Classic & Vintage - vintage ussr xb3 road bike

anyone know anything about this xb3? its a bike made in ukraine back when the ussr still existed. ive gotten a coupld pictures from the craigslist poster and it seems like a pretty cool frame and all the parts are all original and made in-house as replicas as parts of that era simplex and mafac the lugs look decent and the frame is made so that it conceals the brake cable. the owner also said the bike has never been ridden (what looks like rust on the headtube is flux and in the pictures he sent me the brown spots on the rims the glue from the sewups) he's asking 300 and im at school in st. louis now and hes in dc so otherwise id go over and have a look. tell me what you guys think

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/bik/246355358.html

here are some pics
http://s143.photobucket.com/albums/r152/chuburr/

I find it hard to believe that there would be flux residue. If it is, that tells you how good the build quality is. Whether it's rust or flux, there's a paint adhesion problem. Poor factory gluing of tubulars is another indicator of build quality. The Eastern Block components were also poor copies. Having said that, it certainly is a conservation piece - a $300 conversation piece.

Unless you have a special reason for wanting it, such as Russian or Ukrainian geneaology, I would pass at that price. The biggest attractions of other vintage components and frames from western Europe are craftsmanship and aesthetics, two departments in which this specimen is sadly lacking.

I bet you could find one for $10 in the old eastern bloc.

I say be patient, and start a communique with some of our Mittel Europa members here.

$280 too much.

-Kurt

You know I think its rather nice looking and its different, not something you're going to see everyday.. which is something I really like, but yeah I think $300 is a bit much too.

You know I think its rather nice looking and its different, not something you're going to see everyday.. which is something I really like, but yeah I think $300 is a bit much too.

Yup.

Honestly, Italian bikes shouldn't be $300-3000 IMHO. But they have a sentimental value, and are mostly well made (excluding the crappy paint).

But is a Cinelli or Colnago worth the 1000% markup? Not really. It's the market, baby. It's all about having 10 apples for every 500 people that can't go another day without a slice of pie!

Just imagine if a Cinelli showed up with no markings, and a generic gruppo. How much do you think it would be worth to the GP?

Location, location, location (of the stickers!).

Yeah, it would take a lot of sentimental value before I would spend $300... I might be tempted to spend $100 on it but if I planned to ride it I would be taking a close look at what size all the consumables are. It would totally suck if the tires were some weird size or the bearings or pedal threads were such that replacements were unobtainable.

Cool. Commie bike.

Too much money though, but cool. I'd like to ride around on that thing in a gray overcoat and a big fur hat yelling "I am biking, comrades!"

I like the lugs and headbadge. But it's sort of an ugly bike.