10 Montesa's Jordi Permanyer Interview

An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer

Are you still riding ?

I only have one Montesa Cota 310 in my second house and I sometimes ride this, but I do not practice trial anymore.

Jordi Permanyer used to compete in Enduro , Motocross and Trial.

Here he can be seen at the 1968 2 days TT , the 1969 Abr Hospitalet and a Trial held in national trial held in Tarragona.

An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com

We have here the motorcycle of Ulf Karlson, that was his actual bike that wins the World Championship. This is his original bike. Ulf comes here a few years ago, to the Montesa festival, which is held each year, the fans of Montesa hold this festival each year.

An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com

How did your position change within the company from the technical position that you first held ?

When I returned from my time in America, I was placed in charge of the factory that produces the mopeds. We did not have the capacity in Esplugues to manufacture the mopeds, so we made these small bikes in another place. So it was my responsibility to make and run this production place for mopeds. Later, after the factory became established, I was transferred to the factory which manufactured the gears. The factory which manufactured all of the gears for the motorcycles was located in a different place to Esplugues. This was in San Felu de Llobregat. The man who was in charge of the factory died around this time and I took his position. This position concentrated entirely on making the gearboxes and we had 100 people working in the factory, in fact this factory not only made the gearboxes for Montesa, it made the gearbox used for all of the other manufacturers as well.

Back to behind the scenes looking for the prototype Montesa engines. Here they were. I was told the watercooled Montesa engine was here , but from my location down below it was difficult to see which engine was which.

An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com

After attempts at watercooled prototypes as early as 1977, Montesa's first actual official release to the press was in 1981 , and this was the actual release and THE bike , but it was still only a prototype. Montesa recognised that they were on the scent of something big and recognised the benefit of water cooling. Increased power , better carburetion and a significant weight saving wasnt enough to get the project fully marketable and water cooling didn't EVER become available on Montesa motocross models. It first appeared on the trials scene after the Honda take over in 1991 with the 311.

An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com

But not Bultaco, it was impossible to mix these two companies ?

Yes yes, of course hahaha, in this factory we also produced gears for English printing machines. I was making these gears in about 1975. So up until this point, I had had many changes within the company, however in the company I remain from 1975 until 1983 and this was the time that are we had to sell. Then in 1983, we started the conversations with Honda. I was involved also with that and in 1986 we make the final joint venture. During this period, we’d assembled and stopped old production outside of Esplugues. All factories, like the gear factory, the moped factory, the engine factory, all of these factories for clothes and everything was concentrated inside Esplugues.

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