Intro

22.4.2025

Paris. Once again it was time to embark on the journey for a long weekend filled with bikes, wonderful people and a love letter, turbo release. With the first love letter, turbo release giving me the inspiration to turn my Randbezirk idea into a reality, I knew 100% that I had to attend after a second edition was announced. 2 days of travel and 5 days full of cycling adventures. At this point, before I get into the bike stuff, I’d like to say a huge thank you to Corentin and Stephane for organizing such a wonderful event once again.

Although I’ve been getting into analog photography recently, I decided to take my digital Sony A6000 to Paris with one goal in mind – use the possibility of infinite photos to capture as many bikes as I could. This article is basically going to be a ton of bike pictures with some of the special moments of the event mixed in. All pictures are unedited, just straight off of the SD card. For the camera nerds, I was using a Neewer 35mm manual lens.

  • I travelled together with Leo and Bene and we had also booked an Airbnb together. We arrived Tuesday evening and went straight to the Airbnb from the Gare de l’est via Subway and built our bikes in the Airbnb. Our Wednesday consisted of shopping at Decathlon, visiting the Tour Eiffel and finally hitting up a bike-shop to fix Leo’s bike, since he had arrived in Paris with a broken / worn out crank.

  • I wish I could tell you more about the BMX cranks that Leo uses, but I’m clueless. All I know is that the spindle was way skinnier than what you usually see on modern BMX setups. So we roll up to Le Comptoir Bike Shop, which is partly BMX-focused, and lay out the whole situation. Somehow, after some back-and-forth about what Leo’s got, wants, and needs, they disappear into the back and come out with a brand-new set of cranks which will work for his setup. They hand him a work stand, and next thing you know, Leo’s wrenching on his bike right there on the sidewalk.

  • While he was sorting out his bike, I explored the shop a bit and discovered a gorgeous BMW hanging on the wall (It’ll set you back a grand if you’re curious).

  • Also when strolling through the bikes that were in front of the shop, two bikes
    caught my interest. A wonderful Cannondale M700 and an orange Bullitt.

  • While I was inspecting the radially laced rear wheel, one of the shop guys approached me, telling me that it’s his bike. He proudly claims, it’s the fastest Bullitt in Paris, since he had modified it and added a huge battery, stating it could go up to 65 km/h. With me being the wheel nerd I am, I asked about the rear wheel and why it wasn’t crossed. Turns out, he drilled the rim and hub to add extra spokes for a total of 71 (not 72 since the valve occupies a hole leaving “only” 71) and used really thick 12g or 2.6mm spokes. A completely mental setup but right up my alley and a story I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. As a cherry on top and the conclusion of Day 1 he demonstrated that the bike was able to do burnouts.

  • As a little side note, we saw a guy doing wheelies on his city bike along the
    Seine along with Leo.

Thursday

Although Wednesday was Day 2 for us, Thursday was the first “official” day of the event with the release party in the evening. During the day most of us met up and just hung around, enjoying the good weather. This was also where the first bike piles were formed.

  • As a fixed gear lover, these events are basically a wet dream. You will meet the entire spectrum of bikes from a full on beater, to double disc bikes, all the way to well thought out part matched builds. Conor brought his pink Skream Anodiz which is absolutely sticker bombed on one side, whereas its basically clean on the other. If you look closely you can find almost the entire assortment of Cyclopath stickers on it, but also a few Randbezirk stickers sprinkled in. He recently swapped the original fork for a carbon leader fork, but this does not stop him from tricking on it as if it were a BMX. I sadly don’t have a close up of his rear tire, so a zoomed in screenshot will have to suffice, but it was holding on for dear life the entire weekend. I’m baffled that it didn’t cause him any issues.

  • On the other side of the bike spectrum, Libero rocked up on his green Soma. Chris King headset, double hydraulic disc brakes, dynamo front hub. What more can one say, except what a wonderful setup. Similarly to last year’s event, instead of taking the train all the way like most people, he decided to ride his bike most of the way from the UK to Paris. It’s a cycling focused event so why not ay?

  • This hilarious sticker can be found on Markus’ bike. I don’t know much about the bike, except that it’s a custom frame, that was not ordered by him though. Not related to this frame but Markus also used to own a sick foldable fixed gear with a dropper post that had internal cable routing, but sadly that got nicked in London.

  • Sticking with good decals, this one can be found on the inside of Paul’s fork of his Parallax. The fact that his frame and fork have not given up on him yet is a miracle in itself. You should see the way he treats that bike. In my eyes though, that Parallax with the rattlecaned flames paintjob he did many years ago during the early days of Slowspin has reached a legendary status.

To circle back to the weekend and the order of events: Thursday evening we attended the release party of LLT2. This years edition consisted of a plethora of Zines that bound together by 2 metal screws. Each telling an individual story, with an individual art style. It's an amazing collection of work that I will attempt to use as inpiration for some of my future projects.

After hanging out inside of Quintalatelier where the release party was taking place, I went back outside and continued documenting bikes.

More bikes

  • We’ve covered 2 of the bikes you see on this picture, so I want to dive into the yellow Look you see in the front. I wish I would have remembered the Model name, but I am not too deep into the steel and aluminium Looks. (Augustin if you’re reading this please DM me the number). Anyway the bike belongs to Augustin who is a vintage Look enthusiast to put it mildly. It will also not be his only Look that we will get to see this weekend but more on that later. The one on the picture above is fully built with Campagnolo parts. Not just any Campagnolo parts though. He’s got Sheriff Star hubs in his wheels and a rather rare NJS stamped seatpost on it. But don’t worry, Augustin has also got the same frame a second time, built fully with French parts.

  • The purple Standert Umlaufbahn in the front belongs to Mathieu and it’s the only purple one of these frames that I have seen riding around. I’ve seen (and previously owned) a ton of the space themed ones and have seen a rise of red ones in Berlin, but the purple one is seemingly an unassuming gem.

  • Ross decided to come to Paris on his Dolan Seta. During is trip he had to fix a slight issue with his seatpost but otherwise the build is completely dialed. Wide carbon rims, no brake track, laced to 32h Phil wood hubs. What more can one wish for. He’s got the glossy version which looks incredible in the sun with the carbon structure shining through. He did have the misfortune of his cranks coming loose during the fast ride though, which I’ll get into later on.

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    The next bike that was to be spotted, locked to the fence infront of the Atlier was Ermannos Aventon. At the time of taking the picture, I had not yet had the pleasure to get to know him, but as the weekend progressed I’m very glad that changed.

  • Other than the beautifully placed La Marzocco sticker (which after Googling it, is a coffee machine brand) there is not much I can say about the build, except that it served it’s purpose perfectly and looks great at the same time. If you’re curious as to what he has wrapped around his stem, it’s his phone mount that he tucks under the stem when it is not in use for those sweet aero gains.

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    You can bet, as I was walking along the fence, taking my pictures, that the red ctrack just casually locked to the 8bar behind it caught my eye. The ctrack and the 8bar behind it belong to two guys, who came all the way from Basel to take part in the event. Together, both of them are planning on starting their own bike brand / framebuilding shop! I had the honor of seeing the first gravel prototype that was welded but not yet painted. I’m definitely excited to see what will come out of those shop doors, once everything is up and running!

  • Back to the ctrack though, he’s owned it for around 10 years and it is in an immaculate condition with one sad exception. The toptube has a dent and a scratch after the frame made unfortunate contact with a lamppost. He was nice enough to let me ride it up and down the street infront of a café and I have to say it rides phenomenally.

During my little photo-op of all the bikes, I kept seeing wonderful builds that seemed oddly familiar. Bike after bike I saw, I could have sworn they all belonged to Corentin, but how could that be? He can only ride one bike at a time.

Yes, all 7 bikes that you see in these pictures are his. Turns out, he had the guys behind Vetra bikes staying at his apartment and was nice enough to lend out his bikes, so that they can ride around the city. What more can I say about his builds except that they are immaculate and curated with wonderful taste.

Seeing his Standert Erdgeschoss on 700c has made me want to convert my own from it’s current 650b wheels to 700c aswell. To finish off, I will include a slideshow of the other bikes I still spotted.

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Friday

  • Alright, on to Friday. There were two things planned: a fast ride at 19:00 and an afterparty at Stolen. Since all of this was in the evening, a large group of us decided to ride around Paris and take in some of the touristy things, that the city has to offer. I mean why not, if I’m in Paris I wanna see it all!

  • We started out at Sacré-Coeur. For those who don’t know, it sits on a hill that we had to struggle up. In the end we decided to take the stairs for the rest of the way though. Afterwards we visited l’arc de triomphe and notre dame during which the following bike pile was born.

  • We also stopped at a cute little café on ile Saint-Louis. Of course, another bike pile was born.

  • I also couldn’t resist the cute little streets for a quick 4100 photoshoot.

  • Before we headed to the fast ride, we stopped by at Mass Works to hangout.

  • If you’re in the Slowspin Discord, you will know who Vxarea is and his bike choice for the day did not disappoint. He came by with his BMC TRC01. It might not be the first thing your eyes glance to at this wonderful bike, but I’m massively jealous of the extralite hyper stem that he bought just a few days before the event. That stem has been on my wishlist for quite some time. He was riding on a pair of Schmolke rims (which used to be on my Standert Kreissäge road bike) laced to mack superlight hubs in a perfect pink. Overall a great bike that I would definitely take a picture of again.

The Fast Ride

Let me tell you that if there’s a reason to travel to events like these, it’s the grouprides. This one was announced as a fast ride and was basically a drop-ride in disguise. Lead by locals, through the busy Paris streets. What a wonderful feeling. These fast rides, smashing through the streets of a foreign city, not knowing where you are going or how much longer the ride is going to be. It places me into a state that can’t really be replicated through anything else. It’s an almost magical feeling that is the fuel for stories around a campfire.

Anyway, enough of the romanticizing reckless riding, time for more bike shots. During the ride we climbed what felt like each hill that exists in Paris. We took a quick brake on one of them towards the end of the ride and I had the composure to get out my camera and snag a shot of Corentin’s beautiful Champagne Quokka.

  • Before the ride had started and we gathered at Place de la Bastille, I used the opportunity to walk around and take more pictures of bikes. So in no particular order, a collection of the bikes I documented.

  • I’m not sure of the model, but the Scott xc definitely had me browsing Kleinanzeigen for xc bikes in the evening.

  • Three people were riding an optical parallax, one of them being Stephane. As a sidenote from last year I remember Stephane was riding on 33c Ultradynamico Cava tires. As an Ultradynamico enjoyer myself, that was the first time I was confronted with a 33c tire from them and have been tempted to grab a pair myself. Both Parallax builds are lovely though, don’t think one can go very wrong with a frame like that. The third one was tricked out in Enve components, don’t think more enve would have been possible.

  • Loved seeing an original Steel Vigorelli on the ride aswell. Partly an inspiration for my 4100 frame.

  • I have to hand it to this person, color matching hubs and chainring bolts is a stroke of genius I will 100% attempt on one of my next builds.

  • Stolen Afterparty

    Being at Stolen is always a highlight of Paris visits. It was the main place of the first LLT event and one of the inspiring factors behind me starting Randbezirk. Long story short of the afterparty, the police came and we had to leave.

Saturday

With the trip slowly coming to an end, I was glad that the third day started out with a chill ride through the streets. A nice contrast to the crazy ride the evening before.

We met at Steel Garage hung out a bit and then rolled around the city. An uneventful ride but that is exactly what I had been hoping for! Afterwards we were sitting in the sun, enjoying our Saturday when Margarite from Basel casually mentions, that there is an alleycat happening soon. It wasn’t a part of the “official” LLT schedule, but I can never refuse an alleycat in a foreign city. In fairness it did take a bit of motivation to get up and head over to the start, but in retrospect it was 100% worth it.

We were a group of around 6 people who had vowed to take it slow and just enjoy. This resulted in us doing 2 checkpoints, and then stopping to eat a kebab. Freshly fuelled we kept doing the alleycat for a total of around 6 or 7 checkpoints (out of a total 18) before heading to the finish.

  • One of the checkpoints was a park / graveyard where a sticker had to be found. Here, Silas quickly put his helmet on the floor to put on his Hoodie. He forgot to take the helmet into the park and 5 minutes later when we returned from searching for the sticker, the helmet and his glasses were gone. We never recovered them but we were awarded the “fastest out of towner” prize which was a pair of cycling glasses for Silas. What a grand gesture from the legends that organized the alleycat.

Sunday

Our last day was short and sweet. We started out at Mass Works for brunch and just to hang out since people were exhausted at this point. It was the day of parix-roubaix though!

During the alleycat the day before we had met one of the organizers “Kachow” who had graciously invited us to his bar Le Split to watch the race. So after finishing up at Mass Works we headed over and watched the last 110km of Paris-Roubaix and witnessed all the madness that is part of it.

  • To not end this way too long article on a non- bike picture. Here is the 4100 all packed up ready to head back to Berlin.

  • In summary this trip was well worth it! These events bring together so many great people and it’s a blast to talk to them and ride around all day. If there should be a 3rd edition next year you can be sure I will once again stuff my bike into a bag and book a train ticket to Paris.

See you next time!

Picture by Conor on a point and shoot film camera