・Genuine barn find

・Imported to the UK in 1976

・All Spanish papers included

・Has spark and good compression

This is a rare opportunity to acquire a genuine barn find example of an extremely rare but historically significant motorbike.

The Montesa motorcycle company was formed in 1944 by Pedro Permanyer and Francisco Xavier "Paco" Bultó. Their first Montesa prototype was based upon the French Motobécane models of that time. 

Permanyer and Bultó teamed up in Barcelona, using Permanyer’s engine expertise and Bultó’s knowledge of lightweight construction and motorcycle racing to create a lightweight motorcycle. 

The first Montesa was powered by a 95cc two-stroke engine with no sprung rear suspension. Despite some setbacks, they sold 22 of them in the first year of production. The next year, the partnership focused on production improvements and meeting the growing demand for their bike. 

As a successor to the previous model, Bultó designed a new 125cc roadster, which was tested in many of the trail-type rallies and semi-enduros that were popular in Spain at the time. That bike was the specialist (and expensive) Brio 110 racer, but it led Montesa into producing a road bike using similar principles, but with less power. 

That bike was the Brio 80, which saw more than 12,000 sales. It was succeeded by the Brio 90, which was an evolution of the above with hand-operated brakes and greater power. The 90 was still in production in 1959, when Bultó left the company to form a new bike company – Bultaco – which went on to become much more famous. 

Pre-59 Montesas, though, are extremely popular with collectors, as one of the precursors of some of the finest trials and sports bikes of the 20th century.

There are lots of vehicles for sale that are claimed to be barn finds by their owners, but this one genuinely is. It was discovered around four years ago in the outbuildings of a property occupied by an elderly widow, who was looking to clear her land in order to prepare it for sale, and she was ready for the Montesa to be taken away for scrap. 

Luckily, a friendly locally saw it outside her house awaiting the scrap man and persuaded her not to simply throw it away and sell it instead, with the current owner being the eventual buyer. 

He has owned the Montesa since 2017 and originally had every intention to restore it and put it back on the road, but a housebuilding project means it hasn’t been started and he acknowledges he’ll probably never get around to it, so is now offering it for sale.

The Montesa was imported to the UK in 1976 – the very same year that General Franco’s reign ended and Spain ceased to be a dictatorship. With it come a series of fascinating documents that are as much a snapshot of an astonishing time in European history as they are relative to the bike.

Among them is paperwork in which the bike’s original sale is documented in detail. It shows that it was supplied to Sergio Chammaro Rivado on September 26, 1953. 23 years later, the Montesa left Spain, its owner now recorded as Pilar Pascual Chammaro. Following the tradition of Spanish married surnames being made of parental surnames, one would assume that Pilar was Sergio’s daughter (or at least a very close relation) and was exporting her father’s bike to the UK, where she became Pilar Ellis, resident of Nottingham, and assumedly married to an English chap. An interesting snapshot of a fascinating time in history, and a great insight into how this bike arrived here. 

Export documentation aside, though, there is no record of it ever being registered in the UK, so there’s every possibility it lived in a Nottinghamshire barn for over 40 years! It doesn’t appear to have run since. 

It does have an original Montesa owners’ manual though, along with its original bill of sale from 1953. There’s also a photo of the bike in its glorious previous days. Fascinating stuff.

This is a barn find bike in barn find condition. That means it’s not in usable order, but it is most certainly restorable with a very good frame. It’s complete, and while the tube sections of the frame and the mudguards will need painting due to surface corrosion, the trademark red petrol tank with its Montesa logo has survived well and would probably respond well to a good clean and polish. 

It comes fitted with its original Pirelli Nacional tyres, which of course won’t be useable on public roads but are certainly worth saving as a charming artefact if and when the bike is restored.

  

The 125cc twin hasn’t run in years, but the vendor is fairly confident that it won’t take much. He’s tested the engine to the point where he has managed to get a spark out of the ignition system and has found it also has good compression, but the fuel is ancient and stale and won’t combust. With fresh petrol and new fuel lines, there’s every chance the Montesa will fire into life, but of course there are no guarantees.

Likewise, the brakes, all of the hoses and cables and most of the electrics (of which there are very few) will require intervention before the bike can be ridden on the road again. But it’s all perfectly doable. 

As it stands, this is a fascinating artefact and an interesting bike from an equally remarkable time in European history. That alone gives it appeal. 

Then there’s the paperwork, which tells a story of its own, and could lead the new owner down a rabbit hole in which he or she tracks down the family of the original owner. That, of course, would be amazing. 

As, indeed, would be getting the Montesa to run again. The vendor, who has some pretty good mechanical knowledge, reckons that a bit of patience and a thorough clean of the fuel system would be enough to get it to fire into life. And wouldn’t it be an amazing experience to be the person that makes this ultra-rare bike fire into life for the first time in over 45 years?

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