Golden Lion Stops In

Shanghai Forever headbadge on a rusty old chinese roadster.

Golden Lion headbadge on a rusty old chinese roadster.

Since starting our business in August of 2008, we’ve set ourselves up as one of the few places in North America that deals in rod brakes, roadster bike parts, cotters, and 28 x 1 1/2″ tires. Every now and again, a fellow gear-head (or hopeful amateur) tracks us down to help restore their old bike (or simply for advice).

This 26″ Golden Lion was nearly destroyed with rust, but the owner insisted that there was life in the bike still – so the rear axle was replaced and a 26″ rear centering kickstand was installed. I usually jump at the chance to work on idiosyncratic  bikes, as it makes for good experience and helps me become a well-rounded mechanic. I’ve had the chance to do some fun stuff: beat-down rickshaw revivals, dust-busting crazy old trikes, and (of course) a lifetime’s share of rod brake adjustments and cotter installations.

You can see the rest of the images I snapped of the bike in a Flickr set entitled “Interesting Bikes and Repair Jobs“.

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2 Comments

  1. Posted June 24, 2009 at 5:56 pm | Permalink

    Is the bike still in your shop? Try scrubbing the chrome with a little lemon juice and aluminum foil. It will remove the rust without trashing the chrome.

  2. Riley
    Posted August 2, 2009 at 12:16 am | Permalink

    I hate to tell you this but that’s not a Shanghai Forever, even the English lists it as a golden lion(金狮). On the seat post it says 常州 Changzhou (city) 自行车 (Bicycle) 厂 (works). There were other bike companies back in the day. Just Flying Pigeon and Forever were the biggest ones.

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