The Flying Pigeon Project

Jing Pai Gear Hub Part 1

And so the quest to find another Mystery Hub begins. On Saturday I rode my Flying Pigeon for 5 hours over to the west side of Beijing where a work colleague had told me there was a large bicycle market. Mai yo. No such luck. I suspect it was actually a "Thieves market" and these move around quite a bit.

However on the journey there and back I hit 11 bicycle shops and NONE had anything like the Mystery Hub.

Finally, at a bicycle shop about 2 KM from my home, a woman pulls out an old tattered box from behind the counter.

It is not an Mystery Hub, but it is a NOS 3 speed that looks a lot like a Sturmey Archer AW. Jing Pai
"The Whale" brand. The spoke flanges are a little shallower and the chrome is a bit deeper than the AB, but otherwise, similar except for some key differences which go un-noticed until later.

I bought it instantly and left my bike for them to install it. Total cost with the hub installed is 400RMB . Yeah I could buy a whole new bike for that amount, but this is cool! I then took a loaner bike home.

Sunday morning, I got up early and head to the Panjiayuan antique bike meet to see what goodies might be there. What do you know? Not only is there a genuine, but incomplete, Sturmey AB hub, but there is a Jing Pai hub as well.

Of course the Jing Pai hub is 1/3 the cost I paid at the store, but that's the way it rolls. I did not buy either the 2nd Jing Pai or the incomplete Sturmey. I am regretting not purchasing the latter.

You can see more Jing Pai pics in the gallery on the left. More on the Jing Pai later.

Interlude with Gear Hub

For the record, a gear hub is a little device which replaces your rear wheel hub and gives you 3 gears instead of just 1. British roadsters often had them. The firm of Sturmey-Archer made most of them and you occasionally see them on Chinese bikes too. See the Panjiayuan post for how I acquired it.

First off, there is NO logo whatsoever on the Mystery Hub. Hence, the Mystery. The hub is very thickly chromed with a very, very heavy under layer of copper. It might even be solid copper. It doesn't work, but I think I can fix it with Sturmey Archer parts.

But can I really? I disassembled it to to take a look, but not before spending the better half of an afternoon pouring over Sturmey-Archer literature on Tony Hadland's excellent site.(Included in the link section)

Then, I operate and...

Wierdness sets in.

The hub has no clutch, no clutch spring, and a one part driver and planetary gear cage. The axle isn’t hollow and the sun gear and right side cone are one piece. All different than a Sturmey gear hub.

Say what?

What language is that?

For those of you who dont know what I am talking about, which is probably everyone including myself, let me put it this way: There are mechanical parts, however, there doesn’t seem to be anyway this thing could actually work.

It’s incomplete at best and a bodge job for sure…but maybe, just maybe I can still swap the WHOLE gearbox side for Sturmey Archer innards.

So… I managed to find a Sturmey Archer AW hub locally and disassembled it to compare: NOTHING WILL INTERCHANGE in the gear hub side except maybe the pawl springs. The Mystery Hub innards are diminutive in comparison to the AW and the AW pasrts won't fit inside the Mystery shell.

So I think my idea of repairing the hub with Sturmey parts is forlorn. Mystery not solved...but over anyway, I think. Unless I can find another!! Uh oh. Sounds like another quest.

Pics of the gear hub are located on the left side.

Panjiayuan Antique Bicycle Meeting

The Panjiayuan "Dirt" Market is a famous Beijing weekend market where people gather to buy and sell all manner of antiques or "antiques". Whatever you need, they've got it. Qing dynasty alter table? Yep. Reproduction Republic-era porcelain? There's about an acre of it over there. Hilarious cultural revolution collectible figurines? Got that! 2 ton granite Buddah?? Do you want standing, seated or reclining? No matter. They have it all.

However, just outside the Panjiayuan gate are some antiques that are NOT for sale. Antique bicycles. Bicycling is surely a bit past it's prime in China, but a popular story told in the bad old days gives you an idea how important bicycles were and continue to be. The story claims a farmer once traded 10,000 KG of rice, a whole year's harvest, to get a bicycle earlier than was promised. That's a lot of rice for a reservation.

So Chinese bikes were precious. But if you already had a bike before the bamboo curtain fell in 1949, well, you were rich beyond all dreams of avarice! Just don't let the Red Guards find out! Needless to say these antique machines are still highly treasured.

You can see this every Sunday morning between 7 and 9. This is when the antique bike nuts gather outside of Panjiayuan to swap stories and parts. Most men and bikes are well over 60 years old. Of course there are a few parts for sale too, and that is why I am there. It has long been my aspiration to find drum brakes and possibly a 3 speed gear hub for my Flying Pigeon. Most of the old Raleighs at the meet have a 3 speed hub and the Pigeon is not very different.

And then….the Holy Grail! Going through a bag of parts I find a 3 speed gearhub with a drum brake! This is perfect! Almost. It isn’t really working, but I figure I might be able to swap the innards of my “Mystery Hub” with readily available Sturmey Archer parts. After all, Sturmey made lots of 3 speed hubs. And this one looks similar to a Sturmey AB model.

If you want to see more pics of the meet, they are located in the picture gallery on the left.

BTW: I am not kidding about the Buddah.

About My Pigeon

My Flying Pigeon bicycle is a 26" "Light Roadster" model which I bought a year ago in Beijing for about 350 RMB. The factory designation for this bike is QE23.

While it is the lightest of the FP traditional models it is far from what westerners consider as "light"..weighing in at about 40lbs. It has rod brakes and chromed steel rims. Again these would not be expected in western nations unless you were an enthusiast for old British roadsters from the 30's and 40's.

You see, the FP was made for mass production, ease of maintenance and comfort of ride. Just like those British bikes from years ago. Indeed many FPs and their brother bikes, Forever, Five-Rams, etc, are still on the road 50 years after leaving the factory. Of course, back in the bad old days these bikes were produced in numbers that the British makes could only have dreamt about. All were black, with some notable exceptions: Post office bikes were green and fire department bikes were red. There are other colors too, but seldom seen in China. However, that is not to say that there aren't many, many variants of bikes. There are.

Besides being durable and easy to make, these bikes have great charm too. Charm which modern enthusiasts, such as myself can't help but be attracted too.

So far it has undergone a few minor modifications, but more are to follow because you see, this is not leisurely ride. This is my ride to work. Spending lots of time in the saddle gives me time to consider how might peronalize my bike. I hope you enjoy this blog as I will be discussing not only my FP but also the other traditional bikes of China:  Forever, Five-Rams, Phoenix and others. I'm interested in your feedback so feel free to post.