Atala Porteur Commuter

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  • Hey There

    Brief history of my Atala bike:
    I got this bike from a friend for free. It was a low range 27inch racing bike and stripped it down, went through my kiddie HHSB fixie and SSP times and luckily came to my senses and decided a few years ago to build this frame up as a gentlemans porteur. Since then I’m living happily ever after, however I might wanna change a few things or need some advice:


    1-MAKING IT ROAD LEGAL

    Front and rear reflectors:
    The rear reflector is no problem, since VeloOrange Grand Cru reflector will look nice on the Gilles Berthoud stainless steel fenders. The front reflector is a bit more callenging to integrate into the front brake cable hanger like the example below. I’m thinking about welding a metal part onto mine and chrome plating it to fit a nice round clear reflector, or maybe metal-printing it somewhere since I cant find cable hangers with addidtional atatchment for a front reflector with an adjustable front brake screw.

    Reflective Pedals:
    Searching for vintage Lyotard 136Rs or similar since modern reflector pedals are fugly.

    Reflective wheels:
    Adding Schwalbe Marathon 32-630 with reflective sides will solve this problem.

    Bell:
    This one bugs me a little bit because I dont like adding anything to the bars or stem that works worse than shouting at pedestrians who are jumping in front of you after my first bell-ring.

    2-ADDING PERMANENT LIGHT

    Dyno hub:
    SON dyno-front hub

    Rear light:
    Lightskin Seatpost light ist he perfect solution for that if it can be powered by a dyno-hub. I have asked the seller if the seatpost that is intended for electric bikes has a small capacitator included so the light stays on at a traffic light. However no answer yet.

    Front light:
    Any ideas about a convenient and decent looking solution?
    Lighskin handlebars are fugly and I like my Porteur bars. On some porteur racks I have seen a light mounted onto it, but then you have to fiddle the cable around the rack tubing which always looks odd.
    Something like this would be interesting with internal wiring

    3-HEADBADGE
    Yes or No?

    4-FRAME
    Somewhere on the forums I have read about Porteur frames and about the stiffnes they provide with the rack. On this old „racing bike“ with, I guess low quality steel tubing, the fork and handlebar look in differend directions if I wiggle the handlebar around. Any advice on a vintage frame with eyelids that would be stiff enough or a modern frame set that would handle the load of a rack well?

    Thanks for every input and advice

  • Progress
    fitted VO rear reflector, Shimano Marathon Reflective Tires, VO bell and reflective Pedals (not Lyotards unfortunately)

    Vintage Cateye front reflector is on its way which I will modify so it fits onto the stem handlebar mount.

  • HEAD-BADGE YES!

    In my view, the frame should have been left as it was - those ATALA decals looked great. That aside, it's a nice job.

  • I was thinking about reapplying the decals in white.
    http://www.velocals.com/atala-1974-decal-set-sku-1199/

    Which decal material should I take? Do I need to clear coat it? The Frame has a lot of scratches already since its my commuter, hence I dont think thats a good idea.

    I have read that headbadge mount is best with double sided tape and fake rivets for the looks?

  • I'm no expert, as far as I am aware, some sort of clear-coating is advised.

    With regard to the head-badge, I've heard the fake rivet thing suggested when the rivets have snapped off, leaving the body of the rivet blocking the hole. If the original rivets screwed off and the holes are 'open' then personally I'd screw the head-badge on.

  • The original bike had a decal head badge not a metal badge, so no holes available. I'll go with cut off rivets and tape

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Atala Porteur Commuter

Posted by Avatar for HosiHosa @HosiHosa

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