Although this was intended to be about the progress of work on my bikes, I have decided in the desire to make it a more natural story to pretend that I have not started yet, giving anyone in the future a more consistent read. First, though, something about how my bikes came into being.

I should say something about Romet as well, otherwise I might end up blathering about (more) incomprehensible nonsense (than usual).

Romet is or was a Polish company, established after the Second World War mostly to produce bicycles and small motorbikes, until it ceased operations in about 1998 and then deleted as a company in 2005. It made all the usual road and racing type bikes one would expect, and then in about the late 60s it branched out into the new-fangled folding and non-folding step-thru bike craze, the latter including a neat tandem, the Romet Duet. Rather a lot of their bicycles were produced in red, followed by aquamarine and occassionally some other colours. Export models, for some weird reason, were branded 'Universal' and came with a lot of accessories that were not usually fitted or available for the home market, such as metallic paint and rear brakes. Most city bikes had a front hand brake and a Czech Velosteel coaster brake hub, while others made do with just the coaster brake - for 'fun' life on the road in the PRL (Polish People's Republin, 1947-89).

One of these folding bikes was the Wigry, identifiable by its 20" wheels and kinked down tube, and produced steadily and then unsteadily since the 1970s. Later it was joined by the Jubilat with larger 24" wheels, during the murky 1990s period when Romet was collapsing and a new company, Arkus, was being set up and began taking over some Romet fatories. Arkus bought the rights to the Wigry, Jubilat and, eventually, the Romet brand. Our Jubilats come from the murkiest period between 1995 and 2005, and feature some detail diffences and a total lack of any Romet or Jubilat badges or labels. In fact they have no manufacturer's marking at all. Today's new Wigry and Jubilat models have lost the kink in the downtube and gained Shimano hub or derailleur gears, but are still at a bargain price.



Romet Jubilat 2 in front and Romet Turing 2 behind. In more successful rural areas these Romets have all but disappeared. This was not one of those areas. Note the lack of hand brakes on the Jubilat and the front brake only on the Turing - but both have the reaction arm for the coaster brake on the rear hub.

Today, perusing the local Allegro online e-commerce platform is an interesting way to waste a few hours, pondering whether to buy a bike bag with wooden toggle closures from the 1970s or other rarely seen parts from the PRL era. All the models and versions they made ensure that I have a choice of handlebars and stems, lights, toolkits that mount under the saddle and even a wacky turn signal device with orange lights that I presume would also clamp to the saddle. Being at the bottom end of the used bike market gives me a great choice of roadworthy old bikes at almost no money, with one lady owner from new. I have even seen ads for wheels with the rare Sturmey Archer three speed hub option. Altogether there are some 35 years worth of cheap parts out there...



Not a Wigry but a Flaming (Polish for Flamingo, nothing to do with fire) - these have a tubular down tube that curves up to be the seat tube. I am rather fond of the Flaming, and this one has front and rear hand brakes added, as well as a none original seat.

For Blue I want it all, but especially the homebrew blue plastic market fruit basket that is such a feature of rural machines, bolted to the rear rack, and the Sturmey Archer hub of course. I think there may have been a 'proper' blue basket, but alas I only see them in pictures. Luckily for Blue I have the choice of all the parts I removed from Tigger.