ORIGINALITY
Originality: ‘The ability to think independently and creatively’. I have always been a bit of a free-thinker, and sometimes it has dropped me into arguments and even in a spot of bother. Still, I like originality, and I also like motorcycles that are ‘original’. By that, I mean, ‘as they left the factory’. Each to their own though, everyone has their motorcycle the way he or she likes them, and in my book that is perfectly fine. Not all my motorcycles are 100% original, of course, as I do like some modifications, especially those that make them easier to stop, steer and handle. My Bultaco 370 Sherpa project has been furloughed, but that has not stopped my plans entirely as I purchased, after a lengthy discussion, another Bultaco Sherpa!
Words: John Moffat • Pictures: Trials Guru and Jimmy Young
This time it is a 325cc model 191 from 1976. It is nut-and-bolt original except for one thing, the frame and swinging arm colour. Instead of being the usual silver it has a mid-grey gloss finish and looks like it left the factory that colour, but how and why I have yet to find out.
I purchased the machine from an exceptionally good friend, a man who knows his Bultacos and, like me, a keen enthusiast of trials. He too does not know why the colour deviates from the standard, but as I said, every component on this motorcycle is correct for the model and the year.
The 191 Sherpa was the last in a series of three models known in Spain as the ‘Manuel Soler’ Sherpa, named after the development rider and
former Spanish Trials Champion who is also a grand nephew of F.X. Bulto, the marque’s founder. It is a model I always wanted, but at the time I was a poor student at university, so I waited until the next model came off the production line in late 1977, which was the Model 199, probably the best Bultaco I have ever owned. Am I bothered that the colour is not as per catalogue? Not a bit of it; I am just intrigued and I hope to one day find out why it is so. Someone somewhere must know. I am just delighted that I now own such a lovely motorcycle.
Soon it will be road registered and will be carrying me down to the village to pick up some bits and bobs as I do not intend competing with this one; after all, I have others that fit that requirement.