A version of this article ran in the October issue of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News.
BUCHA, Ukraine (BRAIN) — The Ukraine Bicycle Project was founded 25 years ago and eventually provided locally manufactured and sourced city bikes for transportation here. When Russia invaded in 2022, priorities changed somewhat but the project's determination to continue manufacturing and providing bikes never wavered.
Founder Doug Fattic — who attended the Philly Bike Expo in March to spread the word about the project, his framebuilding classes, and his design fixture that's laser cut in Ukraine — said in September that the group is back providing bikes to residents, service workers, educators, ministry leaders, and the military. Public transportation has been unable to meet the demands of displaced residents.
"The fastest and quietest way a medic can get to the wounded on the front line is by bicycle," Fattic said.
The shop where the manufacturing takes place is located on the campus of the Ukrainian Institute of Arts and Sciences, just west of Kyiv. When the Russians invaded, they staged an attack right behind the campus shop, Fattic said. They shot the locks off the shop, and "took what they wanted, including some of my clothes I keep there," he said.
But they left frame manufacturing equipment, tools, and Fattic's bike.
Small victories as it turned out
"They did terrible things in town," said Fattic, who lives and teaches framebuilding classes in Niles, Michigan. "Yuriy Kuzmenko, the guy I've worked with for 25 years, had to hide underground for two weeks until he and his wife could escape west. This war is really hard on all of my friends over there. The bombs come at night and wake them up and get their adrenaline going and then they can't go back to sleep. They all suffer health issues related to this stress. I can't possibly understand why anyone thinks the Russians aren't the bad guys."
The project's goals have changed. They now use donations to pay for gas for vans to transport refugees out of Ukraine and to buy food. Money also went to buy wood-burning heaters made by the same company that manufactures Fattic's framebuilding fixtures. "That money did double duty because it supplied work for their employees and heaters for the cold winters. These were distributed to the bigger churches, civic centers, and the military to provide winter heat," said Fattic, who noted the project is connected to Bikes4Ukraine, a group organized by Danish urbanist Mikael Colville-Andersen.
Beginning last year, the project resumed providing bikes with framebuilder and U.S. supply chief Tim Massengill purchasing 100 new old stock (NOS) bikes in the Netherlands. Caspar Drenth, the project's supply chain and logistics lead in the Netherlands, arranged for relief supplies like generators and warm clothes to be shipped from Holland to Ukraine. He also aided in the shipment of the used and new old stock bikes.
"Many of these NOS bicycles went to the military," said Fattic, who hasn't returned to Bucha since the COVID pandemic and the war's escalation.
With degrees in teaching from Andrews University — a Seventh-day Adventist university in Berrien Springs, Michigan — Fattic became aware of a Russian PhD student's plan to send used bikes for transportation to students at an Adventist university near Tula, Russia, in 2000. However, the container of bikes was blocked at the Finland-Russia border and rerouted to Ukraine.
"I discovered that Ukrainian pastors could really benefit from bicycles, too, and concentrated my efforts there," Fattic said. "Before the latest war, Adventists were the largest Protestant church in Ukraine."
Donations save the day
Replacement tires for the donated bikes were not available in Ukraine, so with a donation from McKee Foods — parent of Little Debbie — money was available to buy new bikes through distributor XB3 in Kharkov. Fattic helped set them up and maintain them.
XB3, which made all parts in-house, was in financial peril, Fattic said, and he arranged a meeting with Shimano Europe. "This meeting of Shimano and XB3 in the Kharkov factory was one of the most interesting meetings in my life," Fattic said. "Old Eastern financial culture meets the West."
In addition to Shimano, other industry companies currently collaborating with the project include Park Tool, QBP, Planet Bike, Dia-Compe, and True Temper. In addition to Kuzmenko and his son Yan, Oksana Gal, communications and development officer, is based in Bucha working for the project. Yan was given an exemption from military service because of the value placed on bikes in Ukraine.
While the meeting didn't save XB3, it led Fattic to begin manufacturing in Bucha. "I used this as an opportunity to train some of my framebuilding class students after they took my class. They could stay in the dorms and eat in the cafeteria. This repetitive work making frames really improved their skills."
Delivering a 'Message'
The bikes are called Messengers because they can bring help where it's needed most, according to literature explaining the project's cause. "Power and water outages, decreased access to resources, basic transportation for the displaced population and medical care — these are only a few situations where a bicycle saves the day or a life."
They are modeled after Dutch transportation bikes, emphasizing function, all-weather efficiency, and durability. The steel frames are constructed with locally laser-cut tubes. Features include an internally geared hub, fully enclosed chainguard, integrated lock, kickstand, generator light, rear rack, fenders, front and rear baskets, and a bell.
In addition to framebuilding on one side of the shop, the other is equipped to handle most repairs and also includes wheel-building equipment.
Fattic learned about framebuilding in the United Kingdom in the mid-1970s as an apprentice and had frames manufactured for him by craftsmen such as Hetchins, W.B. Hurlow, and Masi. "I spent the summers of '73 and '74 running around the U.K. looking for a good place to learn as well as someone who would teach me," he said. "I was extremely fortunate that Ellis Briggs in Shipley, West Yorkshire, would let me be there in the summer of 1975. I couldn't have chosen a better place. I started teaching classes during the summer of 1976 and have been doing them ever since," including in Bucha before the war's escalation.
Fattic said work is currently centered on building forks for 50 frames. Half of the bikes will be built in Bucha and the other half in Niles. "Some materials arrived from Ukraine in August, and another shipment of fork crown twin plates is hopefully getting through U.S. customs this fall," he said. "One of the goals of our Ukraine Project was for my students to gain real-world experience making frames to increase their skills. Making these forks is a continuation of this."
Individual donations of any amount are accepted. Jerseys and shorts are available with proceeds going to the Project.
Companies can donate parts and tools by contacting Fattic. A long-range goal of the project is to expand the bicycle humanitarian model to other countries with similar needs.
