First published on 18 May 2011. Updated on 10 Nov 2011.
Bike-lover's hub, repair workshop and retail outlet
Update: The Donghu Lu location is closed, Factory Five has relaunched at this Jiangsu Lu address.
The name, Factory Five, is a bit misleading. This new ‘bike shop’, is more of a bike-lover’s hub than a retail outlet – you can buy bikes, fix up your current model in their workshop or hang out in the sun-dappled garden.
Behind the concept are five fixed-gear enthusiasts (hence the ‘Five’ in the name) who want to create a community around bikes in
Shanghai. Tyler Bowa, of
People’s Bike fame, says they ‘lucked out’ with the venue, which is as much of an outdoor as indoor space, with a tree-studded garden and patio area (they’re soon to install a barbecue and beer-stocked fridge for casual summer parties). The ‘store’ is more of a tool-littered workshop with cosy sofas, all housed in an airy, crumbled villa.
Though Factory Five stock regular aluminum frames, the unique thing they do is recycle old China brands (3,000RMB/bike plus service), including Forever (Yongjiu) and Phoenix (Feng Huang) frames, turning them into single or fixed-gear, customisable cruiser bikes, that are some of the sexiest bikes we’ve ever seen. Standout frames include the racer-green China Post bike and a stunning pillar-box red Chinese Olympic frame by Forever (6-7,000RMB), which dates from the late 1980s. Only 30 or so were ever made.
Factory Five are seriously geeky about the bikes they produce, and are innovating with their own designs, like a hub that suits traditional steel Chinese frames. They’ve also gone to extreme lengths to ensure the quality of their bike parts, which come only from factories the owners trust: studded seats from the south of China and hubs (pick from gold, red, silver, green or black; you can also pick the colour of the rims) from Taiwan. These are beautiful bikes built with painstaking care, and are made to last.
Nicola Davison