Classic & Vintage - Flying pigeon.

Does anyone have one, or a clone?
If so, where did you buy it and how does it ride?
EDIT: Now I have learned that the Flying Pigeon is one of many Raleigh Deluxe Model One (later to become the Raliegh tourist?) clones.
EDIT again: I'm confused, anyways I'm interested in old roadsters and clones.

Why confused? Clones of those bikes are made all over the world, notably by Hero amongst a lot of others in India, and by Flying Pigeon amongst a lot of others in China. None that I know of are built to quite the same standards as Raleighs were, but certainly the Indian ones take their owners a hell of a lot of miles.

Mastershake,
There is a bike built in one province of China that is very similar to the Raleigh DL1 even in quality. I can't remember the name of it right off hand, but it is supposedly pretty expensive for a Chinese bike. IIRC the head badge has 5 sheep on it? and the name starts with an F. If I find the link or a picture I will post them.

Aaron:)

Why confused? Clones of those bikes are made all over the world, notably by Hero amongst a lot of others in India, and by Flying Pigeon amongst a lot of others in China. None that I know of are built to quite the same standards as Raleighs were, but certainly the Indian ones take their owners a hell of a lot of miles.
Okay, that clears it up, thanks.


Mastershake,
There is a bike built in one province of China that is very similar to the Raleigh DL1 even in quality. I can't remember the name of it right off hand, but it is supposedly pretty expensive for a Chinese bike. IIRC the head badge has 5 sheep on it? and the name starts with an F. If I find the link or a picture I will post them.

Aaron:)
Thank you.

A guy from work is from China. We've talked a number of times about bikes. He owned a Flying Pigeon and even did a little touring with it. Super nice guy. Anyway, he said the Flying Pigeon was a clean sheet design, although it looks a lot like a DL1. A case of form following function I suppose, much the same way any aluminum canoe would have more than a passing similarity to a Grumman.

I googled up Flying Pigeon one day and their website makes the same assertion, it was a new design for Chairman Mao. Elsewhere I'd read that a whole boatload of FP's had been shipped to Coooba in exchange for sugar. But this might have been a generic bike instead of Flying Pigeon.

Crazyguyonabike has an interesting article on The Bikes of China (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/flyingpigeon)

A guy from work is from China. We've talked a number of times about bikes. He owned a Flying Pigeon and even did a little touring with it. Super nice guy. Anyway, he said the Flying Pigeon was a clean sheet design, although it looks a lot like a DL1. A case of form following function I suppose, much the same way any aluminum canoe would have more than a passing similarity to a Grumman.

I googled up Flying Pigeon one day and their website makes the same assertion, it was a new design for Chairman Mao. Elsewhere I'd read that a whole boatload of FP's had been shipped to Coooba in exchange for sugar. But this might have been a generic bike instead of Flying Pigeon.

Crazyguyonabike has an interesting article on The Bikes of China (http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/flyingpigeon)
Wow, so now there are the DL1s, the DL1 clones, the flying pigeon which looks like a DL1 and the flying pigeon clones.

A friend has one and still rides it after 20 yrs.

Not Five Sheep...Five Rams is the name. I bought one from Micargi on the internet some time ago. They got a shippment of them by accident and sold them as "vintage beach cruisers" . I was lucky, they charged $99.99 plus shipping so was not a bad deal. I love my Chinese roadster. Single gear but Sacramento is fairly flat so is a good bike to go to the store with. I have had mine for a couple of years. Ride it all the time. Have had no issues with it at all except I had to get a better seat and have put new tires on it. Good bike.

I thought the flying pigeon sold for the equivalent of about 50bucks in china? granted that may be a large portion of many Chinese incomes... but i thought it was the most ubiquitous bike in China. The bike shop I worked at last summer had a couple, I think my boss bought them because he felt sorry for the guy who had imported them. No one would buy them they are 40lbs of crap. I do think the raleighs were better build machines.