Companies we Love: Papillionaire Bicycles

We all know that bicycling is best way to decrease our carbon footprint, save money on transportation costs, and keep our butts in steely form. Heck, bikeability is even good for real estate value of your house! Need more– here’s 10 reasons why biking is good. Across the world, bicycle commuting is becoming the new normal, and it now regarded not as a fringe activity, but as an everyday adult activity to engage in (even been to San Francisco or Amsterdam?). And Melbourne-based Papillionaire bicycles are making gorgeous vintage-style bikes to make biking that much cooler.

Papillionaire, a word made up word playing off the French word for butterfly, is an Australian company that recently celebrated it launch in the United States. Their focus is Dutch influenced, vintage style bikes that work for city and country riding. Their bikes are gorgeous for both ladies and gents, but in Australia 80% of their customers are women, and the percentage is almost as high in the US. This is opposite from the usual statistics which put men as the majority of bike commuters.

Papillionaire believes that for the ladies among us, we’ve been largely left out of the bike conversation, with bike shops run by and cater to gearhead, lycra-wearing men, and selling bikes that just don’t appeal to our refined aesthetic sense (or work with skirts!). But their line of gorgeous bicycles appeal to everyone’s sense of beauty and functionality. They’ve been actively working to encourage companies to adopt bike fleets for their workforce. They can do orders from 10 to 100,000 bikes to support companies looking to decrease their footprint, save money, and improve employees’ health. They have also branched out from traditionally health focused companies working with many types of brand to promote their gorgeous bikes. Check out their blog for information about bike accessories, bike etiquette, and more.

good for gents too!

Soon Papillionaire will release their Mixte,  a single speed and racer city bike in 2 months, for those of you looking for a more modern, hipster ride. Check out their line or beautiful bikes online, and get free shipping to celebrate the company’s launch into the US market. And check out Clean Technica’s list of the most bike-friendly cities!