I HAD one of those bikes bought brand new in 2009 in Chengdu for my 3 week stay. Looked like your pic, at least the fenders were nice.
I did ride it around 300+ miles all over. Both rims were warped. I had to chose between two bikes with the front or rear worse. LOL. I picked the green one. So the brakes wiggled while the wheels wiggled to a SLOW stop. Fat chance on a hill.
I have a couple pics but a bag hides the front brake. At best you could say they scrape the rust off where the pads rub.
Anyway, they quit making them about that year. You won't see any of them on the streets now, actually wasn't many in 2015 when I had my own tour bike. This new bike was actually far worse than the ones made 20 years before this. I had one there in 2006.
Their worst problem was having everything looped around the axle, so impossible to keep the nut tight.
Had the same problem with bikes in Vietnam. It also had a warped tire. $80 or $90 for the whole bike.
I DID take my tools and used them all. LOL.
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Edit sorry, it was the Vietnam bike that had the band brake rear.
Last edited by GamblerGORD53; 01-05-24 at 01:30 AM.