::: OLBIFRUS :::

GENERAL INFORMATION

Bikes in Russia

There are a plenty of different kinds of bikes in Russia. Before revolution Russia was a rather wealthy country (or nobles were wealthy) and they bought a lot of bikes from Europe and America. Indian, Laurin-Klement, NSU etc.. all shipped big proportion of their production to Russia. Time and revolution have erased most of these bikes anyhow by now.

After the revolution Soviet Union still had rather close ties to American manufacturers. Soviet militsia (police) bought a lot of H-D's and Indians during the 20's and the beginning of 30's. Out of these bikes, a rather good number have survived and it is possible with some luck to find still nice bikes from this era.

During the WW2, Americans and Brits gave a huge amount of material support to Soviets, including thousands of motorcycles. Over 30 000 H-D WLA's were taken to Russia, as well as around 6000 Indian 741's. The brits sent an unknown number of BSA's, Nortons and Ariels. Out of this amount, a lot of bikes are still being driven around Russia.

During the war, germans captured all the vehicles from the invaded countries. After the war, Russians took everything they could to Soviet Union. It meant a big number of german, belgian, italian etc... bikes and cars. Basicly, anything manufactured before the war, you can find from Russia.

During the cold war, importing of bikes from western countries was rather quit.

Most of these bikes have been in use for decades, without anykind of sparepart supply. The condition is according. Some might have documents, most don't have.

Russian collectors have naturally taken all the best bikes long time ago to their own private collections. A lot of bikes have already been taken out from the country, mainly to Germany. And those still left for sale, have ever increasing prices. Russian economy is slowly growing, and prices for everything with it. Also, local authorities are making their best to make it next to impossible to take anything out of the country.

Still, a big number of bikes are found all the time. And somehow they make their way to European markets. Feel free to ask for any bike, we can at least try to search for it.