Pimp my velo



Not content with free wheels, young Parisians are now recycling cycles.
The bike shops of Paris are thriving. Spawning, even. Velo Vintage opened by two young entrepreneurs, Eddy Delgado and Hugo Badia, after the police discovered its owners selling secondhand bikes from their home. They scour villages and towns of rural France looking for unusual , unwanted cycles, which they bring back, recondition, and then sell on for between 50-150 pounds.
“None of our bikes is made any more” Hugo says.
Velo Vintage is open for only two hours every weekday evening. Customers are invited to test bikes by driving them around the streets; Hugo and Eddy say the majority are what they call BoBos – bourgeois bohemians, people who are “not poor but want to look like it”.
Second worth mention shop is BiCyCle Store opened by Alexander Billard, a former cosmetic salesman.
“To me, a high-quality, expensive bicycle is as attractive as a high-quality, expensive car or motorbike”, Alexander says. His favourite is the British-made Brompton folding bike, which he sells for about 890 euro and describes as the “Rolls-Royce of its type”.
The granpere of the Parisien cycle scene is Bicloune. For over 25 years it has provided a personal service, reconditioning secondhand and vintage bikes that range from the collectable to the frankly eccentric, and customising them right down to the frame for around 1000 euro. Bicloune specialises in collectable oddities: an early 20th century Swiss bike that has no chain or any other.
But the newcomers keep coming up fast behind. La Cremerie, sells only BMX’s – those small, chunky-wheeled stunt bikes much loved by skateboardes. Meanwhile Cyclope specialises in “fixed-gear” bikes that have no brakes.

Also check bike shops websites:

Velo Vintage
La Cremerie
Cyclope Bikes
Bicloune
Bicyclestore



The whole article you can find in The Intelligent Life of The Economist.