Here is one Flying Pigeon I recently observed
in the wild during an excursion of
Asian ornithology.

Compared to a Swedish or Norwegian standard
bike from the same period of bicycle history,
the Chinese have a lot of stays and small
crutches everywhere, all bolted. The steel
frame seems to be similar in style tho.

The Chinese must have been very proud of their
bike because it says "Flying Pigeon"
everywhere, on the saddle (both in English and
Chinese), on the chainguard, even on the rack!
They say it is the "all-steel bicycle".
I wonder what that is supposed to communicate
tho, perhaps some comparison to earlier
domestic bikes?

The biggest qualitative differences seems to be
1) the rear hub, that doesn't have a coaster
brake, and 2) the very interesting front and
rear brakes! Because the bike has old-school
V-rims, with a very little side area where
a hand brake of the kind we are used to would
squeeze (e.g., a side pull), instead the
brakes are two big shackles, with the pads
pointing upwards, and instead of squeezing the
walls with mechanically moving parts, the whole
thing is simply pulled upwards until it makes
contact with the rim!

Perhaps this requires more force, which is why
instead of wires there are huge rods to drive
the motion. Notice also that the rear brake is
placed below the chainstays.

The Flying Pigeon:

http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/bike/pigeon/front.jpg
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/bike/pigeon/hub.jpg
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/bike/...rear-brake.jpg

And one of ours, for comparison:

http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/bike/pigeon/hermes.jpg

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573