,” Grenon said. “I’ll never be a CEO again.”
That does sound a little startup manifesto-ish, but Baumier seems serious about it. Grenon repeatedly came back to the company’s desire to be transparent, even about the parts that are not perfect.
“We want to be as transparent as possible,” he said. “We believe what we’re doing is great, but it’s also not perfect and we also have our challenges.”
Wheels first, bike next
The company’s first products were its wheelsets, launched late last season. Grenon admitted that timing made the rollout tough, but said the response has been promising, especially as word starts to spread beyond Quebec.
One customer in Florida bought a wheelset directly through the website. Others are riding Baumier wheels in Montreal, New York and Europe.
“We see that it’s starting to pick up now,” Grenon said.
The company is hoping the bike launch will accelerate that.
To introduce the B01, Baumier is planning a launch on April 10 in Montreal. Then they’re doing a “ride to launch.” They’ll ride two bikes from Montreal to Toronto and launch the bike May 30 and 31 at Étape 22.