From the archive
An arbitrary figure to say the least, but really for Montesa 1968 was the start of the big time in the UK.
It is 50 years since Montesa made their appearance on the UK scene – we look at a few Montesa things and chat to a name or two.
For those of my generation who were reading the motorcycle press in the mid-seventies, Montesa meant ‘Sandiford’ in Lancashire. The premises of JAS were the mecca for all things Montesa and Sandiford’s name was on the tanks of a considerable number of motorcycles at the sharp end of the entry. In my home centre – the North Eastern – there were a number of riders who had received help from Sandifords through our local dealer in those days, which was Quinn’s in Gateshead. Even I had pushed a shilling or two towards Quinns and come out with a smart 238cc Cota.
Why 238? In fact why not a 348 which was out at the time? Well, the French Government had decided in their wisdom to penalise motorcycles of over 240cc by charging them a higher rate of tax. Why? No idea, but one can surmise it was an attempt to make life difficult for foreign manufacturers, which it probably did for a nanosecond, until suddenly the previous 250 models became 240… As to the 348 question, well to be fair to Montesa the bike was good looking and the engine was fine, but the gearbox… Thankfully it was all sorted by the 349.
Three unrelated incidences brought the Montesa anniversary to mind. If it hadn’t been for the 2018 Highland Classic Two Day, run by Inverness DMC, announcing this year would be Edition Montesa to celebrate the 50 years of the marque, it would probably have slipped my mind. This was followed by being handed a photo of myself in action circa 1979 on a 238 Cota, in what looks like a Weardale club trial very likely near Nenthead.
With Montesa uppermost in my mind, the discovery of a factory visit feature to Montesa in the back issues of Motorcycle sort of cast the die for this feature.
This factory visit in November 1974 was a huge thing for the UK, as according to the article there were 70 people on it and the advertising around the feature showed how popular Montesa was in the UK at that time. A factory jolly is all well and good and while some on it would be there for the entertainment value, I doubt many people reading this would sniff at the chance to visit a real live motorcycle factory and see if the mystique lived up to the actuality.
In case you’re wondering, no I wasn’t on this trip – my secondary school was a bit reluctant to let us 14-year-olds nip off to Spain on engineering factfinding trips when we had the steelworks on our doorstep… literally.
My own personal introduction to the Montesa marque had come a couple of years before when my dad caved in to constant badgering from me about the photos in the family album of him and his brother riding motorcycles through rivers and up hills and stuff. These images turned out to be not of ‘scrambling’ which was on the telly at that time but ‘trials riding’ and, I was told, a superior and skilful sport – come on, I was 12, we didn’t have the internet back then so couldn’t research such things so easily. Anyway, it was decreed I would be taken to a motorcycle trial being held nearby that Sunday. It was a revelation because the Spanish era had well and truly taken hold in my area and with the steelworks providing decent employment and wages there were a lot of the new Spanish machines including stunning red Montesas. The day was interesting to say the least and made more memorable as at one section a lad hopped off his bike next to me and said ‘hold this for a minute while I look at the section’ and briefly I was custodian of a Montesa Cota 250.
Of course Montesa in the UK were riding high at that time as their man Gordon Farley had just knocked Bultaco’s Sammy Miller off his perch and was 1971 British Trials Champion. The story for Montesa in the UK began much earlier and it’s thanks to Charlie Harris that I got a little insight into
the marque’s beginnings on the British competition scene.
Montesa themselves were involved in motorcycle manufacture from the mid-1940s and few enthusiasts will need reminding one Snr FX Bulto was part and parcel of the company in its early days, along with Pedro Permanyer, and the company very quickly embraced the competition world in all its forms. It is said success breeds sales and sales need a manufacturing base and successful sales need a bigger place. As Don Morley found when interviewing Montesa people for his book Spanish Trials Bikes, Montesa’s success was almost their downfall too and the turmoil caused during this time and the need to husband resources caused Permanyer and Bulto to part company. Fast forward quite a bit and by the Sixties Montesa was out on its own and doing quite well too, many factors contributed to this but we have to look at only a few of them.
A decision to bring multi-spanish motocross champion Pedro – now Pere – Pi into the management fold proved far-sighted and from my own research looked to have set the company on the right path. By all accounts Pere took to development as a duck takes to water and continued as a rider too so he could test his work in competition.
With Montesa doing well in MX in Spain but not so well known outside the country, a decision was made to contract some English riders and John Brise, a known importer of a variety of marques, was already dealing with Montesa so the task for forming a UK based team for MX was entrusted to him and he formed Montala Motors to bring Montesas into the UK. Sadly for us John is long gone but there are still those around who were involved at the time. In particular Charlie Harris who knew John well. Charlie had been a Greeves star and as well as MX was also a trials rider of note.
“I knew John well,” says Charlie, “and he asked me what I thought of the new trials bike from this Montesa company in Spain. It looked interesting and was actually quite a reasonable bike, just not a trials bike. We took it along to Brands Hatch where there was an area we could try it out in
and it handled great but needed a few things doing in order to make it a trials bike.
“John said to me: ‘Will you develop it for us?’ I agreed, the deal was good, so I listed a few things and spent a day or so getting it filthy. On Monday morning John called, asked if there was anything the bike really needed and could they come and pick it up? ‘But it’s still dirty,’ I told him. ‘Wash the thing off we’re on our way,’ and he turned up outside my place in his Ferrari Dino, we took the bike to bits, stuffed it in the boot of his Ferrari and him and Don Barrett drove to Barcelona there and then.
“They were back later in the week with the bike modded and this went on for a few weeks until the bike was sorted. Then he said: ‘You’re riding this in a European trial in Switzerland.’ Well, I hardly knew where Switzerland was in those days, let alone how to get there. Anyway the bike was much improved and I finished third in that event.”
Montesa made no secret of their desire to attract top names to the team and two other Greeves’ stars would join the trials team at the end of the Sixties. Londoner Don Smith was the first of these two and
had come to the end of his Greeves days so joined Montesa to help develop the Cota.
Montesa also wanted Gordon Farley but he was contractually unavailable for a whole year. When he was available in 1969, Montesa had arguably the strongest trials team on the go and Farley set his intent clear by finishing runner-up to Bultaco’s Sammy Miller. Next year though the role would be reversed and Gordon Farley would end Miller’s domination of the British Trials Championship.
As all this trials activity was happening it could be forgotten Montesa were also active in the MX scene too, with names such as Jim Aird and Andy Roberton making sure the Cappra was being seen in the results published in the weekly paper. As the scene developed, Montesa in the UK suffered a blow when John Brise succumbed to a series of heart attacks and a short-lived importership split of Brise south of Birmingham and Sandiford’s north of Birmingham folded and Sandifords took on the whole country.
This was an incredible period for the sport and Sandiford seemed to have riders on everything and in everything, with motocrossers Bob Wright and Peter Mathia coming both under the factory and Sandiford too. If a new model was launched, the press would be along, if there was a publicity shot to be had Jim would make sure the press new about it. The Montesa team had colour co-ordinated riding kit, the Sandiford catalogue was packed with Montesa stuff, this was serious business and the press were aware of it.
The trials world was looking at bigger motorcycles, so Montesa tried a 306, which became the 310cc though both were listed as ‘348’ and Malcolm Rathmell really made this motorcycle shine, he would win the SSDT on his works machines and also be British champion by the late Seventies. However, the whole Spanish industry was in a period of turmoil as factory after factory suffered debilitating strike action and in a period when they could have enjoyed massive sales had instead to sit and watch as the Italians and Japanese inherited their hard work.
The story isn’t over for Montesa as the factory, backed by Honda, still produces motorcycles for trials and the four-stroke 4RT is a popular machine. A far cry from the two-strokes of the Seventies, the modern machines keep the stylised ‘M’ to the fore.