  In this paper some numerical restrictions for surfaces with an involution are
obtained. These formulas are used to study surfaces of general type $S$ with
$p_g=q=1$ having an involution $i$ such that $S/i$ is a non-ruled surface and
such that the bicanonical map of $S$ is not composed with $i.$ A complete list
of possibilities is given and several new examples are constructed, as bidouble
covers of surfaces. In particular the first example of a minimal surface of
general type with $p_g=q=1$ and $K^2=7$ having birational bicanonical map is
obtained.
