Velocyclop

Velocyclop is a specialized bike shop located near the bike path on Gouin Boulevard in Rivière-des-Prairies. The shop is owned by a young couple, Benoit Lemire and Laurie Fréchette Laflamme, who launched the company in 2010. It's the result of a spontaneous idea, a whim that materialized a month after the couple came up with it. "On a trip to British Columbia, we had seen a small village that had two bike shops. Montreal, which is nevertheless a great city, has very few," Benoit explains. "In Rivière-des-Prairies, the closest ones are more than 10 kilometres away. As we live on Gouin Boulevard, we would see people passing on the bike path. We said to ourselves that if someone had a puncture, there would be no place for repair."

Thus the first store was born, a little further west of its current location. "We wanted to do a test and it worked well. It was too small, so we approached the owner of the dairy, where we are now, and he agreed," explains Benoit. Laurie is a recreation technician and Benoit is a specialist in aeronautical mechanics who's also worked in bike mechanics, so the two see the bicycle as a reliable product. "The bicycle is a means of transport, a hobby and a sport. Everyone has at least one bike at home," says Benoit. Moreover, biking is growing steadily in Quebec, where the network of bike paths continues to grow.