Montesa Honda

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Montesa Honda is now the Spanish subsidiary of Honda, which assembles several models of motorcycles, bicycles, and parts at its Barcelona plant. The company exports 75 per cent of its production to the rest of Europe.

[edit] History

Formed in 1944 by Pedro Permanyer and Francisco Xavier Bultó, the first Montesa prototype was built based upon the French Motobécane models of that time. Powered by a 93cc two-stroke engine with no rear suspension 22 of these units were sold in the first year and so promising did the market appear that Permanyer and Bulto formulated their partnership. As a successor to the previous model, Senor Bulto designed a new 125cc roadster, which was tested in many trail type rallies and semi-enduros that were popular in Spain at the time.

This model formed the basis of the 1951 ISDT effort. They were officially entered by the factory, being ridden by Bulto and G. Cavestany. In the early 1950s, Montesa entered the 125cc class of road racing. These bikes featured six-speed, bolt on gearboxes, in semi-unit construction, with all gears running on needle-roller bearings. By 1956 these Montesa 125s were very competitive and took second, third and fourth places in the Ultra-Lightweight race at the Isle of Man TT.

The most successful Montesa street bike of the '50s was the Brio 80, of which more than 12,000 were produced. The success of the Brio and the other models, led to the opening of a new and larger factory in Espluges de Llobregat. Trouble was ahead, a slump in the Spanish economy had forced Permanyer to cut back on the companies racing activities. Permanyer wanted to pull out of road racing, but Bulto insisted that they stay in. In May of 1958, chief designer Bulto left, taking with him several of Montesa's vital personnel. Permanyer had not only lost the brilliant designer Bulto, but also his 30% share of the company.

Fortunately for both, Spain's economy began to improve. Permanyer promoted the all-around champion motorcyclist Pedro Pi from head test rider to chief development engineer. Leopold Mila was made Technical Director and Permanyer's son Javier, was to be Sports Assistant. Work began right away on designing a brand new all-unit-construction 175cc engine that by 1960, would power the latest Impala sports roadster model. This engine would form the basis of the company's future trials and motocross machines. To promote sales of this model, three Impala's were taken to Africa where they covered over 12,000 miles of terrain, most of it being off-road. Back in Spain, Pi was busy winning the Spanish motocross and road race championships and working on a new 250cc version.

Following its introduction in 1965, the 250 engine would be the cornerstone of the company's future success. Mounted on the new 250 Scorpion scrambler, Pi won the Spanish championship again in 1966 and the similarly engined Sport roadster won the Barcelona 24-hour endurance road race. In 1967 the first Montesa trials models appeared and in 1968 retitled the Cota, Pi won the Spanish Trials Championship. After adding this title to go along with the road race and six motocross titles, he retired from competition to devote his full energy to bike development.

In the decade following, Montesa had unprecedented growth around the World and one has to remember that unlike Bultaco, Montesa only sent a small percentage of its production to the States, concentrating mostly on the European market. Trials models were offered in many different sizes 25, 49, 125, 175, 250, 348 and 349, as were motocrossers 125, 175, 250, 360 and 414. This also included a line of street and Enduro models also. In 1973, the VR (Vehkonen Replica) was released and set the standard for 1974, as did the 348 Cota did in 1976. Ulf Karlsson won the World Trials Championship on a Cota in 1980.

By 1981, Spain's economic unrest was becoming catastrophic to all its motorcycle manufacturers. Strikes and a shrinking market left Montesa the only major concern, and they needed a major influx of capital if they were to survive. A loan from the government and shares sold to Honda (to establish a European manufacturing base for their commuter bikes) helped production continue. Indeed, one of the governments stipulations was that Honda would guarantee that production would not stop. Honda was prepared to stockpile trials bikes and to sell them off at a loss in an effort to reach Europe's more profitable moped market and to bypass restrictive import tariffs.

In July 1985, a major reorganization took place and a large amount of money from Honda was received. By then, only two trials models were offered and the workforce had dwindled to a mere 152 employees.

A year later, there were further financial moves between Honda, Spain's government and the Permanyer family, leading to Honda buying the majority of the family's remaining shares. Honda now had an 85% holding and spent another $5 million on modifying and updating the factory.

Montesa was still active in World Trials competition throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. Even though reduced to only offering one model, such riders like former World Champion Eddy Lejeune and Andrew Codina rode the Cota to good results in the mid-'80s. In 1992-93 a liquid-cooled Cota was produced; this was to be the last "real" Montesa. In 1994, the 314R was introduced. This model featured a HRC Honda powerplant with many other components from Honda. Montesa-mounted Marc Colomer won the World title in '96 and the 315R followed in early '97. The 315R had a run of 7 years, taking Dougie Lampkin to many world championships, and was replaced by the technically advanced four-stroke Cota 4RT in 2005.