The Flying Pigeon Project

Singapore Flyer

In this case the Singapore Flyer in question is not the famous landmark and Ferris Wheel, but rather a bicycle.

Ah Chow (Thomas Chow) of Singapore collects bikes. But what would any bike collection be with out a Roadster?  This is no problem for Thomas who rides an excellent 1950's, bright red and black Raleigh Sports, AKA "The Singapore Flyer".

"I source most of my bikes at old bike shops in Malaysia or Indonesia which is where I found this bike" says Thomas. 

Bits and Pieces

This week was the first time I had been to Panjiayuan antique bike meet in months. Being it was the end of spring festival, and still winter, there wasn't the usual crowd. And the crowd that was there came late. But still there was some interesting stuff to be seen. One first timer unloaded a table of bits and pieces. A fine melange for a browsing.

HAO about that bicycle??

 

Frequent readers will remember past posts of vintage Fuji Brake-Rod roadsters. These are fantastic, is very heavily constructed bikes from one of the world's oldest and most successful bike companies. Dearly sought after machines indeed.

Now a funny thing happened at Panjiayuan a few months back. A gentleman brought an excellent example, maybe the best example seen yet,  of a Fuji roadster....or was it? In the below pictures you can see quite clearly on the head badge and the fender logo, that although the Fuji trademark silhouette of Mt. Fujiyama is co-opted, It instead bears the letter "HAO" and not Fuji. 

Hao, incidentally, means "Good" in Chinese, although the bike is clearly Japanese.  So is it a copy?

Vintage Japanese Bicycles: Zebra Cycle

After my posting about the Magnet restoration, I was contacted by Mr.Yuichi Ishikawa, a former automotive magazine editor, Ishikawa-San took up bicycling as a restorative pastime in the aftermath of a small stroke. In the short time he has been collecting bikes he has amassed an eclectic array of classics.  But perhaps the most interesting is his 1950's NOS Zebra-Cycle. Yes NOS. Much of the bike is still wrapped in the original paper!

 

Jin Shi-Golden Lion

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.