Flying Pigeon bicycles peddled in Highland Park

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Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, who led China into communism in the 1940s and the cultural revolution that followed, once said everyone in China should own a Flying Pigeon.

Nope. Mao wasn’t talking about birds. He was talking about bicycles.

When President George H. W. Bush took a trip to China, the Chinese government sent him home with one of their prized, heavy, steel Flying Pigeon bicycles.

And now you can have one too, if you’re willing to drop $300 to $700 for one at Highland Park’s Flying Pigeon LA bike shop.

The shop owners, brothers Adam and Josef Bray-Ali, host two monthly bike rides for those looking to take the communist-era bikes for a spin.

On the second Saturday of each month, Josef Bray-Ali takes riders on a tour of northeast L.A. art galleries known as the Spoke(n) Art ride. And on the third Sunday of each month, Adam Bray-Ali leads folks on a ride for dumplings on the Get Sum Dim Sum ride.

For more details on the bike shop, its rides and its other activities, check out today’s Small Business feature profiling Flying Pigeon LA.

And while you’re at it, check out this video on the Flying Pigeon’s place in China from NBC‘s Beijing Olympics coverage.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles