Re: [CR] Shipping bicycle parts made before 1983 with a new Priority Mail Service

(Example: Bike Shops)

Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 12:55:51 -0600
From: "John Thompson" <JohnThompson@new.rr.com>
Organization: The Crimson Permanent Assurance
To: Doug Fattic <fatticbicycles@qtm.net>
Subject: Re: [CR] Shipping bicycle parts made before 1983 with a new Priority Mail Service
References: <BDD4B6A9.301D%fatticbicycles@qtm.net>
In-Reply-To:
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

Doug Fattic wrote:
> This was perfect timing for me because on the framebuilders list I had just
> posted that I have some old bottom bracket shells, fork crowns, seat lugs
> and dropouts

Which list was that?
> I am donating the proceeds
> from this small sale to our Ukraine Bicycle Project and figured the
> limitation on what others would want would be based on shipping weight. Now
> I can just load those suckers up and have the USPS wonder what is inside.
> Of course anyone on this list that is interested in this offer, please
> contact me. We are having bicycles made (lugged of course) in Ukraine for
> our pastors there. My friend Tim took over a couple of weeks ago a frame
> jig and other supplies. He didn't have time to go to Independence square
> and check out the demonstrations before he left. We are all pretty nervous
> about the political events going on right now. Every year we do a bicycle
> ride somewhere in Ukraine. We go from church to church which provides food
> and lodging (www.neocm.com/Ukraine_bike_tours/). It is a group of about 20
> with 6 or 8 Americans. In the 5 years we have been doing this, we have
> converted a lot of Ukrainians to the sport of cycling. In the evening we
> listen to the stories of how the church was established and sometimes how
> the pastors had to live in Communist times. They are awful and very
> inspiring at the same time. We take our freedom for granted in the west but
> everyone there feels like it hangs by a very thin thread.

That's cool. I remember when I was over there in the 70s the Russians had a big bike factory in Kharkov. I wonder if it's still working? Most of the output was awful Soviet copies of Western consumer-grade crap, but IIRC, they did have a hard-currency store where you could buy some decent stuff like tubular tires from Czechoslovakia and the GDR.

--

-John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA