I thought' I'd share some pics of recent upgrades with you. First, My bike as it was purchased: Black, with black wire basket, which is pretty much a standard China issue bike. At this point I had already added two bells and some "Luxury" pedals.
And as it is now:
So what is different about it? First off, there is the seat. I swapped the original black mattress seat with a red "OK" brand tensioned leather seat.
Then there is the lock. Heavy duty Chinese circle lock. Very convenient.
The wire basket had to go. This was replaced with fork truss braces that I had to go all the way to Tianjin to get. While 28" truss braces are common as water in Beijing, for some reason 26" truss braces cannot be found. I also added a headlight. The keen observer will notice that at the time of the picture I had not yet mounted the dynamo for said head light. You'll also notice that one of the cap nuts for the truss braces is not yet installed.
One of the bells from the top picture was damaged in in tip over, so I replaced it with a nice brass number.
Finally, at a nearby dealer I found this nice NOS part. A chrome chaincase trim. I love the way it compliments the black paint.
Nice.
Hey I just bought a Phoenix 26 ladies road bike with a sticker near the front that says, "The Treasury". Know anything about it?
Posted by: Joshua | May 03, 2009 at 05:54 AM
The truss caps...they actually have another version. Pointed ones. Very nice. Try to get those. Love your brass bell. Must sound very different from the steel ones. Just curious, when you were in India, did you managed to buy back any vintage stuff to add to your FP? I think I happened to stumble onto someone's web and in China, they also have license plate for their bikes. Practiced till today?
Posted by: 12inchtoyscollector | May 04, 2009 at 10:25 AM
your bike looks great with the upgrades!very nice.
Posted by: mark elford | June 06, 2009 at 09:55 PM