i just purchased a vintage bike from a gentleman who thinks its pre war chinese utility bike. its not a flying pigeon but it has all the same distinguishing parts. its front crest says yurin works and has japanese or chinese characters on fenders and well as rims and tires say national hyper tire. it also say kaikatu cycle on rear fender and has a sanyo rear fender lamp. the chain guard says "special" on it as well as other jap or chin character. its rod brake system and rear drum brake. i am looking for replacement parts and alittle hisotry on this company.

if anyone can help i would seriously appreciate it im just a loss and really want to restore this bike!!!!!

Pics********************?

-Kurt

these are a few pics of some of the identifying marks

Interesting. Can you show a picture to show the entire bike?

What I heard bikes are not so popular in China like they were 20 yeas ago. I heard the sky in Beijing was blue back then and now it's red. I hope they still value those bikes a lot.
Too bad there is a language gap.

ill get a pic of the whole bike this morning

When I recently checked China was listed as having 13 million cars. That works out to 1 per 100 population so I imagine that in most areas, outside cities anyway, bikes are still the primary mode of personal transportation. They are also producing a lot of small engine motorcycles too though, most along the lines of the old Honda 50cc.

Based on the middle picture in the second row I would guess Japanese origin. It looks like a stylized Chrysanthemum, a very common Japanese national symbol. In fact the Chrysanthemum symbol was stamped on all Japanese WW2 rifles and carried on the front of all Japanese warships. A symbol of the emperor or imperial family as well as a national symbol.

i found out today that the tire size is 26 by 1 3/4
i went to 3 bike shops no one wanted to touch it?? a can of worms they say!
they also said i would be hard pressed to find tires due to the rims being rolled instead of the modern style rims.
one guy said the tires looked to be pre WWII. im at a loss with this machine. im starting to think that there is no way to get this back on the road. changing rims would be drastic due to the rod brakes not matching up to modern rim.
if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated

another pic

??

Good luck with it. What parts are you looking for?

Some of the Chinese and especially India bikes are copies of Raleigh bikes, and some of the parts can be interchanged. The problem is, there's no way to know for sure. (And the cranks on this sure don't look like a Raleigh!)

I've got an Indian Arpan bicycle bought new last year. The rear tire on it is a 26x2x1-3/4, shown as 54-571; Ralson brand, made in India. Per Sheldon Brown's site, that's the rim size of the old Schwinn cruisers- I didn't realize it was an oddball tire size. But they are still available somewhere.

Cool old bike. seems to me that with a little creativity you could get some Raleigh parts to fit.
Check Sheldon Brown's site for a better idea of tire size. They're out there but the LBS usually doesn't understand anything other than 700s or those old fashioned obsolete really rare 27"s.
These are simple machines. You'll just have to do a little research and thinking.
There are a couple of websites that sell modern chinese bikes and parts (Yellow Jersey or that place that sell pennyfarthing replicas). They might know something.

Don't pay any attention to the bike shops, unless you need an excuse to buy a new Specialized Roubaix. Most of the mechanics working now weren't born when rod brakes were common. I think that the hardest part of this resto is gonna be cleaning the rust up...

i appreciate all the help guys! this is gonna be a long hual on this one. i have literally emailed every possible person and museum on the web! i emailed japanese museums and chinese and i got nothing back yet so im still hoping i can get some info!

as far as the raleigh parts, i dont know if wheels would fit. the rims on this bike are rolled and there is a white tire inside the black tire. its very strange.
im wondering if there is a place i can just send these tires and rims to to have them rebuild them or something????

im buying a early 60's raleigh roadster in the morning so im gonna compare these 2 side by side.
cant wait to get the new bike!!!!!!!!!

Wasn't the Yurin made in the Yellow River Cycle Factory?




...sorry, I have nothing useful to contribute.

hahahah thats funny

I was going to say that was a bike ridden by a peon.

I have a 1939 rod-brake Raleigh with rims that I thought would make finding tires difficult. I actually asked that question of Sheldon, and he assured me that "normal" tires would work. It's possible your rims are of a different style, but I suspect the guys at the LBS just don't really know, and are preferring to err on the side of not getting blamed if things don't work out.

theoldbicycletrader in Britain has brake pads and other parts for rod brakes - so those shouldn't be an issue either.

Good luck with that one. Looks like it will keep you occupied for a few months. At least it will if you work like I do.