What was the reason at the end of the civil war that your father finished with the coal distribution and started with motorcycle production ?
My father first started to produce gas generator devices. These devices were for automobiles or trucks, they were clever little devices that generated fuel buy combusting the shells of the almond nut. This technology was also used within industry to generate power because at this time there was no petrol in Spain and the country was in a very bad way. He had also traveled to many countries in Europe, including the cities of London and Paris to gather information and study the gas generation that I have told you about.
When my father returned from speaking with the knowledgeable people in the cities, in the universities and within industry, he found himself in a position of being able to start manufacturing these gas generator systems, petrol at this time in Spain, was not possible to be obtained, there were big restrictions.
The restrictions of gasoline coming into Spain continued for four or five years after the Civil War, then after this time, now much petrol was able to be bought into Spain and the demand for the gas generators that my father had been manufacturing finished. So my father had to decide what to do now. It was when my father was thinking what he was going to do with the rest of his life that he thought that maybe motorcycles was the future.
Industrialist Pere Permanyer talks to Pere Pi
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Motorcycle enthusiast Francisco Xavier Bulto
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When my father had this idea he immediately went to a friend called Josep Antoni Soler i Urgell, "Jasu" and spoke to him. This friend have a brother-in-law whose name was Paco Bulto, so this friend make the introduction of Paco Bulto to my father. Paco Bulto was very enthusiastic in motorcycles and about racing motorcycles. For some time they spoke and then they both made the decision to join together and produce motorcycles together. The designing of the first motor and cycle started in 1944 and a year later started manufacturing. The photos opposite were supplied to Retrotrials by the Permanyer and Bulto family respectively. |