A week and a half ago I visited the famous (!) Chong Chom market on the Thai-Cambodia border. Lots of old bikes there, and I definitely saw a couple of those Phoenix bikes! In black though ... Next time I'll take pics!
Freek freezing in Holland Faro Rotterdam Netherlands
2011/1/27 Jim Merz <jameshmerz@gmail.com>
> 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