Following its début at the 48th edition of the world’s most exciting pop-up garage, the “Motorcycle zone” will be back with a vengeance in 2025! The line-up includes the presence of leading manufacturers and parts suppliers, salesrooms dedicated to collector bikes, the return of Ace Café, and an exhibit dedicated to Éric de Seynes.
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Two wheels hit the road again for Rétromobile!

Once again this year, vintage motorcycles will take pride of place at Rétromobile, the unmissable event for exceptional vehicles! As at last year's event, a zone dedicated to legendary two-wheelers will be set up at the heart of the show.

Coming up in the Motorcycle Zone:

 

  • The attendance of leading manufacturers (Triumph, Indian Motorcycles, Kawasaki, Honda, Royal Enfield, Godet Vincent, etc.) and suppliers of parts for motorbikes.
  • The ACE CAFE, the legendary London venue, will once again make the trip to Porte de Versailles to offer a meeting and socialising space to fans of all ages.
  • A sales space, dedicated to collector bikes, will offer the more adventurous visitors a chance to acquire their new steed.

But that’s not all: in the wake of the Monneret family in 2024, the new focus of attention in the motorcycle zone will be Éric de Seynes. On this occasion, and with the support of AXA Passion, a dedicated display of the vehicles that have left their mark on the life of this famous collector motorbike figure will also be organised at the centre of the motorcycle zone.

 

Read also: “Adolphe Kégresse, the cruising genius”

Éric de Seynes: man and motorcycle

Photo of Éric de Seynes's A1 license with caption in English

Eric de Seynes: a motorbike passion in his blood 

Motorcycles are like second nature to Eric de Seynes. They were ever-present from his very earliest years before becoming the driving force of his life. His jobs all revolved around them, from mechanic to the first “non-Japanese” CEO of Yamaha Motor Europe and a member of the brand’s executive committee. Last year he published “Légendaires, d'Agostini à Quartararo, 40 trajectoires au cœur de la moto”. A book that reads like an autobiography: he takes us on a dive into the fascinating motorcycle world through a gallery of portraits of the personalities he has met during his career, and part of his motorbike collection. Rétromobile will offer a glimpse, with a curated selection of 25 machines among his favourites.

Eric de Seynes: the birth of a motorcycle lover 

Motorbikes entered Eric de Seynes’ life through his father Pierre who pushed the boundaries of non-conformity when he bought a BMW R69S. During the euphoric Trente Glorieuses, his father cultivated his free spirit by contributing to the development of biking in France. With Jean Murit, the several-time French track racing champion, he founded the Le Chamois BMW Club in Val d’Isère, and revived the Bol d'Or race. As Eric began to learn to read, he would devour motorcycling magazines, including from Britain and Germany. At the beginning of the 1970s, he opted to spend more time repairing the mopeds in his neighbourhood than swotting up on his schoolbooks.
Photo d'époque avec légende en anglais d'Éric de Seynes, son père et des membres de sa famille sur une moto BMW R69S
image with English caption, Autograph from 1976 by Partick Pons for Eric de Seynes

Eric de Seynes : from dream to reality

Eric de Seynes dreamt of following in the tyre tracks of his idol Jarno Saarinen, a baby-faced Finn with an acrobatic riding style, who suffered a fatal accident at Monza in 1973. The same year, the teenager would cycle to the Île de Puteaux on Wednesdays and Saturdays to ride a moped on the racetrack of the French champion Georges Monneret. He joined the fan club of the new French idol Patrick Pons, and became a regular in his shop on Avenue de la Grande-Armée, popping in every morning before school for a coffee.

At the age of 16, once he had his licence, he celebrated the acquisition of his first motorbike, a Kawasaki 100 G7T, by riding 4,000 km around France! Racing was always an obsession for him, to such an extent that the city became his training rack: at every traffic light he would simulate the start of a Grand Prix by pushing his bike. He would lean low into corners - and fell off about once a month. Each time he would get back up and return to the fray, another lesson learned. At the age of 17, he started rising up through the ranks, competing in the Honda 125 challenge then in the rally of Tunisia in which he finished third among the amateurs riding a Honda 250 XLS, then doing the Paris-Dakar.

From track to boardroom in the turn of a wheel 

After a few successive jobs, he built ties with Sonauto-Yamaha, the importer of the Japanese make, and its CEO, Jean-Claude Olivier also known as JCO. He worked first at Mobil Oil with a role specifying a lubricant range that he created himself, then at Seita by supporting their sports sponsorship programme. In June 1990, JCO appointed him as head of marketing at Sonauto-Yamaha. The demon of entrepreneurship caught up with him as he turned forty.

On 1 September 2009, JCO called him up to ask him to take over at the helm of the business in France. Eric de Seynes was then promoted to chief operating officer of Yamaha Motor Europe in Amsterdam in 2014. Two years later, he joined the hallowed ranks of “Executive Officers” at Yamaha Motor Corporation, a distinction previously only awarded to Japanese managers. Ine early 2018, he was appointed President of Yamaha Motor Europe. At the end of 2023, he relinquished the executive leadership of the Japanese make’s European subsidiary, but did not give up on the bikes themselves. The man’s enthusiasm is matched only by his congeniality, and an entire Rétromobile would not be long enough to hear him tell stories of his exploits and his bikes which all hold sentimental value.

At Rétromobile 2025, alongside the two-wheelers that he owns in his family, he will also exhibit the racing machines of his idols: the 1971 Kawasaki HR1 Sidemm 1971 ridden by Christian Ravel, the Yamaha 350 on which Saarinen won the Daytona in 1974, the Yamaha 750 T7 on which Patrick Pons won the world championship in 1979, the 1989 Yamaha YZR 500 ridden by Christian Sarron. They will be on display next to the Yamahas used in the Dakar and those of the riders racing for the team today.

Photo with caption of Éric de Seynes looking up, with Christophe Guyot
Rétromobile poster infographic with yellow colors
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