Doug Fattic 

I visited the XB3 company in Kharkov (now Kharkiv - Ukrainian spelling) in June of 2000. The purpose was to buy a number of bicycles for pastors. The company had shown their line of bicycles at an agricultural fair outside of Kyiv. I had arrived in Ukraine a couple of weeks earlier to see where some kind of suitable bicycle might be purchased. I wasn't having much luck. Bicycles from Taiwan were just then being imported and advertised on billboards and in the Metro. I saw at the fair a XB3 model that appeared to be what we wanted and arraigned to meet company officials at their factory a couple of days later. We placed an order for 200 bicycles at $62 each. They required a down payment of half + a little more so they could pay the city to turn their electricity back on. The workers had been on a forced vacation because the company didn't have any orders. While I was there they gave me these advertisements I'll show in pictures below on single pieces of paper held in the packet. I'll show a picture of the jacket and then some of the models they were promoting. Their transition from a Soviet style of business to a capitalistic one took place later. I made a trip back in August to pick up the bicycles and help distribute them throughout Ukraine.


The outside picture on the folder that held the individual advertising sheets of each model of bicycle.





This is one of the bicycles we bought that I brought back to the States.