2024 Author: Nicholas Abramson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-10 16:57
In the framework of the XXV edition of Auto Retro a very special exhibition was held: a selection of trial motorcycle models designed in Spain over the last 40 years. From the early seventies to the present day, Spain has been a dominating power of trials. And there were together a large part of the key motorcycles that explain this long period of dominance. Forty years of history at a glance.
And I do not mean a glance in a figurative sense: the motorcycles were ready on battery as if it were a parking lot, which caused a certain historical vertigo when passing the view through it. This "tight" arrangement is derived from the very conception of Auto Retro as a fair and not so much as an exhibition, which makes the management of spaces at least debatable in exhibitions and retrospectives. In fact, as it was laid out, it looked like the garage of any good trial fan.
But the close disposition of the motorcycles had a virtue: to clearly show the dramatic evolution that the design of trial motorcycles has had. In the seventies and eighties they were motorcycles that could be used for a more or less habitual use, to go on excursions, to go for a walk … On the other hand, the motorcycles of our time have been radicalized in such a way that they are only usable for the practice of trials: very effective motorcycles but on which it is tremendously difficult to sit. In the photos in the gallery you can clearly see how over the years the design of each motorcycle has become radicalized compared to the previous one.
In the sample there were real jewels, like the Bultaco Sherpa T "Sammy Miller", designed for the great British pilot and which gave rise to the fabulous Sherpa T saga. A version of the first Montesa Cota 247 could not be missing, with which Montesa was involved in the front line of the trial, where it is still. From Ossa was the Ossa M. A. R. 250 (Mick Andrews Replica), another motorcycle that marked an era.
In addition to a generous representation of Bultacos, Montesas and Ossas, you could see some more curious specimens such as the JJ Cobas Trial RC30, designed by the great Antonio Cobas; or also a Derbi that never passed a prototype; some important models of Gas Gas (under the technical baton of Paxau), of Beta, …
And at the end of the series were the latest bikes with their radical designs. The multi-awarded Montesa Cota 315R stood out, accumulating 5 consecutive world titles and, of course, the mount that Toni Bou has worn this season.
Definitely, the most representative of the history of trial in Spain in a single glance. Despite being the bikes so close to each other, we were trying to take some photos to help you feel a little nostalgia. In the attached gallery you can find some photographs with which I leave you a fun challenge: the exercise of identifying some of the motorcycles that I have been naming you in the article. Trials fans are sure to get them right without too much trouble!
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