I've been looking for an interesting single speed cruiser for a while, and the Chinese Flying Pigeon caught my attention. I've always been a fan of living fossils, and while I could spend the cash on a decent used specimen from a respectable brand that just wouldn't stand out from the crowd, you know? I started scouring the net for reviews and noticed that they mostly consist of people waxing poetic about the bike's symbolism in Chinese culture without a lot of practical advice, or reviews based on a test drive. Not a lot of long term experience out there on the English speaking web. That should set off some warning bells but instead just piqued my curiosity. What's it like to actually ride one on a daily basis? I'm a firm believer that any bike can be a "good bike", it's just a matter of how much time and money it's going to take vs. how much you're willing to put into it.
I figured there's no way to find out like doing it, so I went ahead and bought one. Here it is on my ride up to work Monday:
First impressions: This is a big, heavy bike. I'm 5' 9" and it just barely fits me. Build quality is... meh. Not bad, not good. Certainly not comparable to the crap they sell at Wal-Mart but still built rather cheaply. The LBS didn't have any trouble getting the wheels true and everything went together fine and worked properly.
The ride is very Cadillac-ish: slow and smooth. You can barely feel the bumps in the road. The weight doesn't bother me. It takes longer to get up to speed but the extra momentum makes it easier to maintain that speed. Wind isn't quite as annoying thanks to that momentum. Brakes work great once they're properly adjusted, which wasn't really any harder than adjusting calipers. The leather seat fits my behind well and is reasonably comfortable.
That's the good stuff. Now for the bad: First off, the pedals. They're
horrible. After less than a week commuting on the thing (and I have a short, 7 mi round trip commute), at about 20 miles this happened:
The other side's not much better. The plate on the outside of the pedal isn't retained by anything, so it eventually bends to the point that the whole thing just comes apart. Not only that but the left side pedal axle actually bent - and smashed the threads in the crank arm in the process. I got a hold of Flying Pigeon LA (who I bought it from) and they said they could send me some better replacement pedals and a replacement crank arm. I'd like to keep the cottered cranks if possible but if they give me further trouble I'll look into converting it to cotterless. Here's hoping they'll hold up with better pedals.
I'll keep a running tally of exactly how much time and money I've wasted on this bike and report back here. We'll see how well it holds up over the course of the year.
So far I've spent $328 on the bike and components, $43 on maintenance and spent about 20 hours or so in labor, including initial assembly. Out of 6 commuting days it's been rideable 4, or 67% of the time, with 1 breakdown. Current mileage is 25.