Porter Bicycles – Made in New Mexico, USA

I got this oldish tube set from Omar at Oasis Bikes in AZ, he’d had it kicking around his shop for nearly ten years I think he said. At any rate his price was fair and I wanted a project and thought it would be well suited to long day rides, commuting and even touring, though I’ll admit I didn’t design it for fenders as originally it was going to be a cross bike… As Dale (CR list serve) alluded to, it has some NM turquoise and some NV Buffalo turquoise and some silver, chrome and polished steel bits to make it stand apart.If anyone wants custom racks, that’s possible too. My dog and a neighbors dog got into a bit of a well, dog fight and now I have some pending expenses I hadn’t planned on and that explains the low pricing. It’s a 1″ steerer if that makes or breaks the deal. The tubes are from Columbus and are the over sized FOCO kit with the unicrown fork and pre-mitered straight blades. It’s sized 57 x 56cm.

FOCO is made from an alloy called “Thermachrome”. It has the interesting and specific characteristic of having the same tensile strength after brazing or welding as before. There are no “hard” spots on the frame. This brings the frame closer to the builder’s ideal of taking the 8 tubes of the frame and uniting them into a single cohesive unit.

Here’s some pictures of the finished bike dolled up with paint and decals. I didn’t get the original Columbus decal from Omar so I just used an old Columbus “special tubes” decal for the job. Enjoy. Click on pics to enlarge..

Pumpkin patch Fondo

Buffalo Turquoise on the stays treatment

Chromed dropouts

Sterling silver and Turquoise head badge

silver wedding bands at the ends of the head tube too..

email me  frogeye@porterscustom.com  Well, I got through the City’s extortion proceedings without this frame, now built up and hanging in a local bike store (Bike Coop) being sold, so the killer deal is gone and it is priced accordingly.

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We had an enthusiastic group of, well.. enthusiasts participate in a rallye though the mostly North valley of the metro area.  Going as far as the Santa Anna Pueblo in that direction and just South of Central Ave in the other. This is part of my yearly drive to raise some money to purchase gloves, tires/tubes, and similar stuff for our wheelchair bound Vets. The cars ranged from a 40’s Chrysler Airflow to a new Porsche Boxster. We collected $275 and would have done better had the local weather forecasters not deemed the weekends weather to be “wild”. As it was there was 2-3 minutes of light rain at the start line, some wind gusts and on and off periods of cloudiness. There was a lighthearted attempt to impeach me as the rallye master as I missed the correct name of one street, nevertheless all found the finishing point where we enjoyed burgers and mostly coffee.

Typical blustery fall day

Click on pic to enlarge-arrow back to text..

Rolling along in a TR4

At one point a rallyist asked a Santa Anna Pueblo resident for directions at which point the gentleman offered an unsolicited  donation from his pocket after being told what the rallye was for. How cool is that. Good Morning America, I’m a native son. Thanks all! Dave.

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I’ll start with a picture..

Hot blooded Italian

3.5 liter straight 6 twin cam with 3 Webers and dual plugs. Everyone should have one of these. My only complaint is that in Italian fashion it is a short stroke and requires a lot of RPM’s to make its 220 HP

This car was the 1957 Paris show car and has a few extra pieces of chrome and at first blush is perhaps more of a ladies favorite, that is until one drives this car. It has a tube frame and for it’s era rides and handles about as good as they got. Stays dead flat through hard corners. The gearbox is a delight and the pedals work so well I’m amazed it’s Italian. The vacuum assisted brakes are at times over-boosted, but when the tempo is pushed they too are a joy. Hope you all like it.. dp

Cockpit view-obligatory Nardi steeringwheel

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