Growth in the popularity of trials in Europe and later the USA, which This coincided with and, perhaps, stimulated the He also claimed the European Trials Championship
#Metisse bultaco pursang trial
Gruelling Scottish Six Days Trial in 1965, and then repeated the feat with wins in 19. Overnight, rendered the heavy four-strokes obsolete. Teamed with Bultó to produce a lightweight two-stroke machine which, At that time trials wasĪlmost exclusively a British sport using big heavy four-stroke machines. Which revolutionised the sport in the 1960s. Perhaps the most famous Bultaco model is the Sherpa T, a trials bike, Bultó witnessed British motorcycle racer David Whitworth giving the signal to his pit crew to signify that all was well.Īlthough they made road and road racing motorcycles, the company had its greatest success with models for off-road competition the Pursang for motocross, the Matador for enduros, the Sherpa T for observed trials competition, and the Astro for short flat-track. The other part of the company logo, the "Thumbs up" symbol, came after Sr. Bultó, John Grace from Gibraltar.ĬEMOTO is an acronym for "Compañia Española de Motores". The name was a suggestion of one of Bultaco's premier racers, and close friend of Sr. Bultó's surname with the last three of his nickname "Paco". "Bultaco" comes from combining the first four letters of Sr. Just two months later Bultaco entered its first Spanish Grand Prix taking seven of the first ten places. Setting up shop in very primitive conditions at an old farm owned byĭay and launched its first bike, the road-going 125cc Bultaco Trallaġ01, named after a Spanish word for whip.
Persuaded him that their greatest hope lay in forming a new company. Bultó was invited to a meeting by several of the former The suggestion to form a new company is said to have come a few days Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of Montesa's racing department left shortly afterwards as well. The racing program and responsible for much of the company’s technicalĭecided to leave Montesa to concentrate on his other business interests. This slump brought to a head disagreements between Bultó and the other senior director Pere Permanyer.Īs an economy measure, Permanyer (the majority shareholder) felt that The move was protracted, disrupting production and was followed by a downturn in the Spanish economy. After several years of steady growth and road racing success, Montesa moved to larger facilities in 1957. Francesc "Paco" Bultó was a director of the Montesa motorcycle company founded in 1944. The origin of the Bultaco motorcycle company dates back to May 1958. And it all started because of one man’s passion for motorcycle The Sherpa T trials bike made their mark in national and internationalĮvents. Road racer, the Pursang motocrosser, the Matador enduro and of course Like the Tralla and Metralla gathering an army of fans while the TSS 1967 saw the introduction of Bultaco's famous Pursang motocross model, which continued in production until 1981 with the ultimate Mk 15 edition.Bultaco was a Spanish manufacturer of two-stroke motorcycles from 1958 to 1983.īultaco had a huge impact on the world of motorcycles, with road models The story of Bultaco motocross machines starts in 1960 when company founder Francis Xavier Bulto engaged top British riders, Derek and Don Rickman, to try a 175ccTrallaspecial he had prepared for the Circuit de Pedralbes. The brothers liked the engine, but not the chassis. Despite his misgivings Don won the race and an agreement was reached whereby the Rickman brothers would build their own chassis to house the Bultaco engine. The result was the 250cc Bultaco Metisse which made its debut in 1964 and which was also known as theMestizo -the Spanish translation of Metisse, meaning 'of mixed blood'. The Rickman brothers built machines for the UK market while Bultaco built those to be sold elsewhere. Unfortunately, there were soon reports of the Spanish frames breaking as they were made of tubing inferior to that of the Reynolds 531 specified by the Rickman brothers. The agreement was curtailed in 1967, with the Rickman brothers unable to keep up with demand for their Metisse machines and so Bultaco introduced their own, simpler frame with a single down tube, as opposed to the duplex arrangement of the Rickman design. The new model was named the Pursang 'thoroughbred' in French, on account of its being manufactured entirely by Bultaco and despite their agreement having been broken Don Rickman gave the Pursang his seal of approval, successfully racing examples over several seasons. Initially only available as a 250, by the time the Mk 5 was introduced in 1971 there were additional engine options of 125cc and 350cc.