There are many, many, many brands of bicycles in China besides the "Famous Four". A lot of these manufacture to a standard that closely matches the major manufactures like Forever and Flying Pigeon. This allows a fair amount of interchangeability of spares. The street side bike doctors can only keep so many parts on their tricycle, and if they had to stock unique parts for all the different brands, street side service would never work. One of these "other" brands is Jin Shi.
Here is an interesting antique Japanese import. It's a New Kent bicycle which, as we are told very often by the badging, was the "World's Best Bicycle". While best is certainly debatable, I'd have to agree that it is certainly
This shop was located down the street from Silbest.
Besides being located in Kyoto, it seemed that this shop had exactly NO Japanese characteristics. And no name. At least not one I could discover. Instead of being neat it was a mess, instead of being organized, stuff was just heaped up. From the sign out front it appears to have once been a BMW motorcycle dealer, but according to the BMW company calendar inside, the last time a motorcycle rolled out the door was 1985!!
Beijing is famous for it's Hutongs. These are the tight alleyways of the old city. The last 50 years has not been kind to these historic streets and the buildings around them. During the population boom of the 50's, 5 families were often allocated to a courtyard home that had previously belonged to only 1. Of course, now they are being torn down to make way for high rise apartments and offices. But still, they make for interesting little jaunt. Yes, now it is cold and bitter, but in the warm days of August I decided to go for a little ride. With streets so tight, a car is a bit of a nuisance... A bike, by far is the best way to tour the hutongs.
Frequent readers will note that the "arc" style of sidestand is quite popular among the Chinese brands. The Arc runs between the seatstay and the chainstay where the rest of the stan attaches..
Below, you'll see the most sophisticated type. The spring for the stand is contained entirely within the prop leg. The entire stand is crafted out of stainless steel and the Raleigh logo pivots with the stand. I have also seen this type with pivoting logos for Humber and Gazelle.
Continue reading "Accessory of the Week-Raleigh Sidestand" »
