A few weeks back I gave a report on several neat and rare accessories that I had picked up. I said there was one "score" which out-did the rest. This post is about that item.
There is an older gentlemen at Panjiayuan. He refers to himself as "Old Man Jin", even although you would not think he was so old by looking at him. Age aside, he performs a great service to the bicycling community: He re-covers seats. In leather. Take your old tensioned leather Lepper, Brooks, or in my case a Chinese "OK" Brand seat to him and he will re-skin it with a genuine cowhide top.
Take for example, my seat. Originally, my seat looked something like this: The standard Chinese "red" leather seat. Leather being a somewhat nebulous category, I have since heard it called a "lacquered composite seat", and indeed it is covered in lacquer.
I happen to have a spare seatwhich I hand over to Mr. Jin. He spends about 30 minutes trying to discuss the fine points of seat making with me in my very bad Mandarin. Do I want aluminum rivets?..or brass?...or copper? What color leather? He shows me several seat stampings in different colors. Am I sure I want to use this as a base? ..because Chinese seats are lightly sprung as the average Chinese is a lot lighter than us Laowei. Well, who isn't these days? I say no, I want my bike to stay all Chinese, or at least all Asian.
In the end I decide on brown leather, brass rivets, and for the base...go with what I brung. Yeah. Brung.
Two weeks later, I have a marvel to behold. A "Old Man Jin" bespoke saddle.
You may say, "It is a nice seat, but it's no Brooks."
No. It isn't. That's the point.
Sure...I could have just dropped a lot of money on an expensive, mass-produced Brooks saddle. They are available in Beijing. But what would be the fun in that? I would never have met Mr. Jin, never would have learned about saddle making, never gotten to practice my Mandarin on a really weird topic, and never gotten a bespoke saddle. I also wouldn't have had an interesting story to tell. Besides, the end result is mighty fine, I must say....
In truth, I was so pleased with the results that I went back to Mr. Jin with ANOTHER saddle. This time I had him punch holes in the sides so I could cross tie them and prevent side flare. I also cut a badge from the back of my old Flying Pigeon mattress saddle and had him put it on the back. How did it turn out? We'll see in another post.
Do you know of any Flying Pigeon dealers in Shanghai, or are they mostly sold in Beijing?
I recently came back from a visit home in the States to find my Forever bicycle stolen. It was in horrible condition and was planning on rebuilding it. Was wondering if there are any people that do that in Shanghai.. would be rad to meet up, buy/trade parts, etc. I used to build single speeds before moving here and can't stand not having a project to work on.
Posted by: Tommy | November 27, 2009 at 02:56 AM
Sorry to hear bout your Forever Tommy. Unfortunately, I am not familiar enough with Shanghai to know what the bike dealers are stocking. Although I would think that you'd have a much easier time finding a Forever or a Phoenix being they are both made in Shanghai.
Good luck, and I'm sure many people, including me, would be interested in the bike scene in Shanghai.
Posted by: JS | November 28, 2009 at 04:10 PM
i think in shanghai the home brand is the phoenix bikes, the equivalent of flying pigeons in beijing. they are very similar bikes ... http://www.phoenix-bicycle.com/phoenixie/page/showProduct.asp?id=105
they used to be the export brand and they should not be difficult to find as old or new. ask the locals, show them the photos, i think they'll know.
Posted by: PJ | November 29, 2009 at 07:29 AM
Amazing. I can only imagine what an hand crafted made to order saddle re-covering would cost here in the states. Probably would be cost prohibitive, I'm sure.
Very nice! And I like your anti-flare modifications as well. I might have to endeavor to modify one or two of my Brooks in suck a manner.
Cheers!
Larry "Boneman" Bone
Dingmans Ferry, PA, USA
Posted by: bonemanrides@yahoo.com | December 01, 2009 at 12:54 AM
Hi Jeff! Just came across your site and was so inspired by the beautiful bicycle you have that I had to share it with my readers (http://www.tobeinspired.com/2009/12/a-revolutionary-bicycle/)
I've added you to my blog roll and look forward to reading more posts!
Keep up the great work!
Posted by: Ryan | December 25, 2009 at 05:33 AM
God bless Mr Jin and his craft. I agree, I would rather have one of Mr Jin's handcrafted saddles than Brooks saddle.
Posted by: Richard | December 26, 2009 at 09:56 AM
it's really nice handcrafted saddles ,and how to contect with Mr jin in beijing?
Posted by: yaoo | July 27, 2011 at 03:17 PM