GasGas Aire 1988
Sometimes a major setback turns out to be one of those silver-lined clouds which becomes a successful venture. Take the case of Josep Pibernat and Narcis Casas. The pair were following the ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ ethos as they competed in the Spanish and world enduro scene on Bultaco models during the Seventies. Their shop in Barcelona not only stocked Bultaco models and the full range of off-road accessories needed by the off-road competitor in all disciplines but eventually imported Italian SWM motorcycles. Then Bultaco hit trouble as the Seventies came to an end and a couple of years later the same fate befell SWM. The supply of bikes dried up and the lads were left with a shop but nothing to sell. Instead of chucking the towel in and closing up shop the duo decided to build their own trials bike and follow through on new developments now emerging in the feet-up world.
Biggest of these new ideas was monoshock suspension and there were lots of people trying out ideas with a single, centrally mounted rear suspension unit. The idea wasn’t new and does emerge quite early on in motorcycling history, mainly on road machines, but the Kent-based Norman company offered its cantilever rear end in trials form – though how many, if any, were actually made is unclear. In the Sixties, BSA’s comp shop manager Brian Martin produced an experimental C15 with a monoshock and of course Yamaha had been winning in the MX world on a monoshock for several years. Yamaha introduced the Mono trials bike in 1983 but this version was refined with a linkage system rather than a direct mount. Some of the team involved with SWM
