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Takhion Racing Bicycles

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Head Badge Manufacturer: UKTb BELO = CDTA BB = Central Design & Technical Agency, Velo Building


Down Tube Make: MAXUOH = TAKHION = TACHYON

Takhion was special make of sport bicycle from Kharkov, Ukraine, in former-USSR.
Named tachyon: (in Physics) a hypothetical subatomic particle that always travels faster than speed of light.
Developed by Central Design & Technology Agency, Bike Building, or CDTA BB,
from 1981 to 1992, nearly 400 custom bicycles were produced,
over a dozen models for road, track and time trial competitions,
featuring original-patent aluminum, carbon and titanium components.

Takhion bicycles were originally designed for the USSR National Team,
which used Campagnolo, Colnago, DeRosa, Rossin, Cinelli (from Italy) and RIH (Netherlands).
A CDTA BB technical symposium in mid-1980s included experts from Columbus, Bianchi, 3T, Alpina (Italy).
Takhion then supplied cycling teams of Republics Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Kirghizia.
Several USSR National Championships, and at least one World Championship, have been won on Takhion.
Thanks to Reginald Vorontsov, Takhion's chief designer-constructor,
and his son Vadim Vorontsov, for providing pictures and information.

Takhion Super Sport
Takhion Super Sport, no. 238, 1986

Here's the bicycle that inspired my telling this history.
I had found a mystery bike, a late-Soviet, Sputnik-like road racing machine.
It's wheels and cranks were missing, but half the unique, original components are intact.
Assembly completed with similar European replacements and I posted photos online, queried lists, waited...
A year later, the son and father of Takhion bicycles sent a helpful note of correction,
followed by the splendid pictures and details presented on these pages.


An early Takhion bicycle, made in 1981 for competitions in TT and team TT on road.
Frame is made of Ishiwata tubing (Japan), models 017 or 019. Size 60cm (c-t) weighed 8,8 kgs.
Components of titanium and aluminium, steel only in bearings.


One of the last Takhions, made in 1988, of Columbus SLX, weighing 9,3 kgs.
Only three bicycles of this type were made.

Takhion was displaced in chaos after end of Soviet Union,
when the works of Kharkov (XB3) were consolidated with CDTA BB.
After closing CDTA BB, Reginald Vorontsov designed three models:
two road bikes of steel and metal matrix composite, and one mountain bike of 7005 aluminum.


Vorontsov Universal road bicycle made of Columbus steel tubing.

Clean-lug head tube with sloping-crown chrome fork,
cartridge-beraring headset and single-mount downtube shifters.


High-collar seat tube with "Universal" toptube decal.


Clamp-on front derailleur with cartridge-bearing bottom bracket.


Long-arm chain-wrap rear derailleur with open-end dropouts.


Detail of rear-facing horizontal dropouts with axle adjusting screws.


Underneath the drilled-out Windsor-like bottom bracket shell.


Vorontsov Metal Matrix Composite Super Light frameset of 1993--1995.
Road and track models were made of composite aluminum and boron tubing,
joined by original technology of Kiev Institute of Welding.


Reginald Vorontsov, in yellow jersey at the 2003 National Championships of Ukraine, masters time trial,
continues racing after having stopped designing bicycle frames in 1998.


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