KOMAR | Late 1950’s-Late 60’s | Poland :
Komar means “mosquito” in Polish, and the name proved apt. The history of moped production by ZZR Romet dates back to the late 1950s, when the plan was born to expand the company’s range to include mopeds — an idea not only dictated by market needs but also by international standing. The regime of the time did not allow People’s Poland to fall behind capitalist Western Germany or France, which were already building their own mopeds.
United Bicycle Works in Bydgoszcz developed a moped structure with a simplified construction compared to vehicles from Zakrzów. The creators of the Komar moped were three engineers: Bronisław Kądziorski, Andrzej Kentzer, and Józef Podlaski. Work on the design, testing prototypes and preparing for serial production lasted three years. The absence of a proper test department meant that, in practice, the prototypes were trialled on Bydgoszcz’s public streets, where their buzzing two-stroke engines became a familiar sound long before the machine went on sale.
The first model of the Komar, type 230, was introduced in 1960. It was fitted with the SM-02 engine, built in Wrocław, which was a successor of the SM-01 engine used in the earlier Ryś moped. It had a steel pipe single frame, a sprung front wheel, a one-speed engine, and a pedal start mechanism. For what was manufacturable in those days, the engine had an astonishing rating of 1.4 hp, was paired with a two-speed transmission, and both the crank and ignition were operated with cranks and pedals. Maximum speed was around 55 km/h. The Komar was deliberately positioned as a budget machine, drawing heavily on components already produced at the Bydgoszcz bicycle factory to keep costs down, including a bicycle-type front lamp, handlebars with a mechanical bell, and no speedometer on the earliest versions.
In 1962, models 231 and 232 were introduced, fitted with the new S38 engine produced at the metalworks in Nowa Dęba. The MR232, produced from 1963 to 1969, featured a two-stroke, single-cylinder, air-cooled S38B engine. By 1964, with the rival Ryś and Żak mopeds from Wrocław discontinued, ZZR Bydgoszcz became the only moped manufacturer in Poland. That consolidation only accelerated the Komar’s dominance.
The Komar soon became one of the most popular mopeds in the People’s Republic of Poland, and beginning in about 1965, it was exported to other states of the Eastern Bloc and also to Western Europe, including Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and West Germany. In West Germany, the Neckermann Versand, at the time the market-leading mail-order firm, was the sole importer of the Komar, selling the MR-232 and MR-2320 under the names Neckermann Condor Record 25 and Condor Record 50.
By the end of the 1960s, 100,000 Komars were being produced annually. The machine had become woven into the fabric of everyday Polish life. Komars carried young people to school and adults to work, helped with shopping and errands. They were ridden in villages and in cities, by the poor and the better-off, privately and professionally. Postmen, meter readers, and inspectors all rode them. The development line continued to evolve well past the late 1960s, with a sports version appearing in 1971 and production ultimately running to 1983.
