Do not come here for a bicycle you can sit on
If you want a complete bicycle you can sit on in the shop, skip La Bécanerie. The Avignon address is a warehouse hatch for parcels that already exist as web orders, not a cycle atelier with a jig and a coffee machine. You will not get a standover fitting, a first service, a hydraulic bleed, or a mechanic who trues a wheel while you wait. Saturday and Sunday are closed. The hatch will not change the order or swap a cassette because the stamp on your old part disagrees with the label in the carton. A local shop still owns those jobs.
You should also skip the site if you cannot name the part. Typing “vélo électrique” and hoping a ready-to-ride city bike appears is barking up the wrong tree. The electric-bike pages I opened were maintenance hardware — batteries, guards, service kits — not a wall of sized framesets. Can I just drive to Courtine on Saturday and grab a cassette? No. Collection costs nothing only after they email that the parcel is packed, and the industrial zone does not keep weekend hours. I went back through the public vélo pages on 27 September 2026. A complete-bike configurator was unpublished. I am not sure a full bicycle is hiding on a page I missed. If one shows up later in a live basket, treat that card as an exception, not as the reason this catalogue exists.
The customer this shop actually serves looks more like a Sunday in a packed hallway. The bike is upside down on a towel so the chain does not mark the tiles. The old cassette sits in a rag. You are photographing the lockring stamp because Monday’s commute will not wait, and a landlord already side-eyes the second hook in the cellar. You are not browsing for a new gravel dream. You are trying to keep the machine you already own rolling. That is the job. Everyone else should rewind and read what this family mail-order house actually is, because the homepage still leads with motorcycles and the bicycle aisle is one department inside that warehouse.
Rewind: a 50cc counter, then a Courtine hatch
Djamal Henni opened a 50cc-parts counter in Loire-Atlantique in 1978 and nicknamed it La Tasse d’Or. Mail order under the La Bécanerie banner arrived eight years later, in 1986. The live company is still family-run, now at 265 rue du Grand Gigognan, ZI Courtine, 84000 Avignon, on 04 65 640 640. I am not going to invent a filing name the pages I opened did not print. That stays unpublished. The homepage still leads with motorcycle, scooter, 50cc, off-road and quad universes. The bicycle department sits inside that two-wheel catalogue; it is not the whole shop. Marketing lines cite about 300,000 references and 1,000 brands, free mainland shipping from eighty-nine euros under the published bands, conditional free returns on rider kit when the rules allow it, and payment split into three interest-free instalments. The business is mail-order parts and kit, not a fitting room.
Courtine is set up as a collection window for web orders. Hours on the delivery page run Monday to Thursday from half past seven to six without a lunch close, and Friday from eight to five. Weekend closed. You wait for the ready-mail, then show the order number and an identity document. Collection costs nothing and changes nothing: no on-the-spot edits at the hatch. Do not arrive expecting to try a saddle or drop off a carbon frame for a headset job. Nothing on the delivery page offers that work. The metaphor I keep using is a fastener catalogue that happens to stock bicycle sprockets. You order the bolt whose thread you already measured. You do not ask them to hang the shelf.
Two products. Then I stop naming.
Open the vélo section and you get components and accessories, not a showroom of sized complete bikes. Category copy covers brakes, tyres, tubes, transmission, saddles, bags, and lights. I will not inventory every groupset on the Shimano tree. You can keep a bicycle or an assisted bike rolling if you can match the old part. You cannot, from the pages I opened, add a sized complete bicycle to the cart. Helmets, locks, and jackets sit in the wider two-wheel shop and follow clothing sizes, not frame sizes. If you need a fifty-four centimetre endurance frameset, look at a cycle specialist.
I am naming two products so the price scale is honest, then I stop. First, a puncture-resistant city tyre — the Schwalbe Marathon Plus — sits around forty euros on cards I have seen in that aisle. Second, a Shimano Steps replacement battery sits around six hundred seventy euros. Cheap consumables only make sense if postage stays small. High-ticket electrical parts can still beat a dealer if the part is scarce and you have matched the motor family. A mid-range cassette lives between those poles. I will not recite the rest of the brand wall. If a card is vague, use the contact form for a product question. The hatch will not rebuild the order when you arrive.
Who should put a part in the basket
This cart fits people who already have a bicycle in the hallway, already know the part number, and can live with Colissimo, Chronopost, or a weekday collection in Avignon. Commuters replacing a worn cassette. Someone whose assisted-bike battery has gone flat and who can match the motor family from the old label. A parent keeping a trailer in tubes. Riders who already use the motorcycle side of the same house. Photograph the stamp, compare the title, and read the carrier named in the basket. A cheap rim stops being cheap if freight adds forty euros. Courtine is not a Saturday bike shop.
The honest customer already flipped the bike, read the stamp, and got tired of waiting three weeks for a local counter to order the same cassette. Not a mood shopper. Not someone who needs a shop to press a headset or diagnose a high-voltage pack. Those jobs stay with a mechanic who will stamp the work. La Bécanerie will put a tracking number on a carton.
Matching a part when nobody is standing next to the bike
You size a part here the way you size a bolt: by the numbers on the old piece, not by standing over a frameset. The cassette has to agree with the freehub standard, how many sprockets you run, and the biggest cog your cage can wrap. The chain has to match that speed count, and on Steps bikes it has to be the e-bike-specific part. The tyre has to match bead diameter and the rim’s inner width. The battery has to match the motor family; the Steps pack I named is not a generic brick you swap onto a different system. Photograph the old part, note the lockring stamp, and check it against the card title before you pay. Their tutorials exist because a mismatch is how these orders fail.
If the listing is vague, ask their product line before you pay. Once a cassette or chain is on the bike, you no longer have the clothing-style send-back that still applies to an unused jersey. Wrong-part returns need photos of what arrived and what you already had. Do not assume the hatch will sort it when you arrive with the wrong speed count in a bag. The hatch is a collection window, not a workshop counter.
Search the code on your old part If the stamp on the cassette, tyre, or battery matches a live card, check the carrier and the eighty-nine euro shipping step before you add a second line.
What the carton costs to move, in words
Mainland France pickup points currently price Chronopost Express, the twenty-four-hour line, at about six euros fifty under eighty-nine euros of goods, two euros ninety from eighty-nine up to just under one hundred forty-nine, and free from one hundred forty-nine. Chronopost Eco and Colissimo to a pickup point sit around five or six euros under eighty-nine, then free from eighty-nine. Home Chronopost Express is about eight euros under eighty-nine and about five euros once you clear eighty-nine — it does not fall to zero even above one hundred forty-nine. Home Colissimo is about seven euros, then about three, then free above one hundred forty-nine. Kuehne Nagel is a flat forty euros for two-to-three-day home freight when a carton will not fit a letterbox product. If you miss a Colissimo drop, the usual rebook window is about six days, or a post-office hold up to fifteen days. Corsica uses the same Colissimo steps. Monaco starts a little higher: Colissimo about nine euros under ninety, then free; Chronopost Express about eight then five; freight still forty.
Overseas and export prices jump, and a small part dies on postage. French overseas departments are listed around fifty-one euros under ninety of goods and around one hundred twenty-four above, with six-to-eight-day estimates. Overseas territories start around one hundred eighteen euros and can pass two hundred forty. European Union zone one — Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands — is about fourteen euros, then nine, then five, over three to five days. Austria sits in a dearer band around nineteen to thirty-two euros. Switzerland starts around twenty-eight euros and rises with basket value, and foreign customs clearance is paid on collection. Wheels or a battery can flip a mainland order onto the forty-euro freight carrier even if the goods themselves look cheap. Check which name the basket assigned before you pay.
- Under eighty-nine euros in mainland France, expect a few euros on pickup-point Colissimo or Chronopost, and about eight euros for home express
- From eighty-nine euros, pickup-point Eco and Colissimo go free; home express stays a few euros; home Colissimo drops to about three
- From one hundred forty-nine euros, pickup-point express and home Colissimo go free; home Chronopost Express still does not
- Bulky cartons can ignore those steps and sit on Kuehne Nagel at a flat forty euros
- Corsica follows the mainland Colissimo steps; Monaco starts a little higher; overseas departments and territories jump into fifty-to-two-hundred-forty-euro bands
- Germany starts around fourteen euros on a small basket; Switzerland starts around twenty-eight and can add customs on collection
> This hatch will send you a cassette if you can read the stamp in the hallway. It will not hand you a sized bicycle and a test ride because you drove to Courtine and hoped. > > — Alex Rivera
Fourteen days, a clothing-shaped return, and the hatch that will not argue
You have fourteen days after the parcel arrives to withdraw. Write first so they can set the conditions. Unused, unfitted goods go back in a box that protects the original pack, invoice included. The free-return line they advertise for rider equipment is clothing-shaped sizing for mainland France excluding Corsica, after you request a return slip inside those fourteen days. One-size kit and vehicle parts sit outside that free offer. Pads and other wear parts sit outside the commercial-guarantee route they publish. Loyalty points vanish on refunded returns. Professional accounts need a Kbis younger than twelve months and about five hundred euros including tax of yearly purchases for a ten percent cut off the public prices on the cards. None of this is a shop swapping a fifty-eight centimetre frame for a fifty-six out of goodwill. There is no fifty-eight centimetre frame on the aisle I opened.
Leave torque-critical work, and any job that needs a shop stamp, with the independent down the road. A wrong-speed chain on the wrong freehub costs more than the hour you skipped. Safety-critical installs — pressed headsets, motor firmware, high-voltage battery diagnosis — are not hatch jobs. I will not promise a result from a product page. The warehouse ships the part you specified. You, or the mechanic you pay, still have to fit it.
- Skip if you came for a whole bicycle, a child fitting, or a first service on a new frameset
- Skip if you need Saturday opening, a same-day walk-in, or a hatch that will edit the order
- Skip if you cannot name the part and hoped the search bar would invent a sized e-bike
- Skip if the install is safety-critical and you have no mechanic — headset press, motor firmware, battery diagnosis
- Skip French overseas routes unless the live shipping line still beats a local importer after the jump
- Skip the free-kit-return line for a cassette; that offer is written for clothing
Checkout questions people ask out loud
Do they sell complete bicycles?
The vélo universe I reviewed is parts, wheels, tyres, forks, bags, and assisted-bike service items. I did not see a build-your-bike tool or a sized frameset on those category pages on 27 September 2026. If a complete bike appears later, treat it as unpublished until it is in your basket. If you want a new assisted mountain bike, go to a dealer who keeps sizes in the room and books a first service. If you want a cassette or the Marathon Plus, this aisle is the right click.
Can I collect a cassette the same day I click?
No. Avignon collection costs nothing, but only after they email that the parcel is packed. Hours are weekday-only: roughly half past seven to six Monday to Thursday and eight to five on Friday, weekend closed. Show up in Avignon without that email and the hatch sends you home. When the part is in stock, paid Chronopost Express to a pickup point is the mainland overnight option. Plan around the email, not around the industrial-zone gate.
Why is there a forty-euro Kuehne Nagel line?
Because some cartons are freight, not a letterbox tyre. Their delivery page lists Kuehne Nagel at forty euros for two-to-three-day mainland home delivery regardless of the eighty-nine-euro Colissimo threshold. A wheelset, a long fork box, or anything that stacks awkwardly is what usually trips it. Take Colissimo when the basket still shows it. If freight is the only line, add that forty euros to the part and compare the total with a nearby shop that already stocks the wheel. The Steps battery can land on an awkward carrier too; read the name in the basket.
How do I choose a cassette without a shop mechanic?
Look at what you already run: how many speeds, how big the low cog is, and which freehub body it slides onto. Then check that the rear cage can handle that range. An eight-speed eleven-to-thirty-four is not an eleven-speed part. If you recently converted to a single chainring, confirm the rear mech can wrap the new low gear. When the title is muddy, photograph the stamp and write their product desk before you pay. The hallway photo is not a flourish. It is the whole method.
Is shipping to Germany or Switzerland worth it on a small part?
Zone one Germany starts around fourteen euros under ninety of goods and falls to about five euros on a larger basket. Switzerland starts around twenty-eight euros and climbs as the basket grows, plus possible customs on collection. A seven-euro tube is a poor export once postage and duties land. The Steps pack around six hundred seventy euros can still undercut a shop if nobody nearby has it, once you add border tax. Run the live table at checkout. Those figures are published bands, not a promise that every part ships to every postcode.
Is the free return valid on a cassette?
Treat it as no. The advertised free return is rider-equipment sizing for mainland France excluding Corsica, after you request a slip within fourteen days. Vehicle parts and one-size kit are excluded. A cassette is a vehicle part. You still have the statutory fourteen-day withdrawal on unmounted goods if you contact them first and pack the carton properly, but expect to pay the return carriage unless they tell you otherwise in writing. Do not mount the part if you are still deciding.
What do I show at the Avignon hatch, and can I pay in three times?
The ready-mail, the order number, and an identity document. No ready-mail, no parcel. The hatch will not take a verbal description of the part you meant to order. Payment in three interest-free instalments is a homepage marketing line; the live checkout decides eligibility, and I will not invent a minimum the pages I opened left unpublished. If the three-times option does not appear on your basket, it is not available for that mix of goods and address. Pay the way the basket offers, or walk away.
Open the La Bécanerie vélo aisle Match the stamp, read the carrier, then order the part — not a fantasy complete bike.
Use the hatch for the part you can name
La Bécanerie earns the click when you can name a Shimano cassette, a Marathon Plus, or a Steps battery and you accept weekday Avignon collection or a named parcel service. It is the wrong click for a whole bicycle, a fitting session, or a workshop rebuild. Add the eighty-nine and one-hundred-forty-nine shipping steps, and the forty-euro freight line, before you call a fork a bargain. Leave torque-critical work with the shop that will stand behind the install. For the part you can name on a Sunday in the hallway, this Avignon catalogue is built for that job. For the bicycle you have not sat on yet, it is not.
