My mom’s from China. She got out on the last US Navy vessel to leave there, from the port of German-built Qingdao, in 1949. She was young, it was traumatic in ways I can’t imagine, and she could never bring herself to go back to visit (even with her son). She still insists they don’t have things like refrigeration there. So when she comes to Portland next week we’re taking her to see the China Design Now exhibit, which should change her mind.

For this exhibit, Portland Art Museum borrowed a few of Joe Bike’s Flying Pigeons to display. Bike Hack was there and blogged about it, with photos. To promote the exhibit, the museum strategically placed a second Pigeon somewhere at The Nines hotel downtown and a third somewhere at Portland International Airport (haven’t seen either). These aren’t the retrofitted Pigeons we normally sell, but bone stock. Cottered cranks and all.

And it’s true, what you’re saying: there’s nothing “now” about the Pigeon, and the design is in fact English, having been brought to China from England via a Japanese businessman in the 1930s.

Sadly or not so sadly, for 2010 we’re moving away from the Pigeon in favor of bikes made for everyday transportation in Portland, bikes so gorgeous the very site of them will send a rush of glucose to your quads–so see these Pigeons now, before they fly away for good. The exhibit ends January 17.

More on the new bikes soon.

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