We just received sample VO Porteur bars. You may remember that we used to sell NOS Belleri Porteur bars from France. Of course Belleri is long out of business, but hardly a week goes by without someone asking if we have just one last pair. So I decided to make our own Porteur bars.
The samples are perfect (a welcome change) with a 48cm width, about 2cm drop, 25.4mm clamp area, and 23.8mm tubing. The quality and polishing are very nice. The transition from the grip to the curve on the originals was a little more abrupt, which is actually very attractive. Our version has a gentler transition. The curves on both versions are fuller and, to my eye, prettier than the somewhat similar Champs Elysées bars used on the old Herse bikes.
They should arrive in about three months. I don't know what the price will be yet, maybe $30-$35.
Those are the originals on the VO Gentleman bike below:
UPDATE: These bars should arrive in early July
24 April, 2009
VO Porteur Bars
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25 comments:
Chris, if it's not too much trouble, can you post an overhead pic of the bars? I'd like to get a better look at the curves and grip length.
Thanks,
Lee
I'd suggest having the VO engraved at the bar end where it will be covered by tape/grips (as does the Belleville). I'm sure somebody out there would like to run the bar flipped so there is a touch of rise instead of a touch of drop - and this way the logo will not be upside down. An extremely minor detail but why not do away with it while you can?
I understand that promoting one's brand is generally good practice but I have to say I'm not really a fan of the laser etched VO logos popping up on the new products. I'd just rather not have em'... just sayin'...
If they must be there, I'd rather have them screened on in silver so I have the option of polishing them off.
All that said, another fine product - a great looking bar!
I love my Belleris, and would order an extra pair of these. Thank you.
My personal opinion about the logo would be to put it where the others traditionally are, up near the stem. Why? Because otherwise it's too generic. It's okay for things to have logos, they just have to look good!
Garth
Nice looking bar, slightly more voluptouos than the Belleri.
This is a surprisingly good alternative, perhaps closer in shape to the Belleri? It has a peculiar 24.0 mm clamp area - luckily a tuna can is pretty close to 0.5 mm thick...
"backdoor man" makes the point of banning anonymous posters so easy to understand.
Uncle Ankle - those bars flare out at a wider angle than the Belleris. The new VO bars look close to the original in this regard.
The VO bars are almost identical in shape to the originals, save for the slightly different curve and about 5mm extra width.
the extra width is coming from our making the handles a little longer to better fit 3 finger brake levers which seem to be the standard these days. the french had smaller hands?
The front section seems more curvy, unless it's just the camera?
This Belleri style is great. I use them with road brakes mounted Moustache bar style, but the Moustache bars go too far forward. And these being narrower, feel less like I'm holding a wheelbarrow.
kewl,
Garth
I use guidonet levers on mine, which works great because they free up the the whole bar for hand placement without the under-tape cables of inverse levers. No fan of those.
Ditto on guidonnet levers...that's what we did on Gina's 650B conversion.
Maybe Chris ought to get guidonnet levers made too! Ours worked well on the Nitto Promenades we tried as well, the flat ones...though she didn't like the bars themselves in the end. The Belleri porteurs have been perfect! Glad Chris has brought them back. Might buy a pair just to get away from having to use a shim.
Just this morning we heard that the Dia Compe guidonnet levers I mentioned recently are in would soon be shipped to us.
I actually like the little grip for my fingers that are the cables from inverse levers.
these bars look great, kudos! I was wondering if there has ever been any interest in a couple things to improve fender lines... one being darumas with a longer bolt to allow the fender to sit lower. Also drop bolts, or something similar, for the rear brake bridge to lower the fender/brake. I'm pretty sure NOBODY makes drop bolts anymore... i wonder if there is a market? These might be mainly 650b conversion products...
I used nylon spacers from the hardware store. They have black and a milky transluscent color. For the Daruma, I made up some rubber washers to slip under.
A lot of people use cork because it's easy to work with and looks cool. They synthetic cork might actually be better in regards of durability.
Coolness about the guidonnet levers.
How about a nice alloy tail light but with an LED?
sincerely,
Garth
Many hardware stores carry wonderful alloy spacers that should prove quite durable. I used a couple on the rear fender of my "Pseudobecane" with massive tire clearance. Faucet washers provide some noise control.
I have an inverse daruma--steerer plug with hole for brake bolt and threaded to receive a bolt--which I got I don't know where, but which would be wonderful to provide for bikes with large front tire clearance. Just use a button-head bolt coming up from underneath the fender and some spacers; bolts come in all sizes and can even be cut. (Sorry, no photo of it.)
On the subject of basket/rack friendly handlebars
These look terrific! However, in my experience the thing about these swept-back bars is that it's hard to find stems long enough. For anything but the flattest terrain, I really feel that having the bars a reasonable distance forward of the saddle is a must. Otherwise, it gets very hard to ride standing up -- which can be helpful for hills. And you can't make up for it by just pushing the saddle back, because as soon as you stand up the saddle position's moot. (The extreme example would be, if you've ever tried to ride one of those old English roadsters standing up.)
With drop bars, your hands when on the brake hoods are about a foot farther forward than they are gripping some of these swept-back bars, at least if you use the same stem.
Is the solution to sell really long stems?
The real solution is to have extra-long top tubes on frames intended for use with those swept-back city bars.
I have been salivating everytime I see these bars. Can you give me a month and aproximate date, so I can write it down on my calender to have something to dream about at work.
Yes. A longer frame (or full-size frame?) would mean more wheel/toe clearance as well.
This design is meant as more of an upright position.
If you wanted a more forward position, perhaps the Moustache Handlebars would be better suited?
I've had the opposite experience of the above commentes - almost all production bikes in my size have tt's that are too long for me. Ideally, I'd ride a 60.5 x 56 c-t-c. Some older frames can be found near to these measurements but nothing new comes close. Promenade/swept back style bars have allowed me to ride several bikes that otherwise would have had a 70mm stem on them, still been a bit of a stretch and handled poorly.
These style bars are making there way onto many of my bikes. Also, I never ride in the drops so I don't miss them at all.
That's not the opposite experience, that's the same experience. Bars like the Albatross or these Porteur bars need a longer top tube to put the bars in a "normal" position than drop bars. If your drop bars are too far away, bars like this will be closer.
The problem comes in if you have a frame whose top tube is sized for drop bars (e.g., your 60x56) and you want to put bars like this on. Now the porteur bars will be too close, and you'll need a long stem to get them where they need to be.
Are they getting close. Not a day goes by I don't check the blog, please be soon.
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