Four Wheels Bad, Two Wheels Good

The artisanal bike culture has re-emerged in Europe and is now wheeling its way all over the world.

- Michelle Tchea

In Paris, a man dressed in a Givenchy cotton poplin white shirt with musketeer cuffs and designer black trousers peddles down the cobblestone streets of the French capital. Surprisingly, one is not lost in the ocean-blue eyes of this well-groomed male, who just happens to be Aussie actor Simon Baker being filmed for a commercial video.

Instead, your eyes are locked in a trance as they follow the mesmerizing orange wheels of the metallic silver bespoke bike with a stainless steel frame that rotate effortlessly, carrying Baker and a model to their destination in a suave Parisian style we mortals can only dream about.

For bike enthusiasts, this commercial is completely trivial. Is the Givenchy Gentleman Only fragrance Baker wears the ultimate bait to lure a Parisian model? Surely, it is the custom-made bike that entices and saves the modern-day damsel in distress, taking her safely across the street without Baker breaking a sweat?

For any small business owner, the association with luxury brand Givenchy would have been monumental for sales but – as much as the exposure was beneficial for modest French brand Victoire Cycles – business was booming well before Baker jumped on its bike.

The stereotypical image of a Parisian effortlessly tearing through the streets, however, hasn’t been as common for some time, but things are starting to change. As the city reinvents itself with Mayor Anne Hidalgo leading the charge in her anti-pollution and anti-car commitments to see Paris greener, more sustainable, and planet-friendly with additional public spaces and pedestrianized streets, the biking culture is slowly wheeling back into fashion with enthusiasts shunning cookie-cutter framesets for the new trend of artisan bike manufacturing by independent brands.