Bultaco 200
Can you help me with information for a 1963, 200cc Bultaco, please? Specifically, I’m looking for details regarding fuel mixture, sparking plug and light bulbs.
Martin Shutt, email, Canada.
Montesa co-founder Francisco Xavier Bultó resigned because Montesa withdrew from motorcycle sport, which Bultó thought a big mistake. After a little ear-bending from fellow Montesa employees, mostly from the race shop, he established, in 1958, Bultaco, based in some old farm buildings he owned. The marque brand ‘Bultaco’ was derived from the first four letters of his surname and the last three letters of his nickname, Paco.
Manufacture began with the 70mph, 124cc Tralla (Spanish for ‘whiplash’) which was soon stripped and race prepared by enthusiasts. This was then joined by the 153cc Tralla 155 and, soon after, competition and motocross machines. The 196cc Sherpa N quickly became a favourite. However, it wasn’t until 1964 when, via the Rickman brothers Don and Derek, Sammy Miller developed the then-new Bultaco Sherpa, on which Miller began scoring many victories, including winning the 1965 Scottish Six Days Trial, the first foreign machine to do so.
While Bultaco made machines for differing roles, economy of manufacture was evident in the factory’s early days. Thus, the engine’s bottom end of your 1963 200cc Bultaco, which I assume is a sports/tourer Metralla, launched for 1962, shares many mechanical and chassis parts with the 196cc racer
