VO Porteur racks are back in stock. They’re a great rack for commuting bikes since they can hold a lot and can easily take additional load if you have to grab something on the way home.  They’re also very beautiful.

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Surly’s Long Haul Trucker (LHT) is our reference point for touring bikes and they make excellent commuters as well.  As a general rule the requirements of commuters and tourists are similar -  the bike should be comfortable, should be able to carry a reasonable load, should be robust and reliable, should fit moderately wide tyres and mudguards and should be fast and efficient enough to cover large distances at a decent clip.  The LHT does all of these things and is versatile enough to be set up to match the needs of a lot of cyclists.  We build, and sell, more of them than any other bike.  We’ve mentioned them a number of times in this blog, but we thought it was time to write more comprehensively about our thoughts on them, and where they sit in our line-up.

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We’ve just finished an exciting build. We used a 650B randonneur/porteur frame made by Velo Orange, called the Polyvalent. Ours might be the first in Australia. We’ve built it up as a showcase for some of the VO gear we stock (and as a great bike in its own right). It has a big VO Porteur front rack, VO cantilever brakes, headset, saddle, rims, etc. It has a dynamo hub, is shod with Grand Bois Hetres and stays upright while stationary thanks to a Pletscher bipod kickstand. It will soon have a VO chain guard.  We installed a B+M Lumotec IQ Cyo just under the floor of the rack, and a B+M tail light on the rear mud guard.

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We’ve been quietly stocking Bicycle Quarterly for a while. Bicycle Quarterly (BQ) is our favourite bicycle magazine. It started out life at Vintage Bicycle Quarterly and dealt mostly with old French Randonneur bikes, as well as the people who rode and still ride them. As the magazine has progressed there has been a growth in interest in this world, and new more builders have started making bikes inspired by the classics (Herse and Singer, most famously), so the focus broadened to include these. I believe that Jan Heine started the magazine on his own, and over the years has gotten help from Alex Wetmore, Frank Berto and others.

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