Dear John, I think I need to comment on your remarks on Soviet cycles from Charkov.
These generally were regarded as the better ones during Soviet times, opposed to those from Perm which really were horrible. I have had several Charkov (XB3, \u0425\u0430\u0440\u044c\u043a\u043e\u0432\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0412\u0435\u043b\u043e\u0441\u0438\u043f\u0435\u0434\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u0437\u0430\u0432\u043e\u0434 \u0438\u043c\u0435\u043d\u0438 \u0413 \u0418 \u041f\u0435\u0442\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e, G. I. Petrovski Cycle Works in Kharkov) cycles as well as some from Perm (\u041f3), inside as well as outside the SU, and I must say that I admire those people who had to make do with either.
I once met a chap who cycled all over Central Asia on his 1979 XB3 model 155-411 "Start-Chaussee" racer. I´ve had this very bike for ten years now, and it never fails to draw attention when there are visitors in my dungeon, especially when I mention it has seen the deserts of Kazakhstan and the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand, amongst other places. Also it has a big red decal on the seat tube showing the 1980 Moscow Olympics symbol.
I cannot agree with your idea of the cycles being just "consumer grade bleep". One thing which I find to be a nice touch is that they had "XB3" on most, if not all parts (racing models), meaning thaat every part of the cycle, save chains, tyres and lights, were made in-house. Something else is that the Charkov engineers copied only the nicer bits of western cycles, like Campag Gran Sport, MAFAC brakes and so on.
I do agree that most models were rather inferior in build quality to what we are used to. Why this is so is a political matter not to be discussed on-list, I guess.
Regards,
Toni Theilmeier, Belm, Germany, who hopes that the cyrillic script will come through.
P.S.: In the case of a sudden disruption of an e-mail conversation with me, please assume that I have given up the medium and contact me in a more traditional way. I am in the trial phase of a last ditch system after some others could not stand my constant abusing them.