Looking for information on a Non Canadian bicycle.

Submitted by C. C. Schultz on Thu, 07/24/2025 - 23:08

Hi Everyone 

This bike is a recent find, definitely not a CCM bicycle and being marked Made in Czechoslovakia it's not Canadian made either. From what I could find on Google it was made by a company called Favourit. In a letter I read, apparently the Canadian headquarters for the company were in Ottawa right beside the RCMP headquarters. It was suspected they may have done some cold war spying, an interesting tale.

I'm hoping someone can date this bike. It does have a serial number which is 8486013543. The first 8 is very faint and both 8's look much like a backwards 3, so they could be a cyrillic letter if Czech or Slovak has an alphabet similar to Russian.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

3 Comments

Submitted by C. C. Schultz on Thu, 07/24/2025 - 23:11.

Still can't attach photos on the first try, here they are.

img_2408.jpeg img_2409.jpeg img_2410.jpeg img_2411.jpeg

Submitted by T-Mar on Fri, 07/25/2025 - 12:03.

During the 1960s and 1970s there were three Czech sister brands that were imported into Canada: Eska, Favorit and Rapido. Until now, I've never seen one later than 1980. However, all three used a common, open format serialization, wherein the first two characters indicated the year and the 3rd was a trademark symbol. All the samples I've seen were stamped across the the bottom of the shell, as opposed to along the edge, however, that was obviously a post 1980 change.

I believe the 3rd character is actually a stylized "E" based on the cryllic "E". which looks like a partially stamped "8" or a backwards "3". This stands for "Eska", which was both a brand and company/factory name (much like CCM). Often "Eska" appears in full (see attached photo). Based on other samples that I've seen, the trademark character appears to have been pre-stamped on the shells prior to serialization and it would be harder to get a full impression along the more curved edge of the shell. This could explain the missing "ska" or maybe they just shortened it to one letter. Of course, it's always possible that it's not a stylized "E" for "Eska" but based on other Rapido bicycles I've seen, this seems to be the most probable explanation. 

When I was in the industry in the early 1970s, there were at least two Canadian importers/distributors. One was in Toronto and the other was in Montreal. Some Canadian brands were also contract manufactured in Czechoslovakia via Eska. 

The bottom line is that it appears to be 1984 manufacture. The presence of wheel reflectors suggests post 1977 as most manufacturers introduced them to comply with 1978 CPSC regulations. 

 

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Submitted by C. C. Schultz on Sat, 07/26/2025 - 01:08.

Thanks for the information T-Mar! As always, your knowledge of anything bicycle is encyclopedic and impressive. I appreciate your being willing to share what you know.

Cheers!