Four for the Road : Orange Family That Rides Together Logs Up to 100 Miles a Week on Its Custom Quad

When members of the Porsche family of Orange go out for a bicycle ride, they turn heads. That’s because they pedal together on a single bike, all four of them in a line: dad Michael, mom Betty, son Michael, 8, and daughter Stephanie, 6.

What they ride is a quad, one of only three in the United States made by Santana, probably the only company in the country to manufacture and sell them. The unusual-looking bike uses the same basic technology as a tandem bicycle, except stretched out to fit the two youngsters between their parents. Its wheelbase, 116 inches, approaches twice that of a standard tandem (in the neighborhood of 67 inches).

“It definitely gets noticed,” said Michael Porsche. “People are constantly honking and waving and yelling out. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”

The bike is not intended as a novelty, however. It was custom-made for the Porsches by Santana, one of the top makers of tandem bicycles. It uses top-of-the-line components and an expensive new steel alloy (Nivicrom) in its tubing, and was designed specifically to fit each of the four riders in the family.

Porsche would rather not get specific about the cost, but Santana’s starting price for a custom-made quad is $8,000, and can rise well beyond that. “If I get an enjoyable 10 years out of it, I figure it’ll be worth every penny 10 times over,” he said. “This way, I get to spend time with the kids and have fun all together.”

Michael Porsche has been riding seriously for about 10 years and got Betty interested not long after Stephanie was born. “I don’t scuba dive, and I don’t ride motorcycles, so I figured maybe that cycling was something we could do together,” Betty Porsche said.

They rode single bikes at first, but later graduated to a tandem. “I can’t ride often enough to be good enough to keep up,” Betty Porsche said. “That’s why we got the tandem. I got tired of trying to catch him, and he got tired of waiting for me.”

As the children started getting older, the Porsches began considering how to take them along on the rides. At first they thought about two tandems, one helmed by each parent, but that raised the old question of keeping up. Then the Porsches contacted Santana about building a quad, and about a year ago the bike was delivered.

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The family puts on as many as 100 miles a week in good weather, with rides ranging from 25 to 50 miles. The kids must pedal right along with mom and dad, although they are not working as hard.

“Michael works a little more than Stephanie, but she entertains us, so that’s OK,” said Betty Porsche, laughing. Stephanie likes to sing and wave at passing cars (Betty has been told her daughter looks like she’s riding on a parade float).

The dynamics of riding such a long bicycle are not difficult to master for someone experienced at riding a tandem, Michael Porsche said. Turns take a little planning--”You have to lead it just like you would a semi or something,” he said--but otherwise “we can go anywhere with this bike that we could with our regular tandem.”

Climbing is a little slower than it would be on a single bike, but that’s more than compensated for on the flats and downhills. With about 525 pounds of rolling weight, the Porsches can easily maintain a cruising speed of 25 m.p.h. on flat ground and take downhills at as much as 55 m.p.h. “Single riders all pile up behind you to draft off you,” Michael said.

The family takes part in group rides of as much as 50 miles, doing the 50-mile Rosarita to Ensenada run in 2 hours, 50 minutes (compared to 2:29 for just the parents on their tandem). They had registered to ride the Tour de North County, in northern San Diego County, on Sunday, but a mechanical problem (since fixed) threw off their schedule.

Because he is self-employed, he says, Michael Porsche works long hours and finds it hard to take traditional vacations. With the quad, he said, he can spend time with his wife and children and still get in some cycling.

He figures the family will ride together on the quad until the kids are 11 or 12. By then, he figures, “they’re either going to be hating bikes or want their own.”

And the quad? It’ll go into the garage, he said, for the grandkids.