Porteur Bike

The porteur bike is complete! This design of this bike is inspired by porteur bikes used in the early 1900s in Europe by city bike couriers. Unlike modern bike messengers, which typically use shoulder packs for baggage, early messengers carried loads on large front racks. These racks were heavily braced and carried huge loads of newspapers, grocieries, etc. Similar to today, bike messengers would stage competitive events through the streets, picking up and dropping off huge piles of newpapers along the way:

The beauty of these bikes is that, with front-mounted rack, they are super-easy to load up and maneuver. Unlike the rear mounted racks that became popular in the U.S., these bikes put the load over the front wheel were it can be "steered" during the ride to help keep the bike upright. In addition, you can place the load on the bike while you are straddling the frame so getting loaded is really quick. To make this work, the steering geometry needs to be properly designed. The steering on these bikes is extremely quick to help reposition the bike under load.

I think people are starting to realize that bikes are not just for fun and fitness, they are also a very practical means of getting around. This could mean riding to work, to the store or on errands. Since most trips are only a mile or two, why get in the car? Unfortunately, one reason is that people don't ride real WORKING bikes. A full-suspension mountain bike will not help you pick up groceries!  A functional working bike has a strong frame, fenders, chain-guards, lights and a strong rack. In the early 1900s, when cars were not cheap to own and operate, people rode bikes with these things because they made sense. For many years, bike builders (called constructeurs) like Rene Herse and Alex Singer hand crafted high quality bikes for real people. Sometimes these bikes were super-classy and sometimes they were just basic but they all were well-made and functional. 

I've posted more pix of the porteur bike on my Flickr site.