Benoit Maurin, co-founder of Jean Fouche: When the bicycle re-enchants French industry

For as long as he can remember, he's been taking them apart, reassembling them and pampering them. In his garage, on the street, then in a participative repair association, where he met two other bicycle enthusiasts. It was with them that his hobby eventually turned into a livelihood! With bike travel in his blood, a hammock and a comforter never far away for a trip around Gironde on his own Jean Fourche, Benoît Maurin has only one obsession: that (French) bikes flood France!

Hello Benoît! Here at Lokki, we like to break the ice with a slightly personal question, if you'll allow me: can you tell us about your first love affair with cycling?

I remember like it was yesterday the one I used to ride at my grandparents' place, near Alès... I was 5 or 6. I was doing great skids on this children's back-pedal single speed, a brown model with beige sidewall tires, big-bludder style. It would be all the rage today, with its vintage style! The other image that comes to mind when I think back is the first bike I was given when I was 8. It was a beautiful red mountain bike... second-hand. I realized when I saw the discreet little scratches and was totally shocked. I went to see my godmother and said, with a naivety that makes me smile today: "Brigitte, you've been ripped off, I don't think my bike is new". This anecdote makes me laugh a lot today, because there's nothing more eco-friendly than a second-hand bike... so bravo Brigitte!

Why did you choose cycling as a career?

Maël Le Borgne, Mathieu Courtois and I met in 2018 at a participatory bike repair workshop in Bordeaux. We were tinkering with our bikes, then volunteering to teach people how to repair their own bikes. I had just launched a custom road-trip agency, after a 10-year career as a mechanical engineer in the energy sector. I quickly blossomed in my new life as an entrepreneur. Then I realized that I needed to work on a product that I could handle, as I'd been tinkering with mopeds, bikes and old cars all my life.

So, pardon the pun, you needed to get your hands dirty again?

Yes, I think I've experienced the same thing as the American philosopher Matthew B. Crawford tells us in his essay, "The Ego of the World". Crawford in his essay "In Praise of the Carburetor", who gave up his overly cerebral profession to create something with his hands. That's exactly what we did, designing our own brand from scratch, inventing our own universe, with a light-hearted name, Jean Fourche, that sticks to who we really are, on a daily basis.

"I wanted to do something with

my hands".

Let's talk about the name Jean Fourche. It's light, but above all, it sounds a bit like Jean Dupont or Alice Martin... In short, it's a very French name! Why was it so important to you to restore the image of French cycling?

That was one of the conditions we set ourselves for the industrialization of our bike. We wanted to relocalize as much as possible. Unfortunately, 100% French production wasn't feasible at a reasonable cost. We found a great company in Portugal that hand-welds our bikes, which are painted right next door and then assembled on our own premises in Bordeaux. In the end, 80% of our components are European, including the French battery and motor. We've also worked on sourcing to ensure that we limit the use of plastic and unsustainable materials.

What do you think cycling enthusiasts are looking for?

To surpass themselves, to go green, to do a bit of sport, to share and, above all, to have a different experience.

" Creating value in France

gives you wings".

What difficulties did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

When we started out, we were often told: "You can't do it without raising 200,000 euros". Creating a new product takes too much time and too much money". But we had our passion, and an insane desire to succeed. We broke down barriers one by one, weaving our own network. The biggest of these was Covid, because we were at the prototyping stage during the containment... And I have to say that what saved us in the end was our cardinal value: producing locally. If we'd had our products made in Asia, Jean Fourche might have been stillborn.

What's your proudest achievement?

Riding my own bike every day, on which I feel so much more at ease than some of the nicer models I used to have at home. And running into a stranger on a Jean Fourche bike in the street.

Originally muscular, Jean Fourche has gradually turned to electric: why?

We can't stay in our own bubble. If you want to survive as a brand, you have to adapt to trends, and electric is a particularly strong one. Initially, we didn't want to electrify our bike, because we weren't in line from an ecological point of view, especially with the equipment we saw circulating around the country. But in the end, we found solutions with some great French brands, such as Virvolt, which focuses on repairability and local production, just like us. It was perfect.

How would you describe the mindset needed to succeed as an entrepreneur?

I'm very positive by nature. But building something good for our society, bringing sanity back to the bicycle industry, creating value and jobs in France, gives you wings, it's incredibly stimulating. So, perhaps naively, we keep telling ourselves that the three of us are going to make it. During Covid, we all realized that we'd reached untenable situations: we'd relocated too much, we'd abused. This realization gave us a desire, probably a little crazy, to build bicycles the way they were made in the post-war period, to restore French industry to its former glory and create lasting jobs. When you work with that mission every day, you don't get imposter syndrome, and that gives you a boost.

"With bike touring, even an hour from home, you feel like you're on a real adventure".

It's a fact that velotouring is becoming increasingly popular. But what about bike touring?

When I first got interested in cycling, it was precisely to travel by bike. I'm a fan, and I ride regularly. At the time, it was fairly confidential. Recently, I went to Décathlon and saw that they'd developed a whole range of products, just to get away from it all, like some dedicated to gravel for bikepacking. This is clearly a sign that things are moving. People desperately need to get away from it all, and they've finally realized that you don't have to go to the other side of the world to do it...

What do you like about this kind of two-wheeled trip?

The day before the first confinement. I was with two friends, near Biscarrosse lake. We were watching the sunset in front of a campfire. We were all alone in the world. I remember how cold it was during the night and how, the next day, we suddenly realized that everyone was in a panic. It was so strange to have gone through all that together just before we were locked in.

"We need to make people understand that bicycles are not just another consumer product

".

Do you think bike manufacturers like yourself have a role to play in developing cycling on vacation?

Jean Fourche is a bike made for short rides and is very well suited to coastal towns. It has already won over a number of rental companies thanks to its one-size-fits-all frame geometry, which allows for an upright, Dutch-style riding position. We're delighted to be working with rental companies to provide them with customized fleets of bikes, and we'd like to keep developing. At the moment, designing a rando bike isn't our priority, but we'd be happy to do so if we can develop more products. But our role is also to educate people about the bike as such, so that they realize that it's not just another consumer product. It has a very strong impact in terms of construction materials, and requires real know-how, which is perhaps a little lost here. We have a role to play in promoting French industry.

What do you think is needed to develop bicycle tourism today?

More space for bikes on trains! It's a huge problem when this mode of transport is so practical for bicycle tourism. In summer, it's a horror, sometimes you have to wait for the next train or the one after that, again. And then, of course, we need to develop more cycling infrastructure. I see so many neglected railroad lines that could be turned into cycle paths...

Music for the downhill: Queen - Bicycle Race

Music for uphill: Tick Of the Clock - Johnny Jewel

Music for bends: Rone - Waves of Devotion

A podcast: Les Baladeurs, Les Others

A book to discover the adventure: "On a roulé sur la terre", by Alexandre Poussin and Sylvain Tesson