The Flying Pigeon

Wow!
You own a little piece of history.

Okay, now tell us the story of how you obtained it. We're all waiting. And no, you didn't go to China to buy it :)

Tom
 
a guy on Portland's Craig's list had it posted as " Old Bike $40 " . That was the whole add.
Well , that and these 2 pics:

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When I called to talk to him about the bike he sed he'd been riding it for years
Then the tires let go about a year ago and well , at 75 he figured he was done.
He added the reflectors for safety ............
God I love bicyclists ....
What ya think map ? Should I build the screaming pigeon ?
 
boxcar said:
a guy on Portland's Craig's list had it posted as " Old Bike $40 " . That was the whole add.
Well , that and these 2 pics:

p_001.jpg


p_002.jpg


When I called to talk to him about the bike he sed he'd been riding it for years
Then the tires let go about a year ago and well , at 75 he figured he was done.
He added the reflectors for safety ............
God I love bicyclists ....
What ya think map ? Should I build the screaming pigeon ?
Click to expand...

Man.... its your bike so of course you can do whatever you want with it, personally if it were mine I would just give it a very good apit shine, save the old tires and tubes, put new tires and tubes, grease and oil everything up proper and use it for a pedal around now and then conversation piece, there may be a million of those over in China but there aint many here and I think it would be a shame to mess up such a rare piece of unique art like that, some bike are just meant to be lect unmelested I think and for me that Flying Pigeon is one of them.

Maybe Im the sentimental odd ball here but that bike was designed to be used as a rugged dependable means of transportation and I think it says way more as it is than it would with an engine on it.

You scored a heck of a deal on a very nice and unique bike boxcar, but its yours and you should follow your own heart about whether to leave it an original piece or to motorize it.

thats just my $0.02
 
Wow! nice bike :) I have a Chinese 'Wu Yang' with a ladies frame that I purchased brand new some years ago and it's a superb bike to ride. I also have a Chinese 'Phoenix' in more distressed condition, but I've always wanted a 'Flying Pigeon'.

At $40.00 that was such a lucky buy. And I'm not remotely jelly, no no, not at all.

 
Unfortunately I was wrong... Or happily.....
As it turns out the bike is of early Dutch Or English descent.
I discovered this today when I picked the bike up in Portland....
Hard to tell as the badge is very faded. She's old though. very old.
I'm going to ask the intrepid wheel woman for lots of help here.
Lepper seat / Dunlop 28" ss rims / Sturmey Archer AW 8 3 speed rear hub / Lucifer Baby dynamo and lights / Front and rear rod brakes / oil bath chain case etc.... HELP!
I have no clue....
 
boxcar said:
Unfortunately I was wrong... Or happily.....
As it turns out the bike is of early Dutch Or English descent.
I discovered this today when I picked the bike up in Portland....
Hard to tell as the badge is very faded. She's old though. very old.
I'm going to ask the intrepid wheel woman for lots of help here.
Lepper seat / Dunlop 28" ss rims / Sturmey Archer AW 8 3 speed rear hub / Lucifer Baby dynamo and lights / Front and rear rod brakes / oil bath chain case etc.... HELP!
I have no clue....
Click to expand...

A photo of the badge even in faded condition would be a big help in identifying this bike. The Sturmey Archer AW hub should have a month/year marking on it. Sometimes it can take a bit of elbow grease with brass wire wool to clean the hub up enough to see. Don't use steel wire wool as it scratches the plating and leaves behind tiny steel fragments which will cause further rusting.
Dunlop rims are common to many older makes so not a lot of help there. The Lepper seat and Lucifer dynamo sound European, but I would need to do some research to be sure. Are there any frame numbers stamped on the bottom of the bottom bracket lug? - If there are they might be useful as a way to identify the bike.

Any questions you might have please feel free to ask as I ride bikes like this one all the time. :)
 
I just uploaded a tone of pics so lets see if they come up:

p_012.jpg


p_013.jpg


p_023.jpg


p_027.jpg


p_028.jpg


The frame #'s are on the upper seat post not the bottom bracket . ( Strange.)
# is 66957R
 
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Well I can see from the photos your bike has oil cups on the bottom bracket so that places it in the pre-war era since it's an 'oiler' bicycle. Some 'oilers' were made in the immediate post-war period (I own one actually), but those pedals are seriously pre-war, possibly from the late 1920s.
At first I thought your bike was an English 'Wearwell', but the badge decal is different. (I own a Wearwell path racer). The fact that the badge is a decal tends to put me off it being an English bike as they tended to have metal badges. Dutch bicycles sometimes used decals, my early wartime Dutch 'Veeno' had a decal for a headbadge, but your bike isn't a Veeno.

I'm going to have to do some more research on this. I will be back.......
 
Thank you so much for your help. If it was a Harley or Triumph I'd be right at home , but this thing has me stumped....
 
The 'Lepper' saddle is a Dutch make, but so far I haven't been able to identify the model you have on your bike.
The 'Lucifer' Baby dynamo is a Swiss make, but I would need a photo of it to properly identify its year of possible manufacture.

So far the betting is on this being a pre-war Dutch bike.

I shall hunt deeper into the archives.......

5471library.jpg
 
Well so far I know that's not one of fifty Dutch bicycle makes that I've checked out so I'm not having much success in that department. The Lucifer Baby dynamo is more than likely their '900' model as it has straight knurling on the drive end. All the other earlier models had radial knurling so that's one small success. Judging by the headlamp we're still in the pre-war era as it looks similar to Miller, Lucas and Bosch headlamps I have from the same time frame.
I enlarged the headbadge decal as much as I could in graphics software and tried to improve the faded lettering, but apart from B.SC....(or G) I couldn't get anything useful. I checked out every bicycle make I knew that has the world on its headbadge and no luck there either.
So for the moment the Intrepid lady has to admit defeat until I get another lead or bright idea.
 
boxcar said:
I'm wondering if it could be German or Russian?
Click to expand...

Noooooooooooooooo!! :eek:

Well actually even though it would be a whole new area of enquiry I could check that out. Russian - I would have my doubts because the saddle is Dutch so German would be more likely as they are neighbouring countries. The style of valance on the mudguards (fenders) is distinctive which will help with identification too.

Give me a day or so and I'll get back to you :)
 
hi i just come across this flying Pigeon looks to be very nice condition i thought Intrepid Wheelwoman might like this to put to your collection not sure what year this is , the guy is asking 3 hundred
 

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The new Pigeon's available in the states sell for around $300
Flying pigeon LA has them listed on there sight.
 
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