Flying Pigeon

Today I bought Alyssa a new bicycle for Christmas. It wasn't a Flying Pigeon, the ubiquitous Chinese bike beloved by millions. The company's still going, still based in Tianjin (ironically in a factory founded by a Japanese in 1936), though sales have gone down since the heyday of the 60s and 70s when no-one had a car and everyone had a bike. There were three models, none had gears and they were all black. Now they do all sorts of course. Alyssa's is a Chasers 540 made by the Taiwanese bike giant, Giant. It has 21 gears (!) and it's light blue. Hope she likes it.