At 8:53 PM -0400 10/16/09, Robert Clair wrote:
>... where's the love on this one !! the grant fellow in san fran
>had one of these on ebay years ago ... a herse. i think jan had
>some pics in an issue "back in the day" of some porters doing a
>bicycle race on these with newspapers. i think bilenkey is making
>a "modern" version ,,,
>
>... saw a 1967 dean martin film tonight ,,, and at the very
>beginning they did a super crane shot/scene of a period porter
>bicycle navigating through downtown town new york city ... through
>traffic. big wheel on back ...
>little wheel on the front ... with a large rack.
The NYC bike is a cycletruck - different from a porteur in that the load is attached to the frame, not the fork. The cycletruck is best for short distances, low speeds, and pushing the bike. French postal carriers use cycletrucks. Schwinn used to make one.
A porteur bike, with the load attached to the fork, is more stable and handles much better at high speed, but tends to flop at very low speeds (<5 mph), and is not much fun to push. Great for longer distances and higher speeds. The French newspaper couriers used porteurs.
If you want to know the why and which geometry works best for each, I recommend Bicycle Quarterly Vol. 5, No. 3, which covered the subject in detail, including a test of a modern cycletruck from Ant and tests with porteurs and different geometries to figure out which works best.
So don't confuse the porteurs and cycletrucks, as they are very different machines.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
2116 Western Ave.
Seattle WA 98121
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com