one year on the porteur

i thought i would add a small update to the porteur bikes tale,
a few mods have taken place since i started using this super useful bike ,

the porteur carrying 40 shimano 7spd freewheels

berthoud mudguards, i wanted velo orange ones but as usual they were sold out everywhere i looked , a medium cage rear mech and 105 front mech  along with a vintage stronglight 32/52 chainset was added as the 53 single was just too much when carrying 20+ kilo's on steep climbs, i also swapped out the freewheel for an old Sachs item as all the shimano freewheels i tried refused to index correctly with the 7 speed shifters  and tiagra rear mechs, the sachs item works perfectly ! , go figure ;:-/

apart from those few small alterations its all the same , it gets worked hard, not a day goes by that this bike doesnt carry something , its become indispensable to me , with hindsight i would have liked a rail around the cargo area like the soma and VO porteur racks have but i will get one for the other porteur bike i am building,  

more soon :-)

new tyres

sadly my old specialized all conditions armadillo tyres gave up the ghost , the rear ,which was 13 years old!  actually de-laminated and was making a flapping sound , kinda like having an angry kipper cable tied to the rear wheel , 

after a quick search through our suppliers catalogue i found the  Schwalbe  delta cruiser creme 700 x 35 c , they are a very tight fit under the 40mm mudguards but since i set up the mudguards (i didnt cut the stays down when i initially fitted them ) i havent run into any issues , that may change come the autumn ,with all those leaves on the ground quietly laying in wait for a bicycle mudguard to get sucked into!

I have also built a new rear wheel , NOS Mavic MA40 ,40 hole laced with ACI Alpina  double butted onto a Bayliss Wiley lightweight LF hub , similar to the British Hub Company 'Airlite' but with a slightly firmer ,better tracking' feel ,

the rear light is a 1950's item that i have done an easily reversible conversion to 5 LED bulbs , set up for 9V as i intend to hide a li-po 1400 2s (8.4v) pack inside the seat tube and run wire out through a tiny hole i will drill in the seat tube just below the bottom of the seat post,

 i may be able to get three packs in parallel  if i cut off some of the 7" of seat post there is inside the frame, there is also the option of using 18650 or larger 25500 lithium cells , the 25500 is very tempting as they can be had with over 5000mah capacity , four of those hooked up in a 4s2p configuration (two series packs hooked up in parallel) to give 8.4v 10 amp hour pack or greater ! concealed inside the frame with the lights all bolted on to the bike is a must for the winter , (i HATE having to remove lights just because i fancy a pint and lock up my bike)

 i was thinking about a dynamo hub and may still get one  but i would rather have extra weight without the odd feel of the dynamo's mechanical resistance.

porteurs, or porters , cycle porteurs to be specific ,cycle couriers or ,  messengers would also be correct , 

of course cycle deliveries were everywhere ,from small corner shops to large dispatching warehouses all over the place ,  but, the French newspaper porteurs had a certain style with their fairly lightweight sports bike with a large rack up front and swept back bars to clear the cargo , 

obviously quite popular !

it was quite common for the porteurs of a town/city to come together to race their bikes but also to race with a load on board , to mix it up a bit they would do what was a type of short Randonnee,' similar to what the modern cycle messengers call "ally cats" ,although the porteurs did it with  each stop involving unloading and reloading at each check point.

 Now, i have read various claims of how much weight was carried ranging from 10kg to 50kg , as someone who spent many years as a morning paper boy carrying proper broad sheet Sunday papers i would estimate that those guys hauled about 12kg at the max , although that is still over 20lb ,

inspired by these old photos of the French Porteurs racing their bikes' that appear when you search for 'porteur' in Google images,  i decided to convert my old Carlton Capella to a porteur bike , there are many styles of porteur bike ,some are 'sit up and beg' and far too nice to use and abuse and i wanted the low profile style as in the pic above , so the Carlton is ideal for a trial build.

 i went for the Velo Orange porteur bar , i like to have a choice of hand positions and these offer just that  they are also of a high quality and look and feel like they will last for many years,,I also like to have access to the brakes from all positions ,  the only solution i could find that didnt  involve two pairs of brake levers was the Dia Compe 139 Guidonnet levers, nice and simple and have lots of power so one finger is all thats needed,
 I raked the old bits box in the shed for most of the parts , cranks are stronglight 99t with single 53t chainring , new old stock sedis 5/6 speed chain , tiagra rear mech , 7 speed index bar end shifter, campagnolo front brake and a GB courier 66 at the rear ,mavic ma40 rims on campagnolo hubs and of course,, a brooks b15 swallow, and matching brooks honey mud flap, the tyres are specialized all condition armadillo , thee most puncture resistant tyres i have come across in my 25 years as a cyclist and cycle mechanic.

the old Carlton has had many years of abuse since i got it from a nice chap on ebay for £40, its been running as a single speed for the last 6 years or so,, i plan on having it re-painted in French blue with off white headtube and red lining .
i went for the geared option over the wonderful simplicity of single speed as i live in Edinburgh, which is just a hill in all directions, and, when loaded this will be a heavy beast, so a few gears are most welcome,, 53t c/wheel 13-28 freewheel


 i will be building a new front wheel  with a super strong, maxi-car 40 hole hub on a mavic ma40 and fitting white pasela tg tyres and some swanky berthaud or velo orange mudguards soon if i can find the long 40mm ones in stock somewhere!, my main reason for wanting different ones is for better front protection from back wash that you get most modern mudguards at anything over 15mph and the metal ones are stronger  , but first i will fit the porteur rack , i went for the minoura gamoh porteur , it seems to be the closest to the ones that the porteur racers used,

you may have noticed that the fork on the carlton has quite a bit of rake to reduce the front trail, this helps the front end stay stable in the turns when it has a load on board,, ideally it should have a bit more than the 63mm rake these have but as mentioned i am trying to keep the handling quick feeling and will put up with the very fast steering feel  ,,,

another fitting that features on many porteur bikes is the chain guard or chain case if you prefer, the one below is the stunning Grand cru from those nice people at Velo Orange who are soooo good at taking the past and improving it a little then make it look so damn fine!! i like VO a lot, hope they bring out a lugged steel stem for quill and A-head systems,, plleeeeaaaasse

, i am tempted to fit one as i have dropped the chain twice when swiping through from 2nd to 7th gear in one go, a well considered chain guard would solve this along with a guide plate on the back side of the guard, another option is the chain guide, such as the very nice one on this Hufnagel ,

 will try a few things and post them up in time!;-\
i will post up some more pics and thoughts on the Gamoh rack when it arrives

  , 

it finally arrived !
a few words on fitting,
awkward is a good word for it ,it only has three point mounting so the top bracket that fits to the crown had to be bent and tweaked (due to the low profile crown on my fork) in order to clear the lower race of the headset as can be seen in the pics above, a vice is needed to do this as the stainless steel is very tough ,not Minoura's problem and more of a peculiarity of my forks.but a double check before ordering might be advised,( from the mounting hole centre in the fork crown to the bottom edge of your lower crown race you will need a distance of around 20mm !) no big issue to me as knew i would run into issues with this set up, the best option would be to use a touring fork with cantilever bosses and crown top bosses for a solid 4 point mounting .

The lower mounts are fitted to the mudguard (fender) eyes on the drop outs , the rack comes with bolts for this mounting point but they are too short , when fitted through the rack there is only about 3.5mm of thread left ,odd considering the sturdy m6 nuts and bolts that are supplied for all other fittings , will get some 40mm long M5 bolts and fit lock nuts on the back too(or even grind the stand off's) , the rack also comes with auxiliary eyes as can be seen in one of the pics above , nice touch as they also carry a lot of load off the mudguard eyes on the fork and share it with the QR skewers , another issue i ran into and was expecting is,the handlebar  stem, its too low and restricts the load on the rack, i will hunt out a more suitable replacement to improve the clearance ,

quality?
materials are all very substantial and all fittings appear to be stainless steel , the actual rack and uprights are made entirely from tubular steel, its begging for a bit of modification with the brazing torch , i might even have it brazed to the fork and all painted up in the colour scheme i mentioned earlier, this would also give the opportunity to get the rack hugged down on the front wheel and also to get rid of all the mounting hardware for a clean look ,  i am surprised that  minoura didn't fit provision to mount an extra long front mudguard  , easy enough to cut and braze a couple of stand off's on to the steel deck tubes though , i will save that job until i have the extra long front mudguard.

i ground the stand off's that are brazed to the rack ends down by 5mm to get the bolts better located in the dropout eye's ,and, moved the top mount back as far as i could without fowling the brake calliper ,
stem change , not as elegant or shock absorbing as the eighties ITM unit but it does the job just fine for now,

over all i am very happy with the rack and will enjoy modding it .

should i use a Brooks B17 or B15 swallow ? comments welcome.
finally got round to building the front wheel , the one i had on it was a 32 hole MA40 on a campag athena hub , when the bike was loaded there was a lot of wobble and unpredictable mistracking , the culprit i suspected was the front axle flexing , the 531 fork is just not still enough to hold everything true , the Maxi-Car front hub has an oversized axle and bearings and uses a very different cup and cone system , very similar to more modern heavy duty cartridge bearing ATB hubs but with an adjustable cup and cone,



the new front wheel has made a massive difference , if you are planning on building a porteur style bike then get a good strong stiff front hub .

next the chain guard.
i work at a bicycle recycling facility and a couple of years ago we got an old 60's Peugeot randonneur ,beautiful bike but it had been totally written off in a nasty pile up while being transported on a motorway on a rack on the back of a car, the only part i could salvage was the chain guard and even that was bent and  has a crack in it, it has been kicking around my shed for ages , a touch of polish and an old benelux shifter bracket to fit to the downtube and et viola ,

i absolutely love riding this old beast, it weighs a ton but, it just feels right and is really useful,

next the prop stand or kick stand , Velo Orange do a nice double leg number that will be perfect and in keeping with the theme,
more soon


  i also have a 1949 vindec speedwing special (full butted 531 tube set and nervex lugs) which i plan on building as a rando  , until then ,get out and ride , anywhere ;-)

some of the pics on this blog are borrowed with gratitude!! but, if the owners of the pics want me to remove them they only have to contact me and i will remove them fourth with. .

sadly , it is with a heavy heart that i must report the death of the porteur bike , i lady driver pulled out of a junction right onto the rear end , shes a right off !