Steel bikes made in Prague
After my first book about frame builders in Western Europe I am curious about the bike builder scene in the Czech Republic. Some time ago I heard and read about this little manufacture of these cool looking steel bikes made in Prague with the french sounding name Repete.
Behind it are the two founders Robin and Mikoláš and they invited me to meet them at their showroom in the bohème Prague district of Vinohrady to have a chat and then to show me their workshop just a quick bike ride away.
Mikoláš (on the left) and Robin (on the right) met almost ten years ago in Prague, when urban-fixie cycling became popular in Prague. At the beginning they put their bike passion into collecting and rebuilding old czech bikes. In doing this, they dedicated themselves to learn from the few remaining old czech masters how to build their own steel bikes. They had to begin from scratch. It is interesting to know that Repete sees its history so much rooted in the long tradition of czech bicycle building, which almost died out, like in other European countries. The famous czech bike brand Favorit for example stopped to exist after the Velvet revolution in 1989, the reanimation of the brand by a Slovak investor has not much in common with the soul and knowledge of the original any more. The aim of Repete is to transfer the tradition into the present time by adapting and developping new technologies and creating cool looking bikes.
Then we went to the nearby workshop, a beautyful airy und characteristic space. In use there are these old and undestructible machines from another time when machines were meant to hold forever. Here they produce the two bike models, a road and a gravel racer, in small batches. Every bike is then customized according to the wishes of the future owner. The concept is quite simple and versatile. Mikoláš offers me to test one of their bike, so a next post about this will be guaranteed..
