Speaking of steel bikes made in China made me think of an incident from 1972 or so. I had just started my frame building as a full time occupation when I somehow found out that a local big politician needed someone to assemble some bicycles. Can not remember his name, but he was the head of the Republican party of Oregon. He went with Nixon to China on the first trip, seems like he was a rug importer and got to bring back some China made things that were off limits. One of the items was a big wooden box full of (I think 10) Phoenix bicycles. This guy knew nothing about bikes, but told me this was the first time these bikes were allowed into the USA. So he hired me to assemble them, he wanted to sell them as some kind of collector/novelty item. So I open the box and these bikes are totally apart, even the balls in the hubs are loose. And there were no extra parts, if I lost something then that was it. I did get all of them assembled, not without some problems. The frame was painted a nice candy apple red, with great decals. I thought about keeping one for payment, but the money was more helpful. These bikes were used on the Ho Chi Min trail for carrying supplies to the Viet Cong. I found a link that shows the bike, these are newer but look similar except for the color. So I think I assembled the first China made bikes in the USA.
http://www.bikechina.com/
Jim Merz Big Sur CA
On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 3:50 PM, <oroboyz@aol.com> wrote:
>
> Kevin wrote:
> << I should have my version of the past......in my Bantel team frame..
> Campag 1010 dropouts, 531db tubing ... >>
> I hope you can do a better job of joining the rear dropouts to the stays
> than as seen on that $4000+ Holdsworth "Replica"
> (I know you can, even in your sleep!)
>
>
> You know, I didn't see any mention of where that frame was made! China?
>
>
> Dale Brown
> Greensboro, North Carolina USA