It’s no news that cycling is good for you.

It gets you outside. It keeps you out of your car, which means fewer emissions. It brings you into a community of people. It makes you active. Above all, the simple act of biking often is a recipe for feeling good: try cycling on a sunny afternoon without breaking a smile.

Cycling isn’t just a choice to being greener or healthier; it’s a lifestyle, a thing that, if you’re luck, truly gets incorporated into your everyday.

But to start riding, you need a bicycle.

Look no further than Papillionaire, a Melbourne-based, women-led company that recently brought their operations to the U.S., starting with a shop in Brooklyn. Their Dutch-style bikes are sleek and simple, the kind of bicycle you want to ride and want to be seen on.

It’s not just any bike company. Papillionaire’s goal is making cycling easy and accessible to all, especially the one demographic that often gets left out: women. For a variety of reasons, females are a minority in the traditional cycling market. Given cycling’s benefits, and the fact that women who bike 30 minutes a day have a lower risk of breast cancer, that’s something that needs to change.

Don’t believe that there’s a market for women’s focused bike products? Papillionaire is run with women in mind, and the company’s attitude has helped them bring in a predominantly female customer base – in Australia it’s 80 percent and in the US it’s 60-70 percent. In both places that’s a significant number, and as they grow, we can hope that the female interest in cycling does as well.

Their bicycles are drool-worthy–the kind of thing you want to take out for a spin the second you see them. And that’s how a good bike should be. If you aren’t inspired to ride it, you won’t use it.

If you’re not in Brooklyn, you can track down one of their dealers around the U.S. and also shop Papillionaire online, and even order a bike and get it sent straight to your doorstep.

Intrigued? Here is a selection of what Papillionaire has to offer:

Images: Papillionaire

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