From the Archive
The need to be ahead of the opposition creates some incredible works team machines.
There is something about a true works development motorcycle. It doesn’t matter what the discipline is that it was built for, or even if it is widely different from what is for sale in the local dealer’s shop. We knew the works team riders were there to test ideas, we knew the bikes might not make it to production, we knew, for an absolute certainty, if only we were mounted on whosoever’s works bike we looked at, we too would be as good and rack up wins in world trials or the SSDT… because of course it was the bikes which did the winning… stands to reason… they’re works bikes… We were often delusional…
A motorcycle manufacturer who is active in the sporting scene is faced with a dilemma as it is imperative the company name is seen at the top end of the results, but it is equally important to sell what it manufactures. Honda sidestepped this consideration in the Sixties simply by producing virtually hand-built race machines to do one job – win a Grand Prix. Others were more subtle and went on the ‘testing ideas’ theme and we knew the bikes would come to production eventually. Just such a thing was the way Montesa developed its large-capacity Cota in the Seventies when Malcom Rathmell joined the company from Bultaco.
