Photos and words by Kyle Kelley
La Bicyclette is two bike shops in one! Well, not really, but sorta. There are two retail spaces across the street from each other on the same block, and they’re pretty much polar opposites of each other. You ask how that happens? You have a father who loves cycling and cycling heritage, who wants a well-organized showroom with lots of beautiful new product. Then you have two sons that wanna run a service department where they’re the only ones who know where anything is and slang beautiful vintage track bikes and other odds and ends from around the world!
These two spaces could not coexist under one roof in my opinion, I feel like this family would go mad. But these two spaces under one name, run by father and sons is just magical.
When Sean, Ace, Tebow, and I rolled up we had no clue there were two spaces, we just saw Enzo and Stef’s service area, a vintage track bike storefront, and our minds were blown! We were wide-eyed, taking photos of everything, just acting like kids in a candy store. There was a huge language barrier between us but Tebow was doing his best. There was so much more left I left wanting to know but just couldn’t figure out the words. I really hope some folks from Paris will fill us in on some details in the comments, but until then, just take look at these photos.
While all of the above was happening, a man down the street saw the replica Mavic Peugeot 504 Service Course vehicle we had rolled up in and before we knew it he’d started putting his pristine vintage Colnago on the roof rack. Enzo and Stef looked a little embarrassed and this is when we found out it was their father Lorenzo, the owner of La Bicyclette. This was now the second time our minds had been blown here, would there be a third?
Lorenzo’s English was pretty good. We chatted about the Peugeot 504 for a bit and took some photos of him with the car. Just as we were about to pack up and head back to the apartment, Lorenzo informed us that we had just seen their service area, we hadn’t even seen the actual La Bicyclette storefront! Wait…what!?!
Lorenzo walked us down the street and it was true, there was a beautiful red building with La Bicyclette painted above the door. When we walked in, our minds were blown for the third time! This place was beautiful. Full of everything you’d imagine would be in there, but nothing you’d ever seen in real life, only on the internet, and old magazine ads. Rows of hand-picked vintage cycling jerseys, and tons of Japanese stuff I’d never even seen, but what impressed me the most was that someone could walk into this shop, knowing nothing about cycling history and could come out knowing more than most modern-day cyclists. In a world dominated by information overload, it was so nice to have Lorenzo walk us around his small shop and take the time to explain each and everything in there. He told us where it was from, why it was in there, and what it meant to him. This was knowledge you can’t learn from reading the internet, only from experience. My heart melted.
Oh Paris, how I love you! You opened my eyes to the big city, I now wanna go to each and every city in this world with a rich cycling culture. I wanna fall in love with the shops and the people making this world a better place. Paris, I will forever be indebted to you for this. And Marie, I owe you big time. You trusted me with your world, and that is a beautiful thing.
It may be awhile, but we’ll be back Paris!
La Bicyclette
5 Rue Crozatier
75012 Paris
France
Hours:
Sunday: Closed
Monday: 10:30am – 7pm
Tuesday: 10:30am – 7pm
Wednesday: Closed
Thursday: 10:30am – 7pm
Friday: 10:30am – 7pm
Saturday: 10:30am – 7pm
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