A7th place by works rider Gordon Farley in the Knut Trophy Trial – the final round of the 1970 British Trials Championship – boosted the Barcelona-made Montesa ahead of its rivals Bultaco who’d had a firm grip on the title since 1965. It also introduced to the buying public Montesa’s latest Cota model which was a productionised version of what Gordon rode to the championship win.
Montesa had landed on the UK trials scene with a workmanlike and tidy looking machine in late 1967 which was being used and evaluated by Montesa’s southern distributor Don Barrett. His brief was to see what was necessary to change on the new machine to make it more suitable for use in UK trials. Unlike other makers who’d converted a trail machine to trials use, the Montesa was designed as a trials bike from the ground up. Initially destined for the potentially huge USA market where trials riding was gaining a reasonable following, it was felt some development and testing in the UK would be of benefit. To make the bike more to UK tastes it was fitted with the latest Dunlop trials tyres and straighter handlebars. Once Don got to grips with the bike he found the 51½in wheelbase was too short’s tester claimed it was difficult to stall even if the massive 7in diameter brakes were on the fierce side.
