[CR]Commie racing bikes

(Example: History:Ted Ernst)

From: "toni theilmeier" <Toni.Theilmeier@t-online.de>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]Commie racing bikes
Date: 18 Nov 2002 16:57 GMT

Hi list, a friend of mine has unearthed an Eastern German Diamant Model 167 from the fifties. It is kitted out with Gran Sport bits. Howzat, I hear you ask, Campy in the GDR?

Brought in by relatives, is the answer. The question is: The bike is equipped with Weinmann sidepulls with q/r cable stops, I hope I get the terminology right. Were these around in the fifties?

And: The first owner of the 167 was lucky to have private sponsoring. I hear, however, that the Soviet National Team also used Campag groupsets. Hard facts, anyone?

And: Has anyone of you ever seen a KhAVZ (Kharkovskyi Velosipednyi Zavod - Kharkov Bike Factory) Start-Shosse racer, made in the Ukraine, right up to the end of the eighties, and equipped with copycat Gran Sport and Mafac? I used to come across them when studying in the Soviet Union in the eighties. Horrible looking, but tough. Friends of mine rode them all over Central Asia, desert, mountains and all. The bikes are kitted out with stuff that is stamped "KhAVZ" on ALL parts - fascinating in itself. Nice blue headbadge/nameplate displaying a swallow. Where can one get one? For once, SoCal is probably not the right place to look.

Does any group member have any connections to ex-Eastern bloc racers?

Thanks,
       Toni "Nazdarovie" Theilmeier, Osnabrueck, Germany.