Owen is a bike messenger in LA. He'd been waiting for a Porteur rack for months and eventually bought one of the prototypes. He writes:
Here are some pictures of the rack on my madison. My Bottecchia, well, it kind of died. That was the bike I bought the rack for originally, but a bent fork, then stolen wheels, got me upset enough that I just got a metal worker to make a mounting system to have the rack go onto the madison.
It's nice to see the racks used the way porteur racks were intended to be used..... The messengers in downtown all have something to say about it. I keep telling them they can make more money with the rack and have more to talk to girls about.
Funny, I originally thought to get a rack back in June so I'd be able to ride shirtless while I work. Now it's winter. Well, winter in LA anyway. Can't ride shirtless now, that's the point.
Speaking of long waits, I'm waiting for some samples of very cool lights to arrive, also some VO prototypes.
UPDATE: Ryan just sent this photo of his working porteur (based on a $25 rummage sale frame) with a VO rack:
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11 comments:
Chris,
What's the status on the fillet-brazed Nitto quill stem?
Michael, So far I have heard of no progress. They have a lot of projects, including several for us that we are making progress on, so I didn't think this would happen right away. Sometime this winter they'll get to it, I hope.
ah, um, courier rack?
The Courier racks were shipped today. they should arrive about Monday.
Lends a whole new meaning to the term "nice rack".
I said "nice rack" to a girl who had a cetma rack the other day and got in trouble.
I'm interested in the mounting system on the Madison. It would be interesting to see how that works, and see how hard it would be to make a similar rig that could be used for any courier rack/any road bike.
the use of a track iron to haul cargo still baffles me. I like the ideas from Kemper in London-purpose built cargo bikes
http://www.velorution.biz/?page_id=994
darcy
I wonder what kind of homebrew panniers "Ryan" is using on his porteur?
I love the color of the bike in the photo by the fed ex box. I'm considering having my bike repainted. Is it possible to have a bike repainted in that 'chrome' look, or is that basically just polished metal and therefore not possible?
yankee, i'm guessing a big part of it is image and the desire to set one's self apart from the civilian crowd. too bad riding a track bike isn't exclusive anymore.
another part of it is the track-bike's quickness of handling, lightness of being, and relative ease of maintenance. i think the last one is the most important one is the last one, though: someone riding a bike hard dozens of miles a day, five days a week in all weather conditions would value simplicity of operation greatly. things like brake pads and other consumables wear out fast and are expensive to replace?
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