The Flying Pigeon Project

Hutong Tour

Beijing is famous for it's Hutongs. These are the tight alleyways of the old city. The last 50 years has not been kind to these historic streets and the buildings around them. During the population boom of the 50's, 5 families were often allocated to a courtyard home that had previously belonged to only 1. Of course, now they are being torn down to make way for high rise apartments and offices. But still, they make for interesting little jaunt.  Yes, now it is cold and bitter, but in the warm days of August I decided to go for a little ride. With streets so tight, a car is a bit of a nuisance... A bike, by far is the best way to tour the hutongs.

The Blue Phoenix of Axum

Axum, Ethiopia to be exact. Tom Furtwangler from the excellent blog Bikejuju sent me these photographs of a set of iridescent blue Phoenix roadsters he found in Axum. As mentioned before, Africa is one of the main export markets for Indian and Chinese roadster manufacturers. But enough talk. Let's look at the photos.

The first picture shows what appears to be a 26" Phoenix leaning on it's sidestand outside a cafe. It is equipped with a light and bottle dynamo, which are infrequently seen in China.

 

Beixinqiao

 

If you are in to Beijing, and want to satisfy a bicycle hankering, you must head to Beixinqiao. Bicycle heaven. Take the 5 subway line to the Yongehong stop (Lama Temple). Visit the temple which is one of Beijing's great landmarks, and then go to the nearby Natooke fixie shop, if that is your desire

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If not, walk back to the main street, Yongehong Nan Da Jie and then head south.

 

At Jiaodouku Lu, cross the street.  Now you are approaching bicycle heaven. If you go west, you will run into a strip of local shops and a Giant bicycle super store.

 

   

  

 

I'll say this for the Taiwanese Giant  brand, they know how to do a bicycle shop up right! The have a huge stock of proprietary bikes, nicely displayed with upscale components including Shimano and Campy conveniently located nearby. From the looks of things, I'd say that the French "Randonneur" style of bike is coming back into vogue.

 

 

On the north side of Jiaodouku Lu is a Giant eCycle super-store, if you'd rather let the volts due the pedalling.

 

 

If you head back to the corner of Jiaodouku Lu  and Yonghehong lu and head south, you'll see are the Pawnshops, one on either side of the road, followed by some more local shops. The road is now called Dong Si Shi Tiao

 

 

 

 

The pawnshops usually have a good selection of roadsters:  British, Japanese and Chinese, of course.

 

South of that on Dong Si Shi Tiao are several local shops sell new roadsters: Flying Pigeon, Phoenix, Forever. There's a lot of folding bikes and eCycles mixed, in there of course.

 

 

  

 

There are also several street side bike doctors in the area.

 

 

At the extreme south on the map is a shop selling high end German and Chinese bikes, particularly the Merida brand. If you feel like a carbon fiber race bike, you can find them here.

I would then turn around and head north again to the junction of Jiaodouku. Then turn east. You are now in a section of the street is called "Gui Jie", or Ghost Street. It is wall-to-wall restaurants for about a kilometer and a half, many of which are open all night. The "ghosts" in this case are the diners who come in at 3 AM wearing pajamas for some late night hot pot.  I've been at 1:30 AM and many restuarants still had a waiting line outside! At any time, this is a great place to get some good food and a Yanjing beer.

 

(Map credit to Google Maps)

Lhasa Roadsters Part 1: Work Bikes

A recent trip to Tibet gave me the opporunity to take in some high altitude roadsters. Most bikes in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital see some use as work bikes, like this 26" Flying Pigeon. Also note the chrome chainring guard.

 

This bike also had a strange package rack maybe taken off a Flying Pigeon electric bike. I have not seen one like this before. The Tibetan penchant seemed to be to carry packages in a roll on the back and many package racks had specially welded tabs to hold the rolls.

 

Then there was this Forever which was working hard carrying propane.

 

Here is another 28" roadster, posing  next to someone's shop. Care for some melon?

 

We can tell from the fork decal it is a Phoenix. The sign says it is for sale at 150 RMB ($20). But before you put down some money on this fine ride with good patina, you had better check it over....

 

...oh wow! The seat looks painful! I saw alot of these tire rubber seats. Apparently comfort was not the owner's first concern. Maybe we should pass this one by.

 

OK. This 28" step-through Forever looks more forgiving. Like I said, they really stack things up on the rear rack!

 

And then there was this 28" double-bar Forever at a noodle factory.  Ready to make a delivery, or just stopping in for lunch?

Shanghai Phoenix- Feng Huang

My very first encounter with a brake-rod roadster was in-fact with a Phoenix. The famous Shanghai brand which started in 1958 and was the 3rd of the "Famous Four" bike makers in China. However, my encounter was NOT in China. It was in Moshi, Tanzania, where many a local was mounted on large framed, double-bar, fork-trussed, 28" wheel roadsters!

As I was later to learn, Africa is a huge and important export market for Chinese brands.

Phoenix is a very large concern and makes bikes and eCycles of every possible kind, but of course it is their brake-rod roadsters in which we are interested. These come in the exact same sizes and varieties as Flying Pigeon, Forever or any of the other roadster manufacturers. Parts will interchange, and of course this was intentional and back in the bad old days, necessary. Still, that doesn't stop there from being a high level of variation when it comes to the details. Take a look at the following picture of 2 men's 28" roadsters (and one barely seen 26" women's roadster). You immediately see the differences: different decals, different grips, one has a chain case the other doesn't, different seats, fork trusses on one, but not on the other...etc...etc...etc.

So how do you identify a Phoenix from the other Chinese roadsters? First and foremost,THE LOGO. The most beautiful and elaborate logo in all of bicycling.

 

The Feng Huang (Phoenix) is the legendary Chinese king of birds. This is different than the middle-eastern Phoenix or Firebird, with which it shares an English name. The downtube logo is a long, multicolored Phoenix coming to rest on a Lotus, tail feathers resplendent behind it. A nice touch on an other wise, staid black bike.

The Phoenix headbadge (taken from the corporate website) is similar, but picked out in gold over a field of scarlet.

Not all bikes are worthy to wear the Phoenix however. The second roadster in the first pick has a completely different downtube logo which can be seen

below. The headbadge is also different, but shows the bird at rest. 

 

Phoenix also has a flanker brand called "Feide", which better suits some bikes.

But of course the elaborate Phoenix logo is not appropriate for all bikes, even if they do wear the Phoenix name. Modern style bikes look...well more modern. I have to say...I like the traditional flair better. How about you?  Phoenix Bicycles