I like Chinese... bikes?
05-14-06, 07:24 PM
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Churnin Urn O Burnin Funk
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I like Chinese... bikes?
Found an interesting one in someone's garage this weekend. The only component with any writing on it is the front derailleur (Huret - has to be a replacement) and it's probably going to weigh more than I do when it's done but I couldn't pass it up. Too unusual. Anyone know anything about it?
Taichung Kuokon "New Muoel K.K.B. Kuokon Sports"
Aside from the murdered english (muoel=model?), it has an Air Force sticker covering the headbadge so I'm assuming it was actually purchased overseas. I'm not even sure it's Chinese - it has no "made in" hints on it. Anybody more familiar with oriental alphabets?
Taichung Kuokon "New Muoel K.K.B. Kuokon Sports"
Aside from the murdered english (muoel=model?), it has an Air Force sticker covering the headbadge so I'm assuming it was actually purchased overseas. I'm not even sure it's Chinese - it has no "made in" hints on it. Anybody more familiar with oriental alphabets?
05-14-06, 08:21 PM
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Post a bigger pic of any lettering / asian alphabet. I could probably identify it for you.
Last edited by the beef; 05-14-06 at 08:37 PM.
05-14-06, 10:53 PM
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What you have are Chinese characters. A literal translation:
"National Light Brand Super-Car"
Of course it doesn't sound very fluid when directly translated. But in Chinese, the word for car roughly equals the word for "bicycle". In turn, the phrase for "super" in Chinese is pretty close to what we might call "high performance". So you have something like
"Light of China Performance Bicycles"
Kuokon:
kuo = country/national
kon = light/glow/bright
The bike's probably from Taiwan, by the way. If it were from China the name would probably be translated as "Guoguang"; the two countries have different standards for Chinese romanization (rewriting using the English alphabet).
Hope that helps
"National Light Brand Super-Car"
Of course it doesn't sound very fluid when directly translated. But in Chinese, the word for car roughly equals the word for "bicycle". In turn, the phrase for "super" in Chinese is pretty close to what we might call "high performance". So you have something like
"Light of China Performance Bicycles"
Kuokon:
kuo = country/national
kon = light/glow/bright
The bike's probably from Taiwan, by the way. If it were from China the name would probably be translated as "Guoguang"; the two countries have different standards for Chinese romanization (rewriting using the English alphabet).
Hope that helps
Last edited by the beef; 05-16-06 at 12:44 AM.
05-16-06, 12:10 AM
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Churnin Urn O Burnin Funk
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Way cool! Now I'll be able to give a coherent answer when someone asks me what it is... and I can say I owe it all to The Beef. That'll get me some strange looks but it's always nice to have a bit of a story about an unusual bike 
. By the way, I got to wondering why those fenders look so much better than the rest of the bike last night and lo, I did discover that they're stainless. The only decent parts on that thing . I'll probably post some photos when I get it done, but I have at least one other project ahead of it. Thanks for the help.
. By the way, I got to wondering why those fenders look so much better than the rest of the bike last night and lo, I did discover that they're stainless. The only decent parts on that thing . I'll probably post some photos when I get it done, but I have at least one other project ahead of it. Thanks for the help.
