They have this little air that gives them the certainty of having understood before everyone else. Not that folding bike owners triumph. “We just wonder why others don’t adopt this brilliant solution”, recognizes Julien de Labaca, founder of the Mobility Facilitator firm. This consultant residing in Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) equipped himself, eleven years ago, with a Brompton, ancestor and still star of folding bikes, a million copies of which have been manufactured in England over the past forty years. ‘years. ” Honestly, he confides, when I get on the TGV or get off with my Brompton, it’s quite enjoyable. So effective for living without the car! »
As long as it complies with the maximum regulatory format (130 × 90 centimeters), the folded bicycle is considered hand luggage by the railway authorities. He thus boards all trains, in all seasons, without reservation or payment – even on the RER during peak hours. Enough to convert many people traumatized by intermodality, left at the dock with their bike or stressed by its hasty dismantling, to metallic origami.
Claire-Marine Javary, from the Federation of Bicycle Users (FUB), observes the multiplication of small cycles in the trains: “They offer the right compromise between growing demand for bicycles and operating constraints. And they really make life easier for users. A classic bicycle must be dismantled upstream of the dock. A folding car can be pushed with its bags to the train door. » Stein van Oosteren does not hold back. This Franco-Dutch diplomat, author of 50 good reasons to cycle (illustrated by Clod, Makisapa, 116 pages, 14 euros), loves to perch his two meters on his mini-bike: “I have the absolute certainty of boarding with my bike, I know my arrival time, all anxiety is eliminated… What a pleasure to arrive by train in Paris, to unfold my portable taxi, to pass in front of the queue wait! My Brompton, these are my wings that I deploy in five seconds, free as the albatross! »
Pedal turn conversions
Pocket bike enthusiasts are accustomed to lyricism. They only blame their mount for one thing: arousing lust, and therefore theft. Like evangelists, they convert quickly, never resisting the pleasure of the explanation, or even the demonstration of the express fold and unfold. “We joke between us, we’ve all sold dozens of Bromptons! »assures Olivier Pesret, 38 years old, who takes the TGV to Angoulême, to reach his Paris office by boarding his “low carbon means of transport”.
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