I have been following the sales and auctions of cheap bikes and parts on the Allegro, Olx and ebay sites, not just for things to buy but to learn more about the Romet range and as a source of inspiration. In the past one would have gone to a library in the hope of finding such a source of data, but books have one disadvantage: they compile only the data filtered by the author. As a result they are always incomplete and soon date, although they can preserve a snapshot of the past.
To me such auction sites are perfect, a continuous supply of raw data created by humanity and although some filtering is applied the data tends to spill over from the pictures and descriptions. I rarely buy anything I see there, as first I have to procrastinate, and then move onto stage two - is what I am looking at going to allow me to be innovative? If it is too complete then there will be little of my thinking in the result, just a transfer of parts from one machine to another. If it is too new then there is a fear of ‘spoiling’ or ‘ruining’ it. However, if it is already battered then I am more likely to take a risk, to apply a saw or other tools to it, as the number of already damaged parts limits any sense of finished-ness or needed-ness.
Incompleteness leaves a vacuum in front of us, while waste reduces the fear of error. Here is where innovation mostly lives.
Fun things to play with - all the possibilities are there...
While working as an R&D engineer for the aviation branch of the once-more defunct Norton Motorcycles we used to use the empty space between tasks to take the waste parts from ‘under the bench’ to run little side experiments that the management never officially acknowledged. It expanded our knowledge and experience, and made any weary job a little less so, knowing what we would do with our next window of opportunity. Our aviation engineering lives on, the motorcycles less so.
Anyway, back to Allegro - and Blue.
On one level Blue does not need much work, other than the coaster brake issue - and it is too new and too complete to encourage change. It lacks vacuum and the sense of waste. The plan therefore is to strip Blue down to its component level so it looks less complete, safely store away the nice features and then buy a cheap bike for parts. The waste nature of the cheap bike would mean no problem in swopping over the interesting parts to Blue, and then to raid Blue’s excess parts store for wheels to create a winter / off-road set for Tigger. Handy, with snow around the corner. With the right donor Blue would gain gears and a cable to operate the rear brake that I already have lined up. One option would be a donor with Vee brakes on the front, simply because I have never ridden with them, but that assumes finding a bike with a front fork that can be swopped.
After some effort I found a suitable donor, at only 80 zloty including delivery from somewhere on the other side of Poland. It is a 20 year old Kross, another Polish bike manufacturer, and is essentially a mid-sized child’s bike with derailleur gears front and back. Like the found Kid bike, it will also produce a wealth of different parts for the store cupboard. Will Blue’s chainwheel match the new rear derailleur hub, or will it be possible to change the BB to allow the replacement of the whole drivetrain? It is 45 years since my last BB strip and rebuild, so I am well overdue for a revisit.
Anyway, the package containing the ‘Kross Best Junior’ arrived several days earlier than expected, and was very well wrapped. It came while we were out, and the delivery guy lugged it up all the way up the stairs in our block only to discover that we were out. He rang wifie, but declined, not unreasonably, her request that he should return later. Even our friendly neighbours were reluctant to take in this massive parcel - which is a pity as their two young sons would have had a field day unwrapping it for me. Instead it was there waiting for us on our return, blocking our doorway and taking me about half an hour to unwrap before I could bump it gently down the stairs on its two flat tires, and useless brakes.
I wonder what is in here?
A quick inflation of the tires and I could ride it around the garages. It rode well, the steering natural and the frame feeling straight despite, as I thought from the pictures, it having spent time being jumped - bent cranks, replaced front wheel, bent derailleur mount, bent tail of the rear mudguard, bent seat post and so forth. Four out of the five gears worked on the rear with nothing happening at the chainwheel end, the rear brake slowed me somewhat while the rat’s nest of wire at the front only moved to its own music. Not bad at all for a 35 zloty + delivery 20-year-old bike. What is really impressive is that in good condition they still go for 350 zloty, in a market flooded with flash new bikes. I might even get my money back on selling just the frame and some extras.
I turned Best upside down and removed the brake pads from the cantilever brakes, which proved far more effective in ******ing the removal of the wheels than their rotation. I plan to get the gears working before I finally attempt to transfer them to Blue, but first I need to be sure that Blue can accept the parts. I also stripped off the rack, mudguards and so forth, mostly to gain better access to the gear parts and make it easier to move around. While the wheels are off I can check the tires, fix the bent spokes, check the aluminium rear wheel for wear and fix the surface rust on the steel front one and do something about the axle and sprocket bearings.
After some consideration (aka: procrastination) I decided that Best’s front wheel would go on Tigger as part of its winter wheel set, and the aluminium rear on Blue. The front wheel on Blue would remain there, once I readjust the axle and sort the spokes out, while Blue’s rear will become part of Tigger’s winter set, once I rebuild the coaster brake hub. I only need one more off-road tire to complete the winter set, as Best came with one relatively new one on the front and a cracked road tire on the rear (original?). Tigger will remain solely coaster braked, while Blue will have calliper brakes front and rear. I might use Best’s brake levers if they fit Blue’s handlebars and can operate calliper type brakes.
As an aside, if I ever come across someone who can braze stuff on bicycle frames I might consider fitting the cantilever brakes to Blue, as well as some fittings for the brake and gear cables.
#romet #rower #bicycle #wigry #jubilat #shopper #poland #polska