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05-21-21, 06:13 AM

#69

Geepig

Senior Member

Join Date: Sep 2020

Location: Eastern Poland

Posts: 744

Bikes: Romet Jubilat x 4, Wigry x 1, Turing x 1

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We loaded our computers and other things in our car and headed back to the city for two days, with lists of all the things we needed to buy or collect - as well as a task list for me to get on with in the garage. While we should have been buying clothes, I made a side trip into a bike shop and came across a pair of modern Wigry. Other than the wheel size and traditional layout, there is no real link with the original varieties of Wigry like mine, and nothing really to allow them to stand out as the defining machines of an era.

Still, I would not say no to the Shimano Nexus SG-3C41 3 speed coaster brake rear hub or Shimano DHC3000-3N dynamo front hub - or indeed the aluminium rims if I could pick up a pair secondhand at a decent price.

New Wigry 3

I moved Pigdog to the garage and removed its wheels, hunted down the tires, tubes and tapes I would need for Turing, and did a bit of drilling and filing to prepare a new strap for the lock on the front doors of the big barn. We have had some strong winds recently, and one morning we woke up to a half open barn. That meant another trip to the local builder’s merchants, where I of course forgot to buy the square file I would need for the coachbolts I had bought to attach the lock strap thing. And nails. Every farm needs nails. While I was at it I did purchase some bike-related items, such as some green paint for Turing’s wheel rims.
I also had the idea of buying a small shed, then erecting it inside the big barn as a place to store my less used and other people’s bikes to give me more parts storage space in the Warsztat. There is an access door in the other big doors on the cottage side of the barn I could use to get the bikes in and out, but those doors need a bit of work to get them fully functional, the hinges for the access door in them are newish but feeble and - such is the way - I have not found a key to those doors. Sometimes I seem to spend more time working on the workshop and storage necessary to maintain the bikes than I do either working on or riding them. But it is still good fun!

Turing the Rat Rod Bike needs a few conceptual items, maybe like a pair of mismatched front headlights, the lead light from the attic repurposed as a hand-held light, the Russian rear reflector mounted within a metal ceiling light fitting - that kind of thing.

Pigdog remained a pig to work on (and a dog on the short ride to the garage), with its seized rear brake fittings and frayed cable, better at hindering the removal of parts from the frame than the forward motion of the machine. I sprayed some WD40 on it and left it for next time.

As an aside I have three old romet rubber pedals that I am trying to disassemble to see if I can straighten out the rubber sections and end up with a pair of squarish pedals with a full complement of reflectors, the grime washed out and replaced with fresh grease. The latter would be a whole lot easier if the bearings came apart, of course. This time I had left the pin punches at the farm and was unable to straighten the tabs retaining the rubbers and metal end strap.

Danusia was still sitting there, with wheels on but I still have not found a replacement seat stem for it.

Back in the country, and I fixed the front brake lever on Zenit by cutting a slot in a washer to keep the housing nipple from forcing its way inside the plastic lever mounting. I can never have enough washers - they come in so many different ratios of ID to OD, and thicknesses. Whenever I buy some nuts and bolts at a new place I also grab a selection of whatever washers they have because some of them will be different and may find a home somewhere on the complexities that make up a bicycle. I could have simply replaced the lever with another from my collection, but that would not be so much fun.

I also tried out Turing’s and Whitey’s mudguards on Turing, but then wondered whether I should have brought some of my mudguards for 24” wheels to try. Oh well, next time.

#romet #rower #bicycle #wigry #jubilat #shopper #poland #polska

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