The motorcycles that changed our history (II): The years of change (1966-1976)

Luike turns 10 in 1966 in the engine communication sector and is a direct witness of how the world of motorcycle changes by gradually losing its role as the main element of mobility and becoming an leisure tool.

Luike's first ten years are an intense period and many changes for those who had the opportunity to live in the first person that time.In 1956, when this story began that is 65 years old today, Spain is leaving its long and hungry postwar period.They are the years of autarchy, the years of international isolation in the 40.In the early 50s, Spain begins to open up to the world.In 1956 things are changing.Fasa Renault and Citroen in Vigo already make cars, Seat too and a year later, in 1957, the famous 600 appears.Those first Renault 4-4, Citroen 2 hp and, above all, Seat 600 are relegating the motorcycles of the 50s to the background.Everyone who can, although paying with eternal letters, passes to the four wheels and all those motorcycles designed for affordable mobility begin to lose their meaning.

In the 60s, things change even more.There are those who say they are the years of youth and women.And the truth is that the liberation of women, the students of students, the hippie movement and so many other revolutions that were happening were changing the world. Son los años en que los Beatles reinventan la música; el rock&roll ya no será nunca más algo exclusivo de los Estados Unidos y la música pop, su descendiente directa, se convierte en la preferida de los más jóvenes.The cold war is heated, without ever leaving "its fridge", but the Berlin wall is built and in Cuba the revolution has triumphed causing the "missile crisis", when Castro and the Russians wanted to mount a launch base toOnly 80 miles from Florida.

They are complicated, politically convulsive years.Economically, and more in Spain, they are those of growth, of the creation the middle class with car, television and washing machine.They say that, political problems were fun and hopeful.There was "freedom", understanding as such the possibility of more leisure and occupying it as desired.Surely that climate favored that the motorcycle began that transition from the utilitarian motorcycle to the funny motorcycle, of the mountain bío to the enduro and the dimension or of the ossa 125 C to the desert, cup and phantom, for putting national examples.

Protagonist: Montesa Enduro, the motorcycle every day

In the late 60s, Bultaco is consolidated and has become the reference brand in all these new modalities that are becoming fashionable.Trial's sherpa t is a reality, just like the pursang.You can even get one of the first killer for races that are still called "all terrain".They have not forgotten about the road.The mk2 shrapnel fills headlines with being the fastest 2T of world production.Nor of the utilitarian motorcycles, with the mercury, saturn or junior.The rest of the brands follow the same tonic, seeing that, above all, those field motorcycles, with a technical base made from evolving what there was already, works very well.Above all, it is exported well.

Derbi begins to succeed in speed, with Ángel Nieto, in the small cylindrated.Sanglas, another of the then great, has just presented the new 400 (in 1966, precisely) and with it it is claimed to continue having the State as the main client.

All those small and medium manufacturers of the 50 have been disappearing or are doing it.Some are reconvened and manufactured motorcycle (ISO, roa, etc).Others are reconvened and manufactured parts for cars or other machinery (IRESA).But the big ones continue that path of reconverting their motorcycle mechanics for people who want to have fun on two wheels, not just to go to work.

The Enduro Montesa range is one of those examples.Born from the evolutions of the impala mechanics made so that the brand's own pilots participate in the races of the time, of such different styles, that they are imposing.From the need for export, the Texas is also born, a 250 that inherits the mechanics and chassis of the Impala Sport 250, with high handlebars and taco wheels, to be sold in the US.UU.The King Scorpion will derive with the same purpose.

For the European market, the cap has launched.It also derives from the Impala, through the Impala Cross.When at the beginning of the 70 Montesa hires Kalevi Vehkonen, those primitive caps quickly evolve to what the new pilot asks for.The famous cappra 250 VR (vehicle replica, in case you wondered what those acronyms meant), a successful and attractive motorcycle, but limited in its use to the Cross races.

In 1974, almost at the end of this decade that goes from 1966 to 76, in Montesa they are clear that the national market has moved to field motorcycles.It takes a motorcycle as attractive as the cap, but enrolled and more versatile than a dimension.The King Scorpion, with Lucas Electrical System, separate mixing and other refinements, are faces and little appreciated here.The enduro 250 is born.It is a running motorcycle in the TT, but also to use far from the competition.Technically it is "a shot".It derives from the 250 VR cap, with that unfolded monocy chassis and the engine with the new curly fins cylinder.Of course it carries lighthouse, rear pilot and an escape with effective silencer, and change and suspensions have developed for this use.But look at how I saw the motorcycle both Montesa and the public: as standard you sold you 250 enduro with cross or trial tires, more suitable in the latter if you are going to use the motorcycle in the asphalt frequently.

The enduro 250 was succeeded by several versions, such as the "K" enduro, Enduro H and later, with the adoption of the change of six marches, the H6.The range soon expanded with the Brutal 360, if you wanted more performance, and with the small 75 and 125, with a shared engine with the dimensions, quieter, and standard with those trial tires.If you intended to run in TT with a 125, you had to choose the mythical enduro 125 h, an authentic cappra 125 VB with lights.With the end of this decade of the 70s, the "Lupolen" deposit will arrive replacing the fiber, with those finishes, first yellow and then whites.The 75 will be replaced by an 80 (really equally 74 cc, but with a more European denomination).And well entered the 80s, the Enduro would go down in history along with almost the entire national motorcycle industry.

The other motorcycles of the decade

Surely Enduro 250 is not the most important motorcycle in the late 60s and early 70s.Honestly, an "expert committee" should be appointed or looking for a similar system to grant that most important motorcycle title of an era.But for us it does exemplify this process of transition from the motorcycle panorama in Spain, how brands, customers and the world in general swing from the road motorcycles, simple, hard and cheap, to those international success field motorcycles that you found youboth in trial or enduro races and at the door of schools or jobs.That's why it's here.But there were other motorcycles that deserved many pages in Luike's publications.

Bultaco shrapnel

The field motorcycle is the undisputed star of the national scene in the 70s.But that did not assume that the road was abandoned.In addition, we talk we are starting from a period that starts in 1966, the year in which those field motorcycles are still being born.Bultaco had been doing motorcycles less than 10 years.To the 101st TRALL that we saw in the previous chapter, many motorcycles quickly succeeded him, including a shrapnel 62 that in that year was a increased tall to 200 cc.

Precisely in 1966 the renewal of this "range of the range" of Bultaco and the MK2, a 250 five -speed 250 that was advertised as "the fastest 2t of the market" and that effectively had to reach more than 160 km/h,a real madness at the time.It was also born with very clear ideas: the optional "kit America", with body, escape, carburetor and other special pieces allowed it to easily convert it into a true racing motorcycle that passed from 35 hp.

Ossa Cup 250

We have chosen a Montesa as the protagonist of these years because, among other things, curiously the brand of the Gothic was of the most radical to live that transition: from the Impala, a design of the 60 to the chrono, in the late 70s, the asphalt was practically missing from the brand's catalog.This did not happen with its competition.To that MK2 shrapnel was replaced by the GT in the mid -70s and then the GTS.

In Ossa, the 175, the brand's "sport", saw its 230 engine grow and then 250 cc.That mechanics, with modernized body, gave rise to those Ossa Tourism 250, better known for its colors as "Pepsi", and the most quoted and "Molona" Cup.Of these, the penultimate, that red, with dome, radios and disc tires, was a success for the brand, which offered for a few years the most current and adequate sports that you could buy.In fact, the latest version, the exclusive F3 already in the 80s, was one of the few national motorcycles capable of being at a certain level in those races of the time.

Moto Guzzi V7

If I tell you "90º V2 engine with cross cylinders" you will surely think of Moto Guzzi.It is your sign of identity.But it was not always like this.Until the end of the 60s, Moto Guzzi manufactured many types of motorcycles, in 2 and 4 t.Those Guzzi 65, who made them manufactured by Motor Hispania, are proof of this and it, in the Spanish range, were followed by motorcycles of 75, 90 and 110 cc monocylindrical 2t, in Italy, a few more.They also made "large" motorcycles of those of that time, but they were 4T monocylindrical with horizontal cylinder forward and air flywheel in the air.If someone in 1966 had asked what distinguished a Guzzi, I would have answered that this engine.In 1967 Moto Guzzi mounted the new 90º V2 engine designed by Tonti linen in a chassis manufactured especially this propeller.The V7 is born, a tourism motorcycle, large and comfortable.From that V7 a Sport version comes out in 1968, today one of the most sought -after motorcycles with this mechanic you can find.It will be the 850s and, finally, in 1975, the most iconic of the V2 saga: the Guzzi 850 Le Mans motorcycle, one of the few foreign sports, along with some Benelli and little else, that in those years you could buy in Spain.Of course, at an exorbitant price.

Honda CB 750 FOUR

If there is a motorcycle that marks a radical change in those years, it is undoubtedly the CB 750 Four de Honda.What this model in the world of motorcycle, at all levels, has rarely happened.Imagine how it was.Outside Spain, if you were a motorcycle fan you could still choose from the Italian or English bike.Faces, with reliability problems (each of yours) or if not, the least sports BMW.In 1969 the Japanese arrived, who until now with the maximum they had dared was with the CB 450 "Black Bomber" (which we also talked about in the previous chapter) and that they manufactured little more than small motorcycles, and present a beastof 4 cylinders, 750 cc and with unpublished technical solutions such as front disc brake, for the first time on a standard motorcycle.But, above all, there were some adjustments and qualities never seen in Europe on standard motorcycles, since in Honda competition it was a reference.To add more firewood to the fire, it was a cheap motorcycle.It is obvious why the competition was "zamping".It is the beginning of the "super bikes", of the Japanese empire that lasts since then until now, a blow from which the European surviving brands will take 30 years to recover.

Kawasaki 750 H2

In 1969, with the appearance of the Honda CB 750, it is very clear that the Japanese reign begins in the world of motorcycle.It is followed by models of all Japanese brands, including the first Kawasaki Z.But H2 is something special, with its three cylinders, two times, 750 cc, disc brakes and 74 hp for just over 200 kg.The result is an announced speed of more than 190 km/h on a motorcycle with a very wild fame.Much motor for a "justita" cycle part.This characteristic, which will be repeated on many occasions, serves so that in the European industry a plethician of chassis preparators and builders appear that took advantage of the good of the Japanese engines, fixing the problems of chassis with a stroke.Harris or Japauto are the best known, but the most famous was, without a doubt, Bimota.