The Flying Pigeon Project

Flying Pigeon Vancouver

Apparently Flying Pigeons have arrived in Vancouver, and to announce their arrival the importer has made this rather artsy film:The Flying Pigeon Bicycle from yulu canada on Vimeo. 

It shows young, attractive, and presumably hip individuals out and about on Flying Pigeon roadsters. I have to say that I find this somewhat amusing and ironic. In China, the young, attractive and presumably hip crowd would not be caught dead on a bicycle, let alone a Flying Pigeon. Maybe they should reconsider.

Adding to the lifestyle statement, the bikes are being offered through a rather chic clothing boutique Roden Grey. 

You can also get them directly from the importer. And, in what is perhaps a bicycle first outside of Italy or France...you can get them with a wine caddy.

Yes...the one time communist icon, and tool of the proletariat, is being peddled (and pedaled!) as a bourgeoisie toy. Times have changed.

The marketer in me wonders whether this lifestyle approach will be successful. Nonetheless, I wish them luck. 

New Bike Shop in Town: NYC Flying Pigeon

Vendors that carry the Flying Pigeon are a rarity, so when an IMPORTER opens up in my own back yard I have to make note of it.

Nathan Einschlag of NYC Flying Pigeon has a bike he wants to sell you! Nathan lived in China for 2 years so he KNOWS Flying Pigeon. He's also a dyed in the wool New Yorker, so he KNOWs what the market wants and it's not what you might expect.

Sure, there he offers the "Dutch" type roadster so popular right now in New York, but gone are the brake rods and cotters. The gear is much more modern and reliable. Calipers will provice the stopping power in the wet NYC weather.

And if I do say so, the step through version is particularly attractive.

He's also offering an FP track bike, inspired no doubt by the ongoing Fixie craze. And as we know from previous posts, the Flying Pigeon makes an excellent basis for customization. These fixie bikes should be doubly so. Looks tasty.

Best of luck to Nathan in his new endeavor. May the Pigeon Fly High!

You can also find NYC Flying Pigeon on Facebook and on Twitter.

Chung Kuo Cina by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1972-Again

 

This is actually part 1...or so Youtube says. Early in the video you can see some traffic in the Hutongs in Beijing....bikes and trikes and a single fast back car of unknown origin. At 1:49 a postal worker doles out mail from his bike.

Then more traffic. Trucks and Beijing 20/20 jeeps filled with soldiers vie with 28" roadster bikes for the roadways. At around 3:20 that fast back coupe appears again.  Hmmm...

People eat ice cream...and then mysteriously at 4:50, several women in Indian dress appear. Odd. Well, Beijing is the capital. Perhaps they were embassy staff?? 

The film moves on to The Temple of Heaven, swarming with people and blaring patriotic music. At 7:30 the camera shifts to the bike park out side. It is endless.They continue to film the bike lot for over a minute until 8:40. How many black 28" roadsters are there? Who can count? Maybe ask the soldier who appears at 8:10!! 

Whatever the numerical total, it's quite clear that this Italian film crew is obsessed with the bicycles!

Chung Kuo Cina by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1972-Pt. 1

 

The attached documentary was shot around Tianamen square in 1972 by an Italian camera crew. This is just after the CulturalRevolution. It's a very interesting look. And "look" adequately describes it as the narration is very sparce and in Italian. Instead the film focuses on the people and what they are doing.It also is a great look at how things have changed...and at bicycles of course.

Perhaps the skyline is the first thing I notice. None of the towering buildings that are currently around Beijing are there. Of course in 1972, Chaoyang and the Central Business District were farm fields. In regards to construction, Mao's Mausoleum is not present...because, of course, he wasn't even dead yet.

Next you notice all the uniforms....many, many uniforms.  Communism was in full swing after all.

At about 3:22, the camera turns to the traffic on Chang An Jie. With the exception of a few Liberator trucks and Shanghai cars, the trafffic is mostly bikes and trikes. The traffic may seem pretty dense in terms of bikes, but I suspect it is only slightly more than now. The reason? Several. Bike production didn't hit it's peak until the 1980s and in 1972 you had to be fairly rich to own one. Also the population of the city was much less back then because urbanization had not even begun to be felt.

At 5:37 there is a rather unique clip of a man doing Tai Chi while pedaling his 28" Flying Pigeon Roadster. Quite a stunt!

At 6:40 you get a look at a small convoy of trikes carrying (presumably empty) fuel drums.

At 7:01 a "bus" appears. It is a Liberator truck...standing room only. You can see why bicycles were so prized!

Very fascinating stuff indeed.

 

 

This Just in....Part 3

OK. It's time to wrap up the Taobao shipment with the last two items in the box. The first may look familiar.It is a tool pouch. But unlike the tool pouch on my own Flying Pigeon, this one is not custom made. It's also not leather, despite the looks. It is, in fact made out of a rubberized fabric, like rain coat material (but a little older and stiffer). The rubberized part makes sense. Waterproof and low maintenance it's suitable for China where most bikes tend to be working bikes and not show pieces. It is of course, branded FLYING PIGEON and probably dates from the 1980's, the heyday of Chinese bicycle production.

The next item is an NOS circle lock.These attach to the seat stays and lock through the rear wheel, providing a bit of convenient theft protection. You can find a myriad of these circle lock designs in China, they are common as water. But this one, of course is a Flying Pigeon lock. Nothing overly special about that, but I thought it might prove useful for some future project that I might want to be "Pure' Pigeon.