Hello, dear dudes and dudettes! Greetings from Finland 🙏

A few summers back I got a couple vintage bikes and now that I'm working on them I'm having issues identifying this ladies frame.
Our local folks have suggested that it might be a Ukrainian XB3 or in our speak a KVZ, Kharkov Velocipyed Zavod. I'm not a 100% sure as after extensive googling I haven't found one alike. Checking sites like veloretro.ru the lugs do look like their early frames but none are a match. What makes this even more interesting are the other parts as they are all western: Torpedo rear hub stamped 39 with eagle(ohdear), Phillips front hub, Rigida rims, Phillips bottom bracket, Union pedals and a Lemet saddle. There was some speculation that this is a some sort of a lend-lease situation where Finns got some frames from CCCP and then completed the bike here with western parts...🤷
The frame has multiple paint coats so no markings are sadly visible 😮‍💨

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! Or just point me towards the right direction if I'm asking in the wrong place.

Cheers!
Ottis

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Thank you so much juvela 🥰🙏

Ottis, I'm probably the only member of this forum that has actually been to the XB3 factory in Kharkov. We bought a few for our Ukraine Bicycle Project. Very few ever make it over here to the US. When I 1st went there in 2000, they had a sign outside commemorating their 75th year of operation. So that would make the start of their factory in 1925 or earlier since the sign was probably a bit older than new in 2000. Those lugs on your frame look similar but not the same as the lugs on XB3 frames I'm familiar with. However my point of how old the factory is can mean that they might have used a different style of lug in earlier days. I'm not where I can look at my pictures of their museum where they displayed bicycles from their past. It might be awhile before I can get to them. This factory was beyond huge and 4 long buildings took up an entire city block. They told me at one time they had a production rate of over 1 million a year. It was down to a few hundred in 2000.

Frames can last a lot longer than parts and I wouldn't be surprised that an immigrant out of the former Soviet areas put some new parts on an old frame. I understood that all the parts except tires were made in their plant and those parts were not that well made. I also wonder about other bicycle factories in the former USSR. I've heard they existed but don't know brands or where any were located. And I wouldn't rule out old Scandinavian bicycle factories either.

Thank you for your reply Doug! I know this story from the Soviet junk thread by geeteeiii , that is what made my try my luck here. You never know, this is a large forum...someone might know stuff. I'm actually Estonian, just Finland based and sent this inquiry to a bicycle museum over there as well. We will see what will come out of that lead.
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Doug Fattic I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a look at your archive once you have the chance. Thank you! Sorry for the mess with my replies, there is a 5 reply limit in 24h for us newbies and I have potatoes for thumbs 😆

I should add that this bike came with a partner, a men’s Crescent, which I have managed to date to somewhere around 1938-39, as this Estonian museum has the exact same bike on display from 1939. I’m waiting for their reply. Both have the Torpedo back hub: the Crescent is stamped '39 and this one '38, so that should be a ballpark for their age.

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have visited the Estonian museum site several times in the past and found it quite enjoyable

includes cycles from Sweden & Germany also

encourage other readers to visit as well...

https://www.velomuseum.ee/

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Sorry for the late answer, this does not seem to be a XB3 product.

tänud! thanks! I have come to this conclusion as well after going through a lot of pictures and pages, nothing matches. the search has led me towards Sweden...

Swedish bikes usually had that one piece crank type on this level. So i would look for something not scandinavian also. Something about it says british to me.

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perchance if our styggno1 were to have a gander he might see something which would twig a memory...

ottis, you might have a go at posting your inquiry over at retrobike.co.uk as well


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that makes sense, thanks!

I will, thank you! this is an ongoing project and well, it's been ongoing for some time now. I will get to the bottom of this eventually 💪😂