Keeping it in the family. Rory's chrome Rochet

We like to keep bikes in the family here at Via. You may recognize this one, maybe. This bike used to belong to our esteemed colleague and good friend Joel. He moved to the west coast not too long ago and sold his chrome Rochet to our colleague Rory, who does a great job working at the front end of the shop doing sales and repair diagnosis. Joel took some bits and bobs off the bike leaving Rory with a relatively blank canvas to build upon.

It is currently set up as a three speed with Sturmey Archer alloy shell AW hub (recently overhauled of course), Campy record high flange front road hub converted to bolt on version for security reasons, and Sugino cranks with chain ring . Velocity Aerohead rims are nice and durable for city riding. The bike retains the Honjo Le Paon fenders, Velo Orange porteur front rack, Velo Orange porteur bars, and Tektro inverse levers. A new Brooks B-17 saddle rounds out the build. The overall impression is a really well put together city bike capable of most any day to day task executed with style.

customer bike- Flying Scot

Small world story- Well we featured a possible Flying Scot bike on the blog a couple months ago- HERE- and at the same time we were setting up that bike as a round the town city bike, this Flying Scot came to the shop for a similar treatment. They both wanted it set up as a single speed, with upright handlebars and fenders. One is a fixed gear and the other is a single speed with a freewheel. Here's where the story gets weird (especially because we are in Philadelphia, not Scotland), the two customers are ex-roommates. What a coincidence!

This one is outfitted with Honjo Fenders.Montmantre handlebars, brake levers from Velo Orange, a rare underslung stem, Mafac Racer brakes, Campagnolo Tipo hubs, and Stronglight cranks from us at Via Bicycle.

Porteur chainguard

I decided after work to finally install the chainguard I got from Velo Orange a year or so ago. It was as difficult as I imagined. I was kind of limited to TA cranks with the small diameter of cutout(they have since made one that accepts more variety or cranks- with a larger hole). The original Porteur bicycles with steel cottered cranks were offset to allow for clearance so neither the crank arm or the chainring would rub against the guard. I created a "spacer" to move the position of the chainring over a little, away from the chainguard, out of a Lambert outer chainring. The mounting brackets were fabricated at Via Bicycle(I bought the chainguard without any hardware). After about 2 hours of work, I had it mounted and it did not rub, but it was a lot of measuring and was a bit of work to put it into the proper position so it would not rub. I noticed, after the final tightening, that the chainring is not center into the cutout hole. That sucks. But that is the position where it does not rub, so. . . where it will stay.

More info on Porteur bicycles here on Joel Metz's website



a chainguard mounted on a Bilenky Porteur owned by my friend Pat built by Bilenky Cycles. It is 9th Bilenky he has had built. the Pinstriping was done by Simon Firth at Bilenky Cycles, he is really coming into his own with it. (as you can see, some rubbing. I assume my might end up like this too. well I hope not).

Jack Taylor- Customer's bike Appreciation

Here is a beautiful 1970s Jack Taylor owned by a customer of ours. Outfitted with a Campagnolo Nuovo Record group and Phil Wood hubs, the bicycle is a perfect example of 1970s Jack Taylor's Tour of Britian model. side note- shame the pump peg was removed, but that happens. The Velo Orange water bottle cage looks period correct.

Chrome Carlton Huffy

Here is Matthew's daily city bicycle. Matt has been working at the shop for around 6 years and has an amazing stable of bicycles- including 2 Jack Taylors, Pogliaghi track bike, Schwinn Paramount, and some other bikes that escape me know. This chrome bike is a Carlton built Huffy from the late 1960s. It would have been originally painted a translucent color over the chrome, but that paint never really stuck well on the chrome and we are now left with a nice shiny bicycle.

Matt has it outfitted with 700c Velocity wheels it a Sturmey Archer AW 3 speed hub and usually has a Schmidt dynamo front hub(in the photos he has a Phil Wood large flange hub). The handebars and Porteur rack are from Velo Orange, as well as the fenders and brake levers.
A Schmidt E6 light is attached to the Porteur Rack.
The bicycle is perfect for city riding, with enought gear range for all over the city. Maybe someday we can talk Matt into putting a chainguard on the bike.
(shameless promotion- Via Bicycle is a Velo Orange parts dealer).







add.- minor detail about Carlton's imported as Huffys in the USA.
found on Wikipedia for Raleigh-
" Carlton, which had been unable to make inroads in the USA market after a failed rebranding deal with Huffy, found success in the late 1960s by recasting itself as "Raleigh-Carlton", a Raleigh-logo'd bike with some Carlton badging, and using the US dealer network to import and distribute bikes."

So it must have been in the mid 1960s or so, the same time Huffy was importing Moultons and rebranding them as Huffys.

Another Chrome bicycle, just wheeled right into the shop

So it probably seems like I have a chrome bicycle obsession, well I think I do. The other day I was working at the shop, and went up front to spot this chrome Schwinn in the shop for some minor repairs. Outfitted with a Brooks B-72, leather sewn grips(probably Velo Orange), and even a set of Mel Pinto panniers.

This nice looking bike could be part of my posse anyday of the week.

Chrome bikes have a Posse

Philadelphia is the city of Chrome city bikes. Via Bicycle is now personally responsible for at least 6 chrome city bikes. 3 are owned by employees(well one previous employee) and they are set up super awesome and every bit to ogle over. Photos to come in some post in the future. One is a Carlton built, but badged Huffy from the 1960s. It is set up as a Sturmey Archer 3 speed, with Honjo fenders and Velo Orange Porteur rack and handlebars. One is my old chrome Rudge, also built up as a Sturmey Archer 3 speed, with Velo Orange handlebars, Campagnolo cranks, Mafac brakes, etc. My chrome bike is a French Rochet, currently set up as fixed gear, with Honjo Le Paon style fenders, Velo Orange Handlebars and Porteur rack. All three bikes are set up with inverse levers and to the untrained eye, all three bikes look very similar, all chrome and shiney and all that.

The bike photographed below, a chrome Raleigh, was purchased from the shop, but set up elsewhere. But we still see it as our baby, as it fits into our Chrome Bike Posse. It is set up as a 10 speed, with upright handlebars, Brooks b-72 saddle, Shimano Arabesque 600 drivetrain. It even as a little TA front rack, for good measure.

Frexel inverse Brake levers

I love city bikes. I don't understand people that ride bikes in the city without fenders and chainguards, and dare I say. . . upright riding position!!

The search for brake levers for the upright riding position leaves the rider looking either at current stock(modern plastic/aluminum Mtn. bike levers) or older brake levers. Most brake levers found on upright bikes were plain Weinmann or Dia Compe alloy brake levers that haven't changed much since the 1960s. They are nice and look at home on any classic bike, but I wanted something a little different. So I started looking at weird French brake levers.

I first had a set of these cool slim-lined aluminum brake levers. They looked great and also had a great feel. But I wanted something even cooler, weirder looking. My friend Fred had purchased a french Porteur bike from us a couple years ago, and it had Mafac inverse brake levers. I loved the look, but inverse brake levers were very hard to find. So went to the only place that would have them, Ebay. I bought various sets of them-CLB, no name, and finally set my eyes on a beautiful set of Frexel ones. They are sculpted, and highly polished, and a nice final touch- they are super lightweight. I have yet to install them on a bike, because I have no bicycle worthy of them yet. I am hoping that the same fortunate circumstances happen with the brake levers as what happened when I bought a Jack Taylor stem, I was given a Jack Taylor Super Tourist, missing a stem. So I am waiting on my Rene Herse Porteur bike, missing brake levers ;)

On my current city bike, a 1960s french Rochet road frame set up with Honjo fenders and Velo-Orange Porteur rack, I installed Tektro inverse brake levers. They are very nice and have a spring return. As nice as they feel, they have nothing on Frexel.