Here is a bike that you do not see everyday. The Bultaco Metralla 62 Model 8 was the bike Barry Sheene began his career in road racing on. Very sexy and exotic then and as it is today as well as being very rare. The Metralla 62 is the 200cc version and the Metralla MK2 came later which was a 250cc version. The Metralla MK2 250cc version is much more common in the US than is the Metralla 62 Model 8. Most of these early models were Euro models with very few being sent to the US. A LITTLE MORE BULTACO AND METRALLA HISTORY The US models had standard style handlebars and had MPH speedometers. Shunned by the world’s buyers on its release, in later years Bultaco’s Model 8 Metralla would be regarded as the definitive small capacity sporting single of its day. The Bultaco’s Metralla was never really popular in its day, but it has earned belated recognition to the extent that it now defines an era of motorcycling. Introduced in 1962, the Model 8 Metralla 62 had a 196cc two stroke engine, a four-speed gearbox, and weighed 97kg. When 650cc British twins were running a standing 400m time of around 15 seconds, the little Bultaco was barely a second behind. With the optional racing kit the Bultaco had a top speed of around 150km/h and would leave all the famed British twins for dead on a mountain road. Compared with other 200s the Metralla was in a class of one.īultaco’s 200cc engine grew out of the Tralla 155 and 175cc Sherpa scrambler. Even with a street-legal exhaust system the 64.5mm x 60mm piston-port single managed to put out an impressive 20hp (14.7kW) at 7000rpm. The bike was styled to resemble a European endurance road racer with a large tank, flat bars, and semi-rearset footpegs. In retrospect this look was way ahead of its time but it didn’t translate into sales success, especially in the US where Bultaco was endeavouring to establish itself. This slump brought to a head disagreements between Bultó and the other senior director Pere Permanyer. As an economy measure, Permanyer (the majority shareholder) felt that the company should withdraw from racing. Bultó, the driving force behind the racing program and responsible for much of the company’s technical expertise was vehemently opposed. Failing to reach a compromise, Bultó decided to leave Montesa to concentrate on his other business interests. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of Montesa's racing department left shortly afterwards as well. The suggestion to form a new company is said to have come a few days later when Sr. Bultó was invited to a meeting by several of the former staff of Montesa's racing department. Keen to return to racing, they persuaded him that their greatest hope lay in forming a new company. Setting up shop in very primitive conditions at an old farm owned by Bultó, things developed quickly. On March 24, 1959, Bultaco held a press day and launched its first motorcycle, the road-going 125cc Bultaco Tralla 101, named after a Spanish word for whip. Just two months later Bultaco entered its first Spanish Grand Prix, taking seven of the first ten places. "Bultaco" comes from combining the first four letters of Sr. Sete Gibernau used to have this on the back of his crash helmet when he raced MotoGP.īultó's surname with the last three of his nickname "Paco". In 1998, rights to the Bultaco name were purchased by Marc Tessier, who used it to help launch a range of purpose-built trials motorcycles from his company Sherco Moto S.A.R.L. The bikes were initially named Bultaco Shercos. In 2000, the bikes became 'Sherco by Bultaco', and in 2001 the Bultaco name was dropped altogether. The US trademark is now owned by HDW Enterprises, parent company of a parts and repair specialist for vintage Bultacos. īultaco produces electric motorbikes in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, also the site of the original 1958 factory.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. Perhaps the most famous Bultaco model is the Sherpa T, a trials bike, which revolutionised the sport in the 1960s. At that time trials was almost exclusively a British sport using big heavy four-stroke machines. Irish trials ace Sammy Miller teamed with Bultó to produce a lightweight two-stroke machine which, overnight, rendered the heavy four-strokes obsolete.
Miller won the gruelling Scottish Six Days Trial in 1965, and then repeated the feat with wins in 19.