• The United Nations has designated June 3 as World Bicycle Day, an opportunity “to draw attention to the benefits of bicycle use – a simple, affordable, clean and environmentally friendly sustainable mode of transport”.

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    has therefore embarked on a journey of cycling in France from Lille to Nice, from Nantes to Strasbourg, via Paris or Toulouse.

  • In the City of the Dukes, self-repair workshops, where you can find advice, tools and spare parts, are a hit.

Oil in his hands and even on the tip of his nose, Malou concentrates.

This is the first time that the 24-year-old has undertaken to repair the chain of her bicycle herself, a link of which has just broken.

Rather than struggling alone at home or entrusting her bicycle unearthed on Le Bon Coin to a repairer, this Nantes woman went to L'Atelier du Pignon, where passionate mechanics teach the general public how to take care of their bikes. .

“It's impressive and we seem a bit silly at the start but we progress quickly thanks to all the advice, assures Malou with a smile.

This is the third time I've come, I've already managed to replace a tire and straighten my handlebars not straight!

»

With the rise of soft transport and aspirations for more responsible consumption, more and more Nantes residents are going through the doors of these self-repair workshops, which are springing up in the four corners of the city.

In the large hangar of one of the biggest, L'Atelier du Pignon located on the Quai Magellan on the banks of the Loire and open two afternoons a week, a continuous flow of cyclists of all kinds parade in order to benefit from advice, parts used at free price (new ones are sold at cost price) or tools, for a small annual fee, from 10 to 40 euros.

“The number of members is exploding, notes Robin, one of the three employees of the association, made up of around thirty volunteer handymen.

From 200 four years ago, we went to 720 last year.

We expect to reach 1,000 in 2022.”

“We know how to solve almost everything”

Alexandre, who has just picked up his grandfather's old Peugeot bike, is one of them.

Rather than paying 100 euros to redo the brakes, he preferred to invest a little of his time so that he could eventually get to work on two wheels rather than by car.

But for others, there is no choice but to come here anyway.

"The bikes are sometimes so rotten or old that the repairers don't agree to take them," continues Robin.

We, with the scrap parts, we can manage, we know how to solve almost everything.

So much so that some bicycle dealers send us away from the world!

Electric vehicles, which are complicated to repair and recycle, are however not welcome.

Because more than a garage, L'Atelier du Pignon wants to be a "place of solidarity living" where we promote the values ​​of living together and ecology, through reuse.

"Cycling is also a way to forge real ties," says Arnaud, another employee.

We have a precarious public that comes here, exiles who need a means of transport.

We discuss, we introduce them to manual trades…”

Our bike file

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For Robin, knowing his bike down to the smallest detail would even be a way of emancipation.

“We have more and more female members who want to learn, to reclaim their bike.

“For him, no doubt:” Strong or not, everyone is capable.

All you have to do is invest a little and accept that you won't get everything right the first time.

»

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Where to go to learn how to repair your bike?

Other workshops exist in Nantes: Vélocampus and the collective repair workshop in Chantenay.

Place au Vélo also offers several time slots.

Smaller, some neighborhood associations are also getting started, as very recently in Rezé, with La Rustine.

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