They met in a participatory bicycle repair workshop, within the Darwin ecosystem, in Bordeaux. “It was while working on our bikes that we realized that they were overwhelmingly Asian and often assembled with poor quality components …”, says Benoît Maurin, co-founder of the Bordeaux brand.
Jean Fork with Maël Le Borgne and Mathieu Courtois.
All three enthusiasts “Velotafeurs”, they started working on this “practical, family-friendly” bicycle project two and a half years ago, with the aim of relaunching French know-how lost since the 1990s. “It’s a bicycle. light and compact city car that gets on quickly. Above all, we wanted it to be durable since it can be used from 1.50 m to 1.90 m. We can therefore buy it in adolescence and keep it in adulthood. Finally, the 24-inch size and the fairly small wheels allow you to have a fairly low center of gravity and load more things. “
Between 700 and 1,200 euros per unit
The first sales started last August. Orders are mainly made on the Internet with an online configurator, which allows you to add options. The price varies between 700 and 1,200 euros per unit, “and we are delivered between three weeks and two months depending on the status of the pre-order”.
“We produced a first series of 60 bikes, of which around 30 are already sold, and we hope to produce 200 for Christmas and then move to series of 500, three times a year, only in pre-orders to produce only what has been sold, ”explains Benoît Maurin.
Manufacture of frames in Portugal
About “85% of our components come from France and Europe, which is already a feat, insists the co-founder of Jean Fourche. Our wheels, our mudguards, our lighting, are French. For painting and assembly, we work with French partners, in the region of Saint-Etienne. However, the three friends quickly understood that they could not, at first in any case, manufacture the frames in France. “We would have been too expensive in terms of labor. »These are thus made in Portugal, from aluminum extruded on site.
They nevertheless remain hopeful “of forging industrial partnerships to have our frames manufactured in France, what remains of laser-cut and welded tube ends,” assures Benoît Maurin. The problem is that the factories that have these tools work mainly in the automotive and aerospace industries, and they have not yet taken the switch to soft mobility. But manufacturers are feeling the tide and are seeing the potential of the bicycle market. This is already the case for the utility bike, and it will also come for the small city bike… ”
The Jean Fourche brand can imagine itself “integrating a regional sector around soft mobility” with, why not, a manufacturing plant in New Aquitaine.