geeteeiii

When i started my dive into the KhVZ or XB3 bikes i read about the legendary Moscow 80 road and track bikes made by CKTB created for the 1980 Olympics. Never in my mind i tought i would own one of those bikes as they made about 50-60 of them, yet im like 90% sure that i stumbled onto one of them and its my size as well.
These bikes were basically cutting edge for their time, titanium was used everywere possible, groupset was made in house. And the heavy use of titanium and other extremely lightweight/milled out components doomed these bikes, as the national team stress tested them, they had snapped cranks and bottom bracket spindles, so none of them were actually used in the olympics due to reliability issues. Road bike apparently weighed 8.25kg-s. One of the main designers and builders of these bikes - Reginald Vorontsov eventually started making the legendary Takhion bikes.

Its in pretty terrible condition and with basically none of the original parts. I think only some parts of the headset are from the original bike. Frame should be from Ishiwata 019 tubes, it feels extremely light and i will weigh the frame once i get the stem out. Its painted as a Samoilov who was the top mechanic in the soviet national team, he made some frames also, altough mostly after the collapse of the ussr. I think he had a cycling team also, so most likely somebody in the team used the frame? ill see once i strip it maybe some original paint comes out.




One of the main identificators - Takhion style bottom bracket cutout. Also unsure what the numbers mean, but they are present on Moskva 80 frames and early Takhions.

Thinned lugs, and cleanest brazing i have seen on a soviet made frame.

A rethreaded XB3 bottom bracket shell was the main clue that this was a Moskva 80. ITA thread.

Brazing style consistent with other Moskva 80 frames and early Takhions.

due ruote 

I for one don’t know a thing about these bikes. But it sounds like you do, so kudos for the score.
Seems suitable for posting here:
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...se-has-16.html

juvela

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Bikerider007 may wish to comment...



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bikingshearer 

Cool find. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I see building the fork was subcontracted out to Comrade Ernesto.

geeteeiii

It had some other capitalist junk on it as well. 1983 Campagnolo super record cranks with pedals, a colnago pantod campy 27.2 seatpost with a Rolls saddle from 1983. So maybe somebody binned their 1983 colnago super and swapped the frame to this.

Original fork wouldve looked like this: https://dzen.ru/media/anvelo/redchai...d6b95713f60ec4

AdventureManCO 

What a great thread. Love it!

jdawginsc 

This is an exceptional find. Very cool piece.

bikingshearer 

Well, Italy for a long time had a fairly strong Communist Party, so it isn't too big a stretch to include Italian stuff on a Soviet frame.

rustystrings61 

AWESOME find! When I was in Moscow in 2008 I saw very few cyclists, but have much respect for them. The first time was in February and there was snow on the ground, and recall seeing one b@ll$$y cat riding a Cannondale road bike in Moscow traffic. So very definitely NOT for the faint of heart. This bike's patina looks like it spent a few winters traveling through the grey slush on the roads.

There are always the Don Camillo stories of Giovanni Guareschi! Italy, Communists, and a surprising number of cycling references!

My obscure trivia/hijack - when I had my health thing in 2004, I learned my surgeon would be a younger fellow whose last name was Guareschi. None of the nurses really knew much about him. When I finally sat down with him for a consult, he finished the usual medical info and asked, "any questions?" So I asked him if he was related to the Giovanni Guareschi who wrote the Don Camillo books and he grinned all the way around his head. I was apparently the first person to ever ask him that, and it turns out the author was a first cousin of a great uncle or some such relationship.

"I'll take special care of you," he said. And he did, and here I am.

zandoval 

Even is you cannot use the frame it will make a great "Wall Hanger" just as it is...

Nice find and history...

SkinGriz

Read Operation Gladio a couple years ago.
Very interesting read.

SkinGriz

Really cool.

What do you think the BB Shell is threaded? Are you going to put it together and ride it?

Bikerider007

Thanks Juvela. Sounds Iike a cool find and with the war they seemed to have gained value.

When doing a fair amount of buying before Covid I picked up a lower end HVZ Pekopa track bike and I have a Specialzed bottle with Gorbachev on it. Thats about the extent of my depth on the subject. 😀

Spaghetti Legs 

Interesting stuff, thanks for posting as well as pointing out the features. Im a bit of a Slavophile, having studied Russian in college, as well as a bit of Estonia’s cousin language, Finnish. I did a summer study in Leningrad in 1989 and while there, a pro level time trial went on along the banks of the Neva. At the time I was a budding mountain biker, not a pro racing fan, so didn’t, unfortunately, pay very close attention to the bikes and racing.

Bikerider007 your “Pekora” is actually probably a “Record” if you transcribe the Cyrillic. The “P” is pronounced as “R” and the lower case “d” looks like a little “a”.

obrentharris 

Great to see your latest addition to your Soviet bike fleet!
I will enjoy seeing how you build this one.
Brent

Lascauxcaveman 

Very cool and with the thin Ishiwata 019 tubing I have no doubt it's very light.

Looks like rust could be an issue; proceed with caution if you plan to ride it.

geeteeiii

It has a italian threaded BB. XB3 shell used was normally french thread. I remember reading somewere that maybe Vorontsov himself was concerned how thin the wall on the BB shell were due to the rethreading and some maybe even cracked, so Takhions had their own special BB shell.

Im not sure what i will do with it. This frame has several issues and depending on scale of internal rust, it might need some serious help before riding. But if it seems safe, the least ill do is throw on some track wheels and take it for a quick spin around the block atleast. I think i might even have some NOS Takhion/Kvant ITA thread bottom bracket cups, so its time to hunt those other bits.

SkinGriz

I hope it’s a rider and you enjoy it.

It would be really cool if the paint and decals/stencil/airbrush were redone as factory. Might be fun to answer questions from other cyclists.

geeteeiii

Bare frame weighs 1680g ST 56cm C-T and TT 54cm C-C. Is this normal weight for a ishiwata 019?

Edit:

Doug Fattic 

No, Ishiwata 019 has a wall thickness in the main tubes of .8/.5/.8 - which is light but not crazy light. My bet is that it is made out of 017 (.7/.4./.7). My personal frame I made out of 747 weighs about 1700 grams. I am at the MADE frame building show in Portland now (showing my Ukrainian made frame building fixture) so I can't check my records to be sure.

Back in the 70's, I made a frame out of Ishiwata 015 and that was crazy light. I wouldn't worry about any safety rust issues. That looks like mainly surface rust. Frames with light tubes have a magical ride that few every get to experience because production companies don't take a chance someone too big will ride and break it. Welcome to a very small club!

greenscobie86

Really cool! My late father raced one like this in the late 70's(without the cutout on the bottom) while being a pro rider for the Army in Moscow. It was common to get these with Campy parts and to replace forks/etc with "better quality stuff" from the like's of Colnago/etc.

mpetry912 

to me at least this is the holy grail of soviet road bikes

/markp

Gary12000 

So, there was an old mother of Russia Babushka i think is the term, she was riding her bicycle to the store to pick up some bread... she was going quite slowly, at a Red/Traffic light a Trabant pulled up next to her and wound down the window... " Excuse me Babushka, do you need a ride in this cold weather," babushka looked down at the Trabant and said " No thanks i'm in a hurry"..

Mr. 66

Wipe some motor oil on that thing let's see what shines up like...

Fahrenheit531 

Cool find, congrats!