The Engleson Files

In order to keep up with young Magnus Bjorn on the bicycle, Dad (or Lin Hai Gang, as he is known in China) decided to go out and get a bike of his own. Now, being the staunch traditionalist that I am it was a no-brainer for me to purchase the classic Chinese style bike. The bicycle you see before you is a Yong Jiu which is a bike company out of Shanghai. There are three major bicycle companies in China which all make this exact same style of bike, which is basically a copied version of the early 1900’s Raleigh bikes out of Nottingham, UK - so you could see why this bike had so much appeal! I was going to buy a Flying Pigeon out of Tianjin, but through careful dialogue with the locals it was very clearly expressed to me that the Shanghai version is the best quality. So, I am now the proud owner of my very own Chinese bike and this is to be the first official installment of the Lin Hai Gang fleet: number 2 will be announced very soon…