|
An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer
|
So in essence it would be better if the factory had not actually made anything, but I just bought everything and maybe not even bought, but simply designed and contracted out everything else. For instance at this time we had 200 people who assembled the motorcycles. Times are different now however, the motorcycle industry in Spain is going through crisis and people are drawing a comparison between now and the mid 80s and the crisis back then. For instance GasGas is in trouble at the moment but I think this is more related to the big competition they have with KTM in Enduro. KTM I think have a lot of quality products and I think trial for Gasgas is all the time becoming a smaller and smaller market. I don't know whether there is space within the market to have all of these trial factories. The small demand for these motorcycles is spread over many motorcycle manufacturers, only the best can survive, but I think they are going to be reducing numbers for different reasons than Montesa in the mid 80s.
An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com
|
An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com
|
An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com
|
It is very unusual to find a photograph of both Pedro Permanyer and Francisco Bulto together , let along both enjoying a beer.
An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com
What was the relationship between Montesa and Bultaco like ?
The reality is that the team of Mr Bulto at this time was working in the factory of Montesa and had the responsibility to design the new models for the Montesa factory. With his team after some conflict with my father, he decided to leave the factory and Mr Bulto sold his shares to my father. At this time I could not buy the shares, so we had to find some friends to buy the shares, but my father did not think that Mr Bulto was going to start another factory, he didn't know this. After Mr Bulto left the company and after this, some of his team and I started to produce Bultacos. When these people leave the company, also goes missing the drawings for these new motorcycles that have been designed. I remember the time clearly and I remember that my father was very very worried at this moment about what was happening and this separation. I remember it very well. It was a very stressful situation for my father and up until this point the relationship that my father had had with Mr Bulto have been very good. I remember that approximately 10 years after this separation, my father went to a meeting with all of the manufacturers of motorcycles in Spain and at this place he met Mr Bulto for the first time. He had not spoken or seen Mr Bulto since the separation. Mr Bulto said to my father, Pedro, I have made a mistake leaving Montesa. Mr Bulto, after the meeting came to our house and he explained to us this mistake that he thought he had made.
The reality is that the team of Mr Bulto at this time was working in the factory of Montesa and had the responsibility to design the new models for the Montesa factory. With his team after some conflict with my father, he decided to leave the factory and Mr Bulto sold his shares to my father. At this time I could not buy the shares, so we had to find some friends to buy the shares, but my father did not think that Mr Bulto was going to start another factory, he didn't know this. After Mr Bulto left the company and after this, some of his team and I started to produce Bultacos. When these people leave the company, also goes missing the drawings for these new motorcycles that have been designed. I remember the time clearly and I remember that my father was very very worried at this moment about what was happening and this separation. I remember it very well. It was a very stressful situation for my father and up until this point the relationship that my father had had with Mr Bulto have been very good. I remember that approximately 10 years after this separation, my father went to a meeting with all of the manufacturers of motorcycles in Spain and at this place he met Mr Bulto for the first time. He had not spoken or seen Mr Bulto since the separation. Mr Bulto said to my father, Pedro, I have made a mistake leaving Montesa. Mr Bulto, after the meeting came to our house and he explained to us this mistake that he thought he had made.
Why did he say it had been a mistake ?
I don't know, I don't know. This was in the year 1968 or 1969, but at least Mr Bulto was doing very well, so it is a strange thing to say yes yes but probably he was thinking that together they could have made bigger projects. You see, Mr Bulto was a man who likes to race motorcycles, he had a big passion for motorcycles but he had less organisation. My father was very good at organisation .
I don't know, I don't know. This was in the year 1968 or 1969, but at least Mr Bulto was doing very well, so it is a strange thing to say yes yes but probably he was thinking that together they could have made bigger projects. You see, Mr Bulto was a man who likes to race motorcycles, he had a big passion for motorcycles but he had less organisation. My father was very good at organisation .
An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com
|
An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com
|
An exclusive interview with Montesa's Jordi Permanyer www.retrotrials.com
|
At one time he had to export wine from Spain in order to be allowed to import parts into Spain for the motorcycles. In the start it was a big difficulty importing parts into Spain and these parts were needed to finish the Motorcycles. In this Franco time, it was completely forbidden to import parts from outside of the country Spain, however the situation existed that if you exported some products you could import products, this was an arrangement that was allowed by the government.
|
In fact my father found a customer who wanted to buy some wine and so the documentation was completed to show this wine purchase to allow the parts to come into Spain, but no wine was ever made.