Gong Zhiwei, after 50, has been obsessed with chinese and foreign antique bicycle collection for 32 years, loves to do it, and is good at turning the collected "tattered" famous cars into magic. The so-called "big hidden in the city", his 70 rare bicycles are hidden in downtown Shanghai, repairing, playing, and walking every day, even the neighbors have not noticed. Master Gong advocates the spirit of craftsmanship, calling himself a "lonely craftsman", and he has also interpreted its connotation with years of unremitting efforts.
Let's listen to Master Gong tell his story.
1
At the beginning of the pit
I play with old bikes purely as a hobby and enjoy hands-on fun and process. "Pitfall" was in 1990, when I was working at Bank of China at 23 Bund, riding a 26-inch permanent male car to and from work every day for 70 minutes each way. The domestic saddle tube is tall, I am short, and I always feel difficult. During that time, there were many small shops near my home, there was a monopoly on Japanese used bicycles, I often went to talk to the owner, and later bought a Japanese 24-inch Bridgestone double-curved black female car, the seat tube is low, comfortable to ride, especially with a three-speed rear axle, that is, medium speed, growth rate and deceleration (Shanghai called three flying), feel good. From then on, I was hooked. At that time, there were used car markets in Shanghai's South Wharf, Huangjiaque Road and Gongping Road in the former Nancheng District, and I took turns to patronize almost every Sunday.
I play with cars very differently, clean up some "rags" and then restore them as much as possible to their original appearance. In my opinion, collecting and playing with cars are two concepts, as long as the collection is willing to spend money, basically anyone can do it, playing with cars is another matter. I like to look for old goods that are not expensive and valuable, and after receiving them, I take care of them myself.
Speaking of which, I have loved to do it since I was a child, and when I was in elementary school, I was keen to assemble airplanes, ship models, cut paper, and assemble ore machines; when I got married, I made myself the floor of the new house, pasted wallpaper, wired wires, and installed lamps. I also have one great job – writing giant art words. In the 1980s and 1990s, on May Day and National Day, major buildings around the Bund hung huge banners. At that time, I took a long bamboo pole, split the cross in front of the head and clamped the color pen, facing the red cloth on the ground with a length of 45 meters and a width of 2.4 meters, and wrote a hollow giant art word of 1.8 meters high and 1.6 meters wide with my bare hands.
This may also be a kind of craftsmanship, which also laid the foundation for me to play with old bicycles.
2
resuscitation
I choose my own principles for choosing cars, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, which were produced before the 1950s; Japanese cars produced before the 1980s; and domestic old cars produced before the 1960s.
These cars are good for a good price. I play with the concept of cars, cost is the first, so only look for old, old cars. But they have been weathered by wind and frost, and most of the surfaces are rusty, and the mud boards are potholed or even broken, and there are many problems. For people who play with cars, as long as the main frame is not hard, others can be repaired, even if the mud on it is as hard as stone, it can still make it "come back to life".
If you want to make a name for anything and form your own style, you must have care, patience and perseverance. I stocked a room full of parts at the underground car where I was hiding, so many feet that I couldn't put them in. Playing with old problem cars, if there are not enough parts, without the technology of repair, is not playable. In the past, we all exchanged parts in the second-hand car market, and now we buy on second-hand websites and shop in WeChat groups. My trick is: usually diving, encounter the right spare parts, decisively start.
I repair the car to make people not see the scars, but also to repair the old as old, which requires a high degree of coordination in the repair and matching of parts. It is a trilogy: disintegration and dismantling, cleaning and detection, assembly and debugging. But this is light to say and not easy to do. Over the decades, I have been practicing and accumulating some experience. For example, steel balls should be seen one by one, as long as one has burrs, it must be replaced in a complete set. Where the full chain cover of the car is deflated, the usual idea is to "support" the flat from the inside out, but the traces are too deep, I have eaten "medicine", and later thought of a way to "make up" the flat from the outside. Use superglue to make up for the deflated parts, and then grind them with a file after the glue becomes hard and solidified and dries thoroughly for about a week. The choice of file pays attention to the thickness of the first and then the finer, the more the back is finer, the repaired surface can be integrated with the original plate. After polishing, spray paint 3-5 times. When spraying paint, it is 20 cm away from the surface, far away, the paint will drift to other parts, close, the paint will be too thick, to "runny nose".
Some car mud plates are broken in many places, and the original owner has roughly "bandaged". I first cleaned the fracture so that the sides were tightly docked and glued with strong glue. Find two more tinplates from cans and stuff them into the grooves on either side of the clay plate as support. The superglue takes 10 hours to solidify, and I get up in the middle of the night to see if the interface is tightly glued and firm.
3
Ride alone
I am very obsessed with cars, buying a fever every morning, exercising, and after 3 p.m., I enter a world of my own. There were two spotlights in the entrance of the house, and I laid out crawling mats, where I operated some delicate little things on the bike. Or go directly to the basement and go to the car to wipe the car and repair the car.
Three points of technology, seven points of tools, this is not false at all. Some special tools are not very practical, I often make some "soil" tools according to the difficulties encountered, it looks simple and rough, but it is particularly practical, dealing with mud plate shaping, fracture repair, fork depression, tooth plate pins, screw nut removal, steel wire weaving, concentricity debugging, etc., are handy.
While doing these things, I was immersed in the world of bicycles alone, with nothing in my heart and a special happiness.
Whenever a car is repaired to the standard, I feel great, happy, and like taking tonic. Sometimes I will pull the car out for a walk and show it in front of my fans and friends. Han Guqiao, a bicycle enthusiast and post-80s lawyer who is very familiar with Chinese and foreign bicycle history, said that I am a rare "restorationist play" in China, and praised me for "repairing the old as old, relying on experience and craftsmanship, and the spirit of craftsmen who pursue perfection". Shanghai veteran player Zheng Weiming is well-informed, playing with a solid foundation in car play, he generally does not evaluate easily, only to make a "six-word" evaluation of me: "life is refreshing, free of inspection" (Shanghainese, work beautifully, exempt from inspection), which is a compliment to me, but also an encouragement.
The car I have repaired must have two major elements, one is to ride comfortably, and the other is to brake sensitively. Cycling is also a means of maintenance, and my 70 vehicles have to take turns to ride out for a "walk". If it's not raining, I pick a car every night and go out for a 1.5 hour ride. I rode out along the roads around home and enjoyed it as I rode. The car I repaired is recognized in the circle as having good inertia, braking spirit and good pedaling sensation. I especially like the feeling of stickiness between the various links when the foot is pedaled down and the wheels are turned. At night, under the plane tree, I rode the old car slowly, and often couldn't help but turn my head sideways and admire the figure reflected in the glass window on the side of the road.
4
"Five Star Admiral"
I now have nearly 70 vintage cars, all in my bike "Underground Kingdom". Collecting and playing with antique bicycles for many years, I have formed my own principle, that is, "people have no me, people have my essence, and people have my solitude (orphan product)". One-third of my precious cars are orphaned, and two-thirds are high-quality and excellent. The five cars I cherish the most, I call "Five Star Admiral":
No. 1 car: in the 1940s, the Dutch antelope 26-inch swallow line brake, the 26-inch antelope is generally a flat handlebar hard brake, the predecessor player said, this car has not been seen in the 70s of the last century;
Car No. 2: The original owner said that this is a 28-inch women's large bend pipe "R" license plate car produced by the British Lanling Company in the 1930s, also known as the "Wanderer", which is a rare treasure. The logo of the English letter "R" on the front of the car is the classic logo of the Top British Luxury Car Rolls-Royce, so it can be called the "Rolls-Royce" of the British antique bicycle industry;
No. 3 car: In the 1940s, the British "Hamburg" brand 26-inch monopoly men's car, the special feature of this car is that its handlebars set the british three brands of light stand logo in one, it is said that this was the British Lanling company advertising vehicle at that time, it is rare;
No. 4 car: In the 1940s and 1950s, the British 26-type "Sanbin" men's car (known as the "Sun God" in China) has always been the object of pursuit of bicycle players, with a unique head lock, gantry double brace, plus a rare rose red body, which is more gorgeous and precious. At present, the second car has not been seen in China;
Car No. 5: Classic 26-inch thin tube frame Bridgestone hard brakes made in Japan in the 1960s, diamond-shaped hard car logo, hanging screw seat tube, body general green, very rare. The frame is spray-labeled with the English GUARDEED WORLD FINEST BICYCLE PRECISION MECHANISM, which translates into Chinese which probably means "guaranteed to be the most exquisite bicycle mechanical process in the world".
There is a veteran player who once said, "Teacher Gong, you have played with cars to the highest level, they are like your own children." He was right! Someone asked me, how much more time can you play? I also know that I am nearly 70 years old, these old things can not be taken away, how many years can I stay with them? I don't know; what's the way out later? I don't know. I often comfort myself, just throw away a pile of garbage, it doesn't matter, I have played, enough, but to say so, I can't bear it in my heart, I will shed tears...
Some time ago, the video of the online interview with me got the attention and praise of some citizens and friends from other places and overseas, and there were caring people who were willing to provide a venue, and some car players were willing to send old bicycles at home.
5
Underground Kingdom
Shanghai is short of money, and the biggest problem with playing bicycles is that there is nowhere to store. The underground bicycle garage in my community is free and can be parked by residents of the community. However, due to the dark and damp, the environment is harsh, and there are stray cats, a bad smell in the summer, mosquitoes and flies flocks, the yellow plum season is simply a nightmare, and even the waste collectors are shouting that the smell is too big to eat. No residents in the community are willing to go down and park.
I took the initiative to clean and disinfect the basement, which also made it the "underground kingdom" of my bicycle. Every time I go down, I spray disinfectant first, and in the summer I spray insecticide and air cleaner. In recent years, basement gables have begun to seep water and ceilings have leaked in many places. In June last year, when Huangmeitian was in the basement, the water in the basement reached one or two centimeters, slowly spreading outward, and the property was inspected many times, and the reason could not be found, so it had to provide some sandbags to block it, but the water would still seep out from the gap. I used a dozen towels to seal the gaps in the sandbags, but the water was pervasive, so I could only use towels to absorb water and screw them into plastic buckets. Every night, I have to carry five or six buckets of water out, more waist to eat, after all, the age is old, think of being able to have this place to put so many cars, in Shanghai has been quite good, this pain can only be overcome by themselves.
Alas, sometimes thinking about it, I am sorry for these old cars, they are like my own children, they have been with me for many years, I can only go down to see two or three times a day. They lie silently in such a place, which is really pitiful, especially every year on yellow plum days and hot days, it is difficult to survive. Most of these old cars are steel texture, electroplated parts, rust penetration is very strong, I look at the pain, but also very helpless, can only pay more, each car takes turns to maintain scrubbing. But even if it is one car a day, it will take 2 months to take a wheel, and there is really not enough time. But what can be done? It can only be said that the pit is too deep, the illness is not light, and the suffering is happy and happy.
But even if I can't be busy, my car is not given to others, and many times on the road someone wants to take something good and replace me, I did not agree. Because I know cars and love cars, an old senior who plays with cars comes to me and entrusts me with his car. Last year, I rode it to participate in the "Old Bungalow Parade" activity in Xinhua Road Street, Changning District, and while riding, I thought that if the old seniors saw this scene, they would laugh happily.
After participating in the event last year, I stored two "permanently" to the Xinhua Road Street Integrated Service Center in Changning District for the elderly to let elderly friends see them. One is the first 28 bar of the 1951 permanent brand, which is the only one in Shanghai at present, and the other is the five-star permanent 13-type bicycle (called the old 13 in Shanghai) in the 1960s, which can be called the essence of domestic bicycles, and the quality and texture exceed the British Lanling car, which is a rare object. When I sent it, I was in a very good mood, and I told others that "it's like the best two little children have a good life and live in a villa."
6
Bonding forever
Our post-50s generation is really not easy, sweet, sour, bitter and spicy have been taught, but these have become the past, turn the page. Now my wife and I have a pension, the retirement treatment of the unit is also good, we love life, live every day happily, and hope that we will live a long and healthy life. In the car players, nine times out of ten the family is opposed, making the family dirty and chaotic. I have been able to persevere until now, thanks to the tolerance and understanding of my lover, she is an understanding person, empathetic, as long as it is conducive to physical and mental health, she has no opinion. As for me, playing with cars and families should be in the right position, as conscious as possible, do more housework, usually buy fire and field work, generally by me. We have a tacit understanding with each other, each has its own hobbies and space, I think the family is harmonious, and everything is happy!
In addition to playing with old bicycles, I have a wide range of interests, such as coins, playing with walnuts, stamp stamps, old ornaments, flower bonsai and calligraphy art music, five news must-sees every day, and also pay attention to market dynamics.
I hope that in my lifetime, I can do something for society. I didn't have any rhetoric, it all started from the side. Last year, I was invited twice by Lu Fang, the "Red Gang Tailor", a cultural promoter of Haipai clothing, to participate in public welfare activities, especially on October 28 last year, I participated in the "Old Bungalow Parade" activity, I provided 12 antique Chinese and foreign famous cars for that event, and the "permanent" elders were full of joy and warm atmosphere.
I met the "permanent" elders on December 12, 2020 at the shanghai book city, they published their own new book "Eternal Story", they also have a permanent lecturer group, I was also invited to participate in a university lecture event. I admire their spirit of tireless efforts to promote a perpetual culture. We all agree that the bicycle is a culture, which has a deep heritage in Shanghai and deserves a place in the Culture of Shanghai, but there is no bicycle museum, which is a major drawback. If Shanghai can build a bicycle museum, I am willing to do something and do something. This is an old party member, a native of shanghai with old bicycle resources, and the real thoughts from the heart.
Gong Zhiwei self-described
Xinmin Evening News reporter Jiang Yan sorted out
New People's Eye Studio
Image | Zhou Xin
Edit | Gu Yingying