Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Another production porteur in the 2010 line up?



Thanks to Jan via Alex for tipping me off. Looks like Electra is joining the big-company, porteur-esque bike plan. Looks like their calling it a Ticino.

Nothing on the official Electra site, but some bike shop has this page up, which is where I lifted the pics from.

This is great to see another big company getting into practical bikes.


I've never been a fan of the Electra style -- super slack cruisers just don't do it for me.


Although the design of this new bike looks to be taken from the Rene Herse photos in The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles, it appears Electra is still sticking to the ultra-slack seat tube. I have a hard time figuring head tube angle from a photo, but that appears pretty slack too. That said, there's shitloads of fork rake, so there's a good chance the front-end may handle nicely with a load.





Dig the cranks, a nice facsimile of the TA Cyclotourists. Or maybe they are TAs? Nice hammered fenders. Bar-end brakes, downtube shifters on the men's bike. Beautiful ladies frame -- not sure on the shifters on the ladies frame.

Geez. Nicely done from an aesthetic point of view. I wonder how the HT/ST angle will impact the handling. I hope Bike Quarterly can get their mitts on this to test it.
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5 comments:

  1. jim gAugust 18, 2009 at 1:21:00 PM PDT

    Man, if we can get our mitts on the racks, cranks, and fenders as accessory parts, that'll be worth something right there!

    ReplyDelete
  2. jim gAugust 18, 2009 at 2:05:00 PM PDT

    See also new from Trek:

    http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/photos/trek-world-pavement-commuter-specials-from-trek-gary-fisher

    ReplyDelete
  3. FBC SpokaneAugust 18, 2009 at 2:23:00 PM PDT

    I agree on the slack geo. Some rack mounts midway on the fork would be nice, too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. John SpeareAugust 18, 2009 at 2:34:00 PM PDT

    THe Trek Belleville looks interesting. Pretty slack looking HT angle though (what's the weirdo top tube bend?) and not enough rake to compensate. Gotta love the old-school Trek logo.

    From the looks of it, the designers in the Gary Fisher part of the Trek world still haven't run across a steeper-angled bike in the dumpster to model the Simple City frame after (thanks to Jim, back story here.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousAugust 20, 2009 at 9:25:00 PM PDT

    Pedals/Toe clips, Honjo fenders and rear rack all from VO.. cranks are cool though.

    ReplyDelete