Located in the heart of Paris, France, Stolen Garage is an innovative multidisciplinary space, or “lieu hybride,” in French. It brings together a variety of disciplines under one roof. The venue combines a café/bistro, bike shop, fully-equipped repair workshop, and a custom frame building and painting studio.
To accompany Josh’s photographic documentation of the Stolen Garage space, we tapped co-owner Finlay Skillen to pen an overview of their background and unique approach to building community and inspiring creativity around a love for bicycles in Paris.
Stolen Garage
We could say Stolen Garage started in 2009 when we discovered Bike Polo. Paul (from France) and I, Fin (from the UK), fell deeply in love with the sport and started traveling the world to play competitions and meet people playing in other cities.
The shop began with five friends collaborating, and now it is just the two founders (Paul and me). I worked at Victoire Cycles, Paul worked with a marketing agency, Luca was the manager of a restaurant, Dani had a bike cafe in Italy, and Ronan was a mechanical engineer.
Life brought us all to Paris individually, and the idea of a bike café had been in the air for a long time. The project made even more sense when I added my frame-building skills to the mix. In April 2021, we decided to all quit our jobs and bring Stolen Garage to life.
We launched the custom frame side of the business in a start-up incubator in the 11th arrondissement. Then, we quickly moved into a temporary space: an old gas station that we renovated into a workshop. At the same time, we took a painting course so that we would be able to do everything in-house.
Post-COVID problems, coupled with the war in Ukraine and some bureaucracy, meant we finally opened the shop in its current incarnation in April 2023. We are now a team of ten, and our management is as transparent and horizontal as possible.
It’s the human side of the business that drives us, and we want everyone to be a part of the adventure: Paul, Fin, Romain, Marc, Juliette, Loup, Jude, Antoine, Agathe, Constantin, plus Emile and Mathilda, who work freelance. Paul focuses on administration and development, and then there are two frame builders, one painter, three mechanics, three in the cafe, and one stray cat.
Our aspiration hasn’t changed since day one — to open a space that promotes cycling culture, craftsmanship, and the highest-quality service and products. A place where we can gather diverse types of people and events, a space with the same spirit and values of Bike Polo: collective, inclusive, independent, open-minded, creative, and fun!
The café shares the same values as our framebuilding workshop. We pride ourselves on preparing dishes that are local, seasonal, and made with quality ingredients. Our coffee is roasted locally, our beer is brewed locally, and our bread is baked locally – we work with local suppliers as much as possible.
We host various events that cater to everyone, from all types of cyclists to the broader local community. These include a vintage MTB festival, bike magazine launch, cinema and music nights, and rides. You name it; we’re probably doing it.
Our repair workshop is open to all types of bikes, and we wanted it to be as inclusive as possible. That applies to a rusty second-hand bike from Decathlon or a sub-7 kg carbon race bike. We do all types of repairs, full builds ‘a la carte,’ and custom wheels.
Most framebuilders work in workshops hidden away, which has its charm. However, we wanted to illuminate the process by creating an open workshop, much like an open kitchen, so you can see all the love and labor that goes into creating a one-of-a-kind bike.
Stolen Custom Bikes
Stolen is our original brand for bespoke bikes, each one unique. These are fillet brazed with silver. Silver is a little harder to master but allows us to braze at lower temperatures to maintain the best properties of the steel, and there is also less distortion. We think it’s a better final product for the customer.
There is a lot of demand for long-distance adventure bikes for both paved and unpaved roads. For example, Thanh is on a tour of the Mediterranean, basking in sun-soaked coastlines and exploring rocky roads, while Mylène and Bastien are on a journey through the Celtic fringes, venturing to the rugged and chilly landscapes of Iceland before heading to tackle the North cape 4000. The best part is hearing their stories when they come back.
Charbon Production Bikes
Charbon is our brand for batch-production bikes, available in sizes XS through XL. These bikes are TIG welded to ensure faster production times. Currently, we offer a Gravel Adventure model and an All-Road model, with an urban model (I mean flat-bar gravel, obviously) coming soon. Additionally, we are in the process of prototyping titanium frames.
Oh and the name? We started out making bike polo framesets for our friends for fun. We just wanted them to be ridden hard and fast so we came up with the motto “Ride it like it’s Stolen.” Back then, it was just Stolen, and we didn’t expect it to get so big! Later, we added Garage to reflect the fact that we wanted a big multidisciplinary space where everything was hand-crafted.
11 avenue Jean Jaurès
Le Pré-Saint-Gervais
Paris, France
93310
Hours
Tues-Sat 10 AM to 7 PM
Sun-Mon Closed