Everything You Need to Know About Soviet Bicycles. Ushanka Digest #ussr

It’s true that a bike cost half a salary in the USSR 60 years ago, but it was a good quality bike with a leather seat and lugged frame. It was not Chinese-made Walmart junk. Even today, “ decent“ bike in the US costs $1000-$2000. That looks like half a salary too.

cool

As someone who took russian as optional subject in school but nowadays barely remembers the alphabet i do appreciate the attention to the languages and all the fun tidbits.

hey ushanka

people usually get it first or second time what you want
so when you post your buy this buy that 20 times it becomes annoying

Kinda funny how bilew were more popular on the countryside than in the cities. In Switzerland it was vice versa, but now with e-bikes they are everywhere.

Hey Sergei?
You said a lot of people stored their bicycles on their balconies…did anybody use a long rope or use a pulley to lower it to the ground..or the long rope and pulley to bring it up?..you know instead of bringing it in the building?..just wondering..thank you for your videos!

Hi!

Didn’t you have bicycle cellars in Kiev? We have separate rooms in cellars only bikes. You still have lock your bike but it’s much easier than drag bike in 6th floor.

I bicycled across USA on Ukrainian Bike "XB3" in 1985. It was 150 markka in Helsinki, while good bike , like Peugeot, would have been 2000 markka. But it worked very well, albeit bloody Americans did not have fat tires for 622 millimeter rim.

Where have you been? You popped up today. Turn the kick back, share a coffee and enjoy.

Howdy from western Colorado!

I'm wondering about the bike thievery, I imagine there is some. we have a bunch of it here in America..

I Dabble in bike restoration I'd like to do that to one of the Ukraina bikes they look kind of cool!

This is so cool, I ride an electric bike ❤

"There was no shortage of bikes"
Then what the hell was Pechkin's problem?!
"They were very expensive"
Ah, there it is.

Great video.

In the 1960's we'd use clothespins to attach playing cards to the forks so they'd flutter loudly in the spokes. Us kids thought this sounded like powerful motors, LOL.

A lot of old cycles in India look like soviet bicycles. Probably from the 60s / 70s

I've seen that picture of the young man fixing the young woman's bike before. He doesn't look like he had his eyes on his work, although I can't blame him 😊

I suffered the exact kind of gravel road accident as you did!

Those dirty commie kids. How dare they have fun after school! They probably rode around together and plotted how to invade America.

Sorry, I grew up in the 1950s, and I'm still a victim of my programming.

This video brought back some memories. I remember when I was in the kindergarten, there was one dad that used to pick up his daughter. No child seat, the girl had to sit sideways on the frame. Good thing they lived not too far, although the ride took more time than usual - dad usually had a beer or two on the way from work. Another memory was the folding bike. We had one, Polish production, Sokol. It was orange, very heavy, but that bike was every kid's dream. Very popular gift for the first communion.

Very interesting documentation of bicycle technology. Were else is this documented? No place I've ever seen. This is very interesting for bicycle fanatics everywhere!

Great, video! Brings a lot of memories.
Thank you comrade. :)

We're so iet bikes measured in inches? What size were the wheels on the full size adult bikes?

The rooster makes his triumphant return to prime time!

On November 25 2024 , the Civil Court of the Kharkov Region recognized as bankrupt and opened the liquidation procedure "Kharkov Bicycle Factory" HVZ
They produced very obsolete bicycles, but we loved them, they could not continue the production under fire to regret.

Atleast they didn't get taxed to death

Great video! I had a bicycle shop in San Francisco California and we were the closest bike shop to the Soviet embassy. Russians would come in looking for folding bicycles. I did sell some but no Russian ever bought one. The reason they needed folding bicycles was because there was no room for storage at the embassy. The building, which is quite large, was back then packed with all sorts of electronic equipment.

Soviet bicycles Ukraina had been sold also in Czechoslovakia - and nobody wanted to buy them due to old fashioned design 😂 and low reliability of Russian products in general….😂😂😂

Id like to ride the velosiped wearing the white shirt in front of the sunset picture 😊

Its kinda funny how different cultures do things differently in soviet areas you said the kids ride on the frame, and in the US we used to ride other kids on the handlebars and not on the frame

TBF if a new bicycle costs half of a single pay, I would definitely consider that affordable. I mean, you only need to pay it once, and then you're set. Also, that poster, I suspect it had to do with children, not adults. Children didnt make 150 rubles per month, so for them, it made sense to save. As for design, i think they look a lot like the german Adler interwar bicycles. like, A LOT. so i suppose at least some of these were machined on the machiners or using blueprints from these german bikes. Or perhaps, germans provided blueprints and machinery before WW2.
I wonder what were the prices for used bicycles. Say a 12-rubles-pension recieving babushka needed a bicycle as basic transport. How much would such a bicycle likely cost, if bought from say a neighbor? I know it's highly speculative, but i wonder none the less.

I am also glad to see a video of "ordinary" bicycles. In english talking online sphere there is very little information on normal bicycles. what americans consider a normal bicycle is a ridiculous contraption without fenders or usability in anything beyond going fast.

Meanwhile, rest of the world such bicycles are backbone of transport for many people, the poorer the people, the more important the bicycle. And i think these machines need some respect and recognition for the service they provide.

Taking sharp turn on gravel wearing shorts is also my experience. I left half of my aas on this cinder road. I still feel this pain after 40 years 😅😅😅

I'm just like you Sergei. I can't remember what I had for dinner last night but I remember the bike accidents I had when I was a kid. 😁

Dude! I have exactly the same photo on the same 'horse-bike' made in front of the Warsaw ZOO.

Grazie 👍👍👍

maybe something about soviet cars

Its really interesting to hear your perspective. Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s US, we were only given the media's narrative on the USSR. Since we had almost zero people here to talk to us about it, we went with their story

I'm only 15mins in but, did you have racing bikes in the Soviet?

It looks like life in the soviet union was fun & carefree ?

In the 80-es they produced folding bicycles "Десна-2" and "Аист". Also you didn't mention road racing bikes "Старт-шоссе" and "Чемпион-шоссе" made by ХВЗ. ❤

U bought a rifle? Just stick to bikes

HENRY FORD: You can have any color as long as it’s black.

SOVIET BIKE FACTORY MANAGER: Nice idea, Comrade! I am confiscating this idea, and redistributing it to the people on my bikes!

Id like to have an old school Russian bike

You had me when you called me comrade, comrade!❤

1970s in the US, you could get a used bike for super cheap. I got several used Raleigh 3 speeds for about $15 or $20.
I think minimum wage was about $2.50/hour. A decent used bike was about 10 hours of work.

In Czecholovakia we had a saying: "Chceš-li zažít co je dřina, kup si kolo Ukrajina."