On top of the world
‘Standard but well put together…’ is a phrase often heard but rarely believed where works motorcycles are concerned – this time however…
World championship winning machines sometimes get lost in the ether, this one didn’t. We review Bernie Schreiber’s 1979 Bultaco.
The actual 1979 world championship winning Bultaco is pretty much standard, and yes, well put together. Mind you, those of us who were riding trials at the time knew the works bikes had something special about them.
If we’d thought about it the special component was obvious – it was the rider. Since gaining world status in 1975 the premier trials contest had been dominated by Bultaco with Martin Lampkin taking the inaugural win and Yrjo Vesterinen following it up with three consecutive titles. Things were looking good for the factory to chalk up another win and ‘Vesty’ was favourite to do it.
History records Bultaco did indeed win the world title again. but with Bernie Schreiber behind the ’bars. His win, still the only American rider to lift the title, meant riders with three completely different styles had won the title.
Lampkin was much more forceful in his riding, always wanting more power from his machines; Vesty, more technical, leaving nothing to chance in having his bikes perfect; Schreiber, more laid back and riding whatever he was given.
In 1977 Bernie had surprised the old guard with a superb placing in the Belgian world round of that year. In 1978 he came back to Europe and unfortunately failed to repeat the Belgian success of 1977 – he slumped to 14th – though he won the next round in France, then a week later he won the Spanish round and was second in the German round… all of which helped him not only finish third in the 1978
series but also ensured Bernie
would receive full factory support for 1979.
By 1979 the 325 Sherpa was pretty well sorted and when viewing the bike with its owner Yrjo Vesterinen he pointed out the few modifications which were non-standard and actually could have been done to a production machine by anyone with welding ability, or access to someone with welding ability.
I learned from Vesty that the bikes used by all the team riders were pretty much the same, certainly the rear frame loop mod was done to them all at the factory, after that there were some more personalised mods to suit particular riders.
Bernie, being quite tall, had moved his footrests a little further back and slightly further down, they’re still the standard Bultaco rests though. Up at the front end, a pair of higher handlebars eased the riding position and allowed the reach to be much further forward for Bernie’s style.
Looking at the exhaust front pipe there are two bits of tube welded in which lengthens the whole thing by 60mm or so and gives a little more torque.
Says Yrjo: “I didn’t have this done to my pipe as I preferred the power the way it was.” So, there was no compulsion to modify? “No, not really, the rest of the bike was pretty much the same as the production one, though all of us did use the earlier Model 159 airbox as it breathed better than the standard one.
“For some reason,” adds Vesty, “the factory seemed to have a problem making a decent airbox, then when they got it right for one year they changed it.” The frame mods were not limited to the rear loop and footrests either as looking at the steering head where a steering lock would be fitted a patch is welded over and it looks as though the head angle has been pulled in a little too. All in all, not that far away from standard and reinforcing the simple fact works riders are just better riders than us clubmen.
Of course there is the engine… yes surely the engine must be trick? No, again not special at all, there’s no fancy metals in the crank, nor does it run special ignition, there’s just the points set-up behind the flywheel. Well, we say ‘not special’ but that’s not entirely true – what is special in the engine is attention to assembly detail. A production engine, complete motorcycle for that matter, is built to a certain set of parameters and generally will be okay, but with world
championships at stake something more than okay is needed. The bike will be designed with an ideal in mind but casting and machining tolerances will mean there will be discrepancies and for ideal performance these discrepancies need tidying up. What we’re talking about here is matching ports and making sure the port timing is spot-on, then once the engine goes back together the ignition timing is spot-on.
Doing this is time consuming and not cost effective for production machines but certainly worthwhile if you know what you’re doing.
It seems almost incredible to say that even as the ink was drying on the certificate proclaiming Bernie Schreiber as world trials champion 1979, Bultaco were teetering on the brink of collapse. So close was the end the team split up in 1980, Bernie as reigning champion obviously wanted to carry on with a machine he knew, indeed he did for a while, basing himself with Comerfords in the UK but at that level of competition the backing of a factory is much better.
Enter Italjet who provided Bernie with such backing and the bike he rode for the rest of 1980
was nicknamed the ‘Green Bultaco’ by the press and despite the uncertainty, and missing some rounds, the Californian nearly held on to his title. But this tale is about the Bultaco and what happened to it after the glory days...
The bike remained in the UK, with Pete Hudson. Bernie had stayed with the Hudson family during his time with Comerfords and as it was no longer required for world rounds, the Bulto was used by Pete for quite a while until In Motion Bultaco UK proprietor Dave Renham bought the bike from Pete in early 2000.
By this time it was in quite a state and a full restoration was required. As a Bultaco specialist who’d worked with legendary Reg May, sorting the Bulto was not a big problem for Dave Renham. There was some concern over what might actually be inside the engine but this came to nothing when stripping the motor revealed it was as claimed – ‘standard but well put together.’ Of course there are ways to put things together and in the world of Bultaco Reg was noted for his attention to detail and if a setting or clearance was to be a certain size then that is what it would be, not close, not near but exactly, and if it took a little longer to achieve this then so be it.
Says Dave: “I learned a lot about how to put a Bulto together from Reg, and it does become a habit.”
In asking what needed replacing or fettling on this iconic bike, Dave’s answer was “pretty much everything in the engine,” so fully stripped to the bare cases, which were cleaned and repainted in satin black, in went new bearings, the crank was split and new conrod kit was fitted. The barrel was worn too and needed a rebore, with quite a bit of new old stock – NOS – available at that time a genuine piston kit in the appropriate over size was used.
As the engine went together, seals were replaced and naturally all the electrics were attended to at the same time. It’s not an easy thing to set the timing on a Bultaco – the points are behind the flywheel – an obvious things to say, and the windows in the
“It seems almost incredible to say that even as the ink was drying on the certificate proclaiming Bernie Schreiber as world trials champion 1979, Bultaco were teetering on the brink of collapse.”
flywheel are not easy to work through. Remember, electronic ignition was in its infancy when Bultaco were winning championships and the points system was preferred.
Time taken in timing the ignition can make the difference between an engine which accelerates properly or one which is as flat as a flat thing. There was a little tweak on the clutch, which a lot of people knew about at the time, and many of us did tweak our Bultos…
As the sport changed and a rider needed to use the clutch a little in sections, a lighter action was required. Skimming a couple of the metal clutch plates and using the front brake arm – it’s longer – made for a lighter action.
Once the engine was sorted, the frame could be looked at, new swinging arm bushes and pivots were used, as were new Betor rear dampers. Again these were stock items and their mounting position was stock too. Nor were the forks anything special either, all the tolerances were to the ideal but they were all Bultaco, or Betor really.
The wheels had the rims polished and new spokes in, a polish of the brake plates and new shoes completed the job. Also polished were the fork yokes and the alloy rear engine mount.
Bultacos of this era had either a folded steel engine mount – as my 250 has – or a cast aluminium one which on the production bike would be as cast as polishing costs extra.
As far as it is known, all of the bolts and fasteners are the original ones and replated with whatever finish was used in the day, though as cadmium is now outlawed unless for aerospace use, zinc passivating is a good substitute.
As the bike went back together very quickly with new cables and controls which were all to hand, luckily for the look of the machine the distinctive DEP handlebars which Bernie used were in good condition and able to be reused. Once the bike was together, that was pretty much it and it became a regular exhibit for Dave Renham’s displays at shows. Though the bike was built properly during the restoration
15 or so years ago, it was never intended to be used regularly, certainly never to be used in a trial again. That said, Vesty likes all of his bikes to work and on a whim after our shoot suggested he fired it up. He’d never had the bike running in the time he’s owned it and as it was being fettled up to be on display at the Hagon backed Classic Dirt Bike Show at Telford, Vesty was keen to proclaim it a runner.
Given the effect the stuff which passes for petrol these days has on classic fuel systems, it’s not a good idea to leave fuel in tanks. There are slave tanks available for the purposes of firing bikes up and just before fitting one to this Bulto Vesty did a quick check of the spark, “as the bike has been standing for a while the points can seize on the pivot when the grease solidifies…” he says as he unscrewed the plug. “I’ve had this happen before and it puzzled me until I realised what had gone on.” Slipping the plug back into the plug cap and working the kick-start to turn the engine failed to produce a spark, but a few seconds with a screwdriver to move the points on the cam released them from the solidified grease and the spark produced was superb. Something else which sticks after time is the float needle in the carb and this needed freeing off as first the float would stop the fuel flowing and then wouldn’t open to let it flow. Once fuel got into the float bowl the Bulto fired up second kick and settled down to sound like a championship winning bike.