A detailed interview with Oriol Puig Bulto + full access to his photo gallery and Trial records.
At this time these new engines were very modern and very competitive, so these political problems and labour conditions that we encountered were also linked with the fact that we were very successful in Motocross trial and Enduro. We were successful across many parts of the World including Europe and in America especially in Motocross and Enduro. We sold many machines there and this was our main market . The Japanese started especially Suzuki and they started to make competitive machines just for their teams including Sylvain Gebours.
And for years the English have been reassuring themselves by saying "The Spaniards cant ride mud". Im sure it was just our comfort blanket :) .
A detailed interview with Oriol Puig Bulto www.retrotrials.com
I remember that the machines from Suzuki was very very competitive but the team that they had was not competitive and Motocross and Enduro motorcycles they produced for America and other parts of the world as production models were not competitive. These motorcycles were cheaper than the European motorcycles but not as competitive. At this time we just didn't view and foresee that the Japanese namely Suzuki ,Honda and Yamaha we are going to arrive later in Europe with cheaper more competitive machines. Ossa and of course Maico had the same problem.
Some great early Motocross photos
So these two factors were working against us. The first one was that we didn't see the Japanese coming towards us with force and going for the American market strongly . Secondly internally the labour problems that we had , stopped our production . Then unfortunately in January 1981 production was stopped for 9 months. This of course drove us to the end.
Do you remember your last day at Bultaco ?.
I remember that in September 1980 I came back to Bultaco and my uncle was already out and he had disappeared completely the structure of Bultaco. The company had changed the head person this was now Mr Challamanch. I remember one time after the disaster in December 1979 we came back on the 8th of January ,but the factory declared lockout until the situation was cleared and then for eight months I did not go there at all.
Do you remember your last day at Bultaco ?.
I remember that in September 1980 I came back to Bultaco and my uncle was already out and he had disappeared completely the structure of Bultaco. The company had changed the head person this was now Mr Challamanch. I remember one time after the disaster in December 1979 we came back on the 8th of January ,but the factory declared lockout until the situation was cleared and then for eight months I did not go there at all.
Some great early Motocross photos
I came back in 1980 and from then until the middle of 1981 but they were very difficult times . At this time Paco was almost never there and we were looking at all of the ways for financing and raising money with the bank of Atlantico . I remember this bank as it was them to whom we had a big debt. We even went to visit Mr Mr Ruiz Mateos. He was a person who at this time was buying companies everywhere but we didn't get the finance.
Was there ever a possibility of selling to a Japanese company ?
Yes we had tried with the Japanese companies but ,but ,at that time they were not interested . Finally Honda were interested in Montesa and at least today we have Honda montesa the trials bike which is fantastic.
Was there ever a possibility of selling to a Japanese company ?
Yes we had tried with the Japanese companies but ,but ,at that time they were not interested . Finally Honda were interested in Montesa and at least today we have Honda montesa the trials bike which is fantastic.