“In Paris, by bike, we overtake the cars.
By bike, in Paris, we overtake taxis ", sang Joe Dassin in 1972. His" Rush hour complaint ", although outdated, already reflected the interest in the practice of the little queen in the cities.
The arguments in its favor have since gone well beyond the mere register of speed.
Ecological, seen as an alternative to crowded or striking public transport, the bicycle is making its way.
The numbers speak for themselves.
Since the end of confinement, from May to August, traffic on cycle paths has jumped by around 67% in Paris, compared to the same period last year, and increased by 29% throughout the territory.
A boom encouraged by the 500 km of open “coronapistes”.
Equipment is following suit with bicycle sales which climbed 117% in France, from May to June, according to Union Sport & cycle.
A confirmation for a bicycle business already valued at 2.3 billion euros in 2019 (+ 10% in one year).
The acceleration is also reflected in the purchase of cargo bikes, also in full expansion.
The promoters of the City Changer Cargo Bike project estimate that in Europe, nearly 45,000 will be sold in 2020, against 28,000 last year.
Two million units per year could even be sold by 2030.
In France, the V-Logistics program allows craftsmen, micro-businesses and large companies to benefit from electrically assisted cargo bikes free of charge to replace their thermal vehicles.
In the aid register, individuals are also encouraged either to repair their bicycles or to buy a new one and give in to the sirens of electric-assisted bicycles.
With nearly 390,000 machines sold in 2019, they now represent 45% of the market in value, according to the French Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB), for an average price of 1,749 euros.
Much less than the Angell models of entrepreneur Marc Simoncini, sold for 2,690 euros.
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The success of these VAEs is also confirmed with Véligo, these sky blue bicycles offered for hire for a year by Ile-de-France Mobilités.
They have already conquered more than 13,000 people.
All over Europe, alongside the Nordic cities where cycling is already widespread, others are getting started.
London, for example, has launched an investment plan of more than 2 billion euros in its infrastructure.
SOLUTIONS.
The cargo bike seduces
The cargo bikes of the company Douze Cycles are very popular with craftsmen.
DR
Founded eight years ago by Thomas Coulbeaut, the bicycle manufacturing company Douze Cycles is experiencing a period of insolent growth, which even the Covid is struggling to curb.
“Between 2019 and 2020, our turnover increased by 75%, while the previous year, it had increased by 89%,” says the leader, who almost blushes at these results.
"We could have done a lot more", adds Thomas Mest, the commercial director, deploring a worldwide shortage of spare parts as the demand for bicycles is high.
In the heart of the industrial area of Longvic (Côte d'Or), near Dijon, in an austere building with a yellowish facade and hidden from view, it is not simple bicycles that are assembled by the company, but cargo bikes.
For those who want to transport heavy loads or their children without a thermal vehicle, Douze Cycles has designed various models, sold on average 5,500 euros, with an atypical appearance due to their elongated shape.
Depending on the configuration, they are able to transport up to 100 kg of loads.
“Around 95% of requests can be met with this type of product,” says Thomas Mest, who relies on feedback from his network of 250 retailers across 10 European countries, including 80 in France, to advance this statistic .
Douze Cycles also manufactures cargo bikes for individuals. / Douze Cycles
Among their main professional customers, delivery companies, plumbers and other electricians.
Mainly craftsmen who need an alternative means of transport to the car, with sufficient carrying capacity, easy to drive and reliable.
Today, 95% of models are ordered with electric assistance, when five years ago this was not half of sales.
Cities like Lyon, Nantes and Paris form large pools of buyers.
“As a general rule, the more the towns are equipped for cyclists, the more we sell,” explains the founder logically.
Initially, Thomas Coulbeaut, an industrial designer by training, started designing bicycles with the idea of producing a collapsible specimen.
A goal that he abandoned when Decathlon marketed the first consumer models.
Settled in Belgium at the time, he did not give up his desire to manufacture one of his designs himself and ended up taking an interest in the cargo bikes he encountered during a stay in Amsterdam.
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After a study of the sector, he realizes that few manufacturers make it.
They are often craftsmen, who only produce models for the local market that are very difficult to export.
"So I started by telling myself that the competition would be less harsh," he laughs in the middle of the test track of his factory.
When he started at the end of 2012, he was far from imagining the success that would fall on him straight away: 70 orders in six months, to be assembled himself.
Too heavy for one man, who realizes his society is unsuitable.
He closed his website, moved to the Dijon region, remade a new version of his cargo bike and resized his company which restarted with an employee in 2014. Since then, they have grown to 25 and a dozen recruits are expected from. here early next year.
For the moment, impossible to switch to 100% made in France.
Freighters have a large share of parts from Germany and Taiwan.
INTERVIEW.
The app that connects cyclists and repairers
The Cyclofix platform connects broken down cyclists with an armada of independent repairers. / Cyclofix
“The market is booming,” confirms Alexis Zerbib.
For his company Cyclofix, this translates into “requests for repairs multiplied by ten since containment”.
The application, launched at the end of 2015, allows users to have their bikes or scooters repaired wherever they are: at home, at their office, etc.
“Initially, we managed to carry out 80% of the interventions requested in twenty-four hours.
The deadline is now two to five days ”, underlines the 32-year-old founder, who sees his turnover doubling each year.
“Right now, some repair shops are referring customers to us because they have five to eight weeks lead time!
"
Cyclofix's business model is reminiscent of Uber.
“Rather Doctolib”, prefers Alexis Zerbib, who addresses two categories of customers: users and repairers.
The latter, all independent, often already in activity on their side, are linked to the start-up by a service contract.
Alexis Zerbib is the founder and president of Cyclofix./Cyclofix
They have access to the platform's services: invoicing, centralization of requests, insurance, etc. It is up to them to accept or refuse the interventions that flow into the app, depending on their skill level, with their own equipment.
They are between 20 and 50 years old, are passionate about cycling, some retrained and often "welcomed like saviors!"
»Alexis Zerbib jokes.
On each of the transactions carried out, Cyclofix charges a commission of 25%.
The most frequent are the revision (65 euros for an electric bike, 28 euros for a classic), the change of brakes (32 euros for pads, 22 euros for a pair of pads) or tire after a puncture (38 euros) .
From 30 to 100 in four months in 2018, these repairers are now 200 working in one of the 15 French cities where Cyclofix is deployed: Paris, Orléans, Toulouse, Nice, Montpellier ... with the objective of bringing together 600 and the hope of seeing more women, very rare at the moment.
Faced with the difficulty of finding the right workforce, Cyclofix plans to open its own training center next year.
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One project among others for the Parisian company, which has just welcomed Decathlon into its capital after raising 5 million euros in funds.
The brand thus directs customers of its stores without a workshop to Cyclofix.
For its part, the start-up is counting on the network of its new shareholder to also establish itself in certain European cities where cycling is booming such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia (Spain), London (United Kingdom) ...
The entrepreneur, a specialist in mechanics and digital, wishes to gradually install an entire ecosystem of services around this means of transport.
Next month, he will inaugurate at La Défense (Hauts-de-Seine), near the Grande Arche, a “new repair workshop with innovative scenography and services”, he reveals.
But he still keeps some under the pedal!
INNOVATION.
Stock management, user manual
Lokki software allows bicycle rental companies to manage their activity with a single tool.
LP / Olivier Arandel
T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.
Benoît Prigent and Raphaël Masbou are dressed in the purest style of startups.
The two young entrepreneurs, from Grenoble business school (Isère), where they met, are housed in Station F, the Parisian incubator of Xavier Niel.
It is within this favorable framework that the two partners develop their company, Lokki, founded a little over a year ago.
Their concept: digitize cycle professionals.
“I had a neighbor, when I lived in the Var, who rented bicycles, explains Raphaël.
One day, he arrived in my living room telling me how overwhelmed he was to manage his repairs and reservations, ”he says.
It did not take more for the student at the time to discuss the subject with his friend.
"We realized that apart from Excel and some old software that was not very functional, no efficient system existed", adds Benoît.
The duo then embarked on the design of a digital platform to offer professional rental companies a simple way to manage their business.
“Direct stock availability, payment management, online reservations and all kinds of administrative procedures are handled by our solution,” they detail.
All from 89 euros per month.
Lokki executives in company colors. / DR
Since their inception, the team has grown to four people, to serve 130 clients.
Independents, but also stores of the Cyclelab group, which brings together 127 points of sale in France.
By June, their system had generated 3,000 rentals.
Three months later, their statistics counted 30,000, or 2.7 million euros in turnover for their customers.
There are many development prospects.
Rental companies serving businesses are interested in this software.
One of them, Tandem, wants to provide Lokki's solution in its pack, which will allow each customer to easily manage his fleet of bikes offered to employees for their appointments.
Ambitious, Raphaël and Benoit, who have already benefited from a Bpifrance grant of 30,000 euros, soon hope to raise 700,000 euros to continue to grow, first in cycling, then targeting other sectors.
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Replacing a tire, an inner tube, the brakes, adjusting the play of a hub, changing the bottom bracket… These repairs cannot be improvised.
Faced with a growing demand for repairs, we must be quick.
Due to a lack of sufficient manpower, "in line with the needs of the field", Alexis Zerbib, of Cyclofix, plans to open his own training center next year.
Until then, it is with the National Institute of the cycle and motocycle that it finds its repairers, or of the CNPC Sport Business, which offers a professional qualification certificate.
There are also mechanics or technical advisers coming out of the Bike Sup or the Cycling Training Institute (IFV).
Under development and desired by the government, the Academy of Cycling Trades will train 500 certified mechanics per year.
All these organizations are open to a wide variety of profiles, from the BEP and the CAP, and attract both young people and people in the process of retraining after a career as an architect, director of a furniture brand or policeman ...
