Porter Bicycles – Made in New Mexico, USA

Here are links to a two-part interview with local racing legend John Frey with whom I have had a long and fruitful collaboration. The article and pictures speak for themselves.

Retro PEZ Talk: Chrono Legend John Frey Part 1!

Retro PEZ Talk: Chrono Legend John Frey Part 2!

Comments (0)

Just a quick notation on my “restoration” services. This frame from 1991 was one I’d made for one of the shop’s team riders.  Gabe was/is very hard on his equipment. I don’t recall seeing as many dents in any one frame or fork before.  Of course he explained it away as being this crash or that incident…. here’s a look at it when it arrived a couple days ago..

Well used MAX Porter click on to enlarge-arrow back

The frame was at the bike store hanging in the repair area. I asked about it and the guys said that he wanted to build it up again and ride it as his last “lightweight” (steel-bamboo) had broken in half..  Anyway, not wanting him “out there” on one of my frames that was as beat up as this old race bike, I offered a Bro deal to make it at least presentable again and the “deal” allowed me some discretion in how it would look..  His fork was the worst as it had been laying in the dirt in his back yard for years…

really rusted steerer tube

The fork had been in one of the previously mentioned crashes.. a crit where he’d got off line and sucked a marker cone between the blade and wheel..  I always liked the look of the MAX crown and the fat aero blades though they never fit worth a damn and required excess filler to look half way right. Nevertheless I spent some extra time to make this one safe and functional again..  Here’s a couple after the repair shots.. even still I missed a big ding in the top tube.. maybe a decal will cover it, just like the old PowerBar decal in the first picture..

AH! Signal Green.. like FM pumps..

seat lug

a real pump peg

Well, it is what it is.. probably good for a couple more years hammering from an old guy, but former National jersey winner..

As usual send me your comments and critiques…

Comments (0)

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.

Comments (0)

The title is misleading. I just saw a post on the frame builders forum asking the members what they were taking to this years Philly Expo, well I’m not going simply because it’s a long way from here. I did however just finish another Spirit tubed racer for an old friend whose Eisentraut was totaled by an automobile. It was at least 30 years old and overdue for replacement anyway. So here’s a couple shots before it gets delivered to Colorado next week.

click on pics to enlarge.double click for huge. arrow back to text.

Santa Fe Style racer 52x51.5cm

BB shot-SRAM newRed group-nice stuff!

Turquoise on turquoise Imron

Already have the tires dirty..couldn't resist a 1st ride

So was my old friend happy? Yeah, I’d say he was..

Rick after his 1st 20 miler.

We did 19.8 miles at a 16.9 average into and back with a 10-15 mph quartering wind and no drafting except when passing other riders on the busy Bosque trail, all while BS’ing about the new bike and components and what not. I reckon Rick is over 50 and I’m over 60 so all in all not a bad shake down ride. We never even had to stop for adjustments.

Comments (0)

Rogues Galley: Keith, Dave and Chauncey

and again

...and again

Well, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say a few words and show a few pictures of this falls concorso.

This year the bicycles became an official part of the show and were judged by a team of judges, one of which knew a thing or two about bicycles and the others relied on what their parents taught them as kids, I suppose.

I was joined this year by Keith Anderson (OR) and Chauncey Matthews (NM) as current frame builders/painters. The other bikes in the concorso were privately owned collector bikes. They being mostly from the ’80s if I had to make a guess, though there was a very early Swiss Army bike in the mix.

I had fully expected Keith to take the top honors and the very, very cool trophy. I thought this because he had an exquisitely hand made kids bike with modern touches that connected bicycle history with modern technology. Well, I was wrong.

Second place, I thought could go to Keith or Chauncey or me. I was wrong again. Hmmmm.

OK then, third would go to Keith and it did. However, this time it wasn’t because it had new technology, but rather that it was a racing bike from the 80’s with a provenance on the track.

So who was the winner? Well, it was a1990s bike, a Sterling or more apt perhaps, a Bilenky. It was made from a stupidly ultra light Columbus KL tube set and some time was spent filing the lugs into graceful curlycues. It has probably never been ridden for fear of collapsing in on itself.

Second place was a late 90’s Ricard Sachs Campy equipped road bike.  It was an unusual green paint scheme and supposedly never ridden.  Good grief! Put it in a time capsule then..

Chauncey had 2 of his Ride the Divide 29er’s nicely decked out. I think if he had all the bags and bottles and racks and radios for the event on the bike he may have fared better.

I ended up with a Directors Award ribbon for one of my Santa Fe Style Spirit road bikes, as did Keith for his GT40 kids bike. We decided the ribbons were like Miss Congeniality prizes or consolation for just being there.

But the good news is that I took an order for a frame, Keith got an order for a Pinnarello  re-spray and Chauncey, he was just happy to be there and like the rest of us had a really nice day and a bit of a sun burn.

Here’s a shot of the 1st place award for the bicycles. I would really like to win one. It is the stylized bird of prey on the pedestal at the head of the table.. click on the photo to enlarge.

The Awards. Stunning!

Comments (0)

After my good friend Pino Morroni died I purchased some of his tooling from the family. Among the odds and ends were an assortment of frame building jigs of his own design. The other day I was cleaning up the shop and decided to give one of the jigs, that had become particularly dirty, a good dust off.

Much to my surprise I found that Pino had signed this one and written an interesting bit of philosophy in his own hand. It said, in Italian:

Pino Morroni
Detroit maggio 1978
alla facciaccia di tutti i maghi del telaio di tutti i Walden mel mondo

Made in Warren, MI Click to enlarge

The best translation I’ve heard is: In the brazen face of all
the frame sorcerers to all the “Walden’s” of the world..

I’m not sure what he was trying to get at, but knowing that Pino was usually disappointed with the way his ideas were generally received, I suspect it’s a rebuke to them.  That’ a purely WAG on my part. Any other ideas are welcomed.

Here’s what the wonderful little jig looks like. The legs are off and its sitting on the floor, but you get the idea.

Pino Morroni frame jig 1978- CLICK ON IT

Just a fun piece of cycling lore for all.

DP

Comments (1)

This is a fantastic automobile show on par with Pebble Beach or Amelia Island. Of special interest to me this year was the introduction of bicycles in the show.

SF Concorso bicycle display

Though the bikes were not judged this year, the organizers indicated that they would be next year. the bicycle entrants were however each given a Directors Award  ribbon for our time and expense. Of course we were treated to VIP credentials and privileges.

A highlight for me, as I am also an avid sports car owner was a chance to mix it up with Sir Sterling Moss, arguably one of the greatest race car drivers of all time. Here I  have Moss on my left, a D-Type Jaguar and an OSCA MT4 in front of my “54 Austin Healey 100. I won’t mention what our speed was in the photo to protect the innocent.. ;~)

Too much fun!

Here is my “winning” entry:

Me as a happy camper

In addition to my entries there was a Columbia ordinary, a Bates, a Cinelli, and a Guerciotti.

Here is the link to the official Concorso catalog: http://www.santafeconcorso.com/2011_flipbook.html

Comments (0)