Bultaco trials bike

[robrd]

A friend of mine has a bultaco trials bike, he got it in the mid 70's and was told it was original and a rare 1972 Bultaco Sherpa limited edition, he took the sellers word as he wanted to do some trials riding and Bultaco was a big name at the time. He brought it round to me to tart it up for him so I contacted Pete at inmotion trials for some parts and he informed me it was not original but a Bultaco Alpina frame with a Sherpa motor. I did some more checking and found the chassis number on the logbook didn't match the number on the frame so the reg was no good to him. He was gutted and said that back in his youth he was more interested in riding his new bike rather than checking numbers. He is a really good friend so I decided to do a good job on tarting it up, this is what I have done up to date.

[robrd]

Some more photo's

[Motty]

Lovely bikes, a while ago I had a 325 Sherpa, it was always a pleasure to ride that bike
Richard

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[robrd]

Hi Richard, thanks for your reply. I too had a dabble at trials riding in the late 60s early 70s, I was never brilliant but enjoyed every minute. I had a suzuki mclaren, quite a rare bike nowadays, I wish I still had it, it was a light easy to handle bike and I used to practise wheelies more than skill riding, in the end I could stay on the back wheel as long as I wanted.

[Motty]

I was totally useless at trials as well, but I always enjoyed the day paddling like mad through the difficult sections.
If you have time, it would be nice to see some additional photos as the rebuild continues.

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[robrd]

Hi Richard, some more photo's for you and anyone else interested.

[robrd]

Hi all, some more photo's to show progress. It's going quite slow now as my workshop is freezing but working on the rear wheel kept me warm.

[Motty]

I've just dug into the photo album and found a couple of photos of my old Bultaco. I guess I owned him for twenty years, but I had to sell him in 2006 when we moved to a house with a small garage
Richard

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[robrd]

Thanks for sharing photo's Richard, I can imagine you dabbing your way through sections on that, brings back memories of chatting / bragging to your mates in the pub after finishing, or trying to finish a good trial.

[robrd]

Still plodding on with the bike even though it's so cold. Here is a photo of how it's coming on.

[5port]

Nice job,
I wondered about the special frames. Just superficially, I thought that there would not be a huge benefit to a special frame, after all Bultaco were fairly special anyway.  I suppose, the odd few grammes of weight and slightly different geometry made all the difference?

Cheers

5port

[Motty]

It looks a lovely build, I'm sure your mate will be delighted

I think the Alpina frame will be slightly more road originated than the original Sherpa frame, although I'm sure you will never notice it whilst riding the bike
Richard

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[Foy(notFox)]

Interesting story, and great progress!

Wonder if anyone could unravel the mystery about the frame number/reg etc 

Maybe the V5 for the frame you have is still in someone's drawer.....

[robrd]

Hi all and thank you for your kind comments. I am including a photo of the log book supplied with the bike, as you can see, the frame is different but the engine is the same. On the right hand side of the motor, the casing was severely damaged at some time, I found it strange that there wasn't a drain plug for the oil and on inspection I found that the drain plug had been inserted from the inside and the outside was welded up? I told my mate and he said that for him it will be ok as is because for the mileage that he will be doing he doesn't mind taking of the casing to do an oil change, he also said that he has spoke to his son, who will eventually will own the bike, and he agrees too so back on it will go. I think that going by the damage to the motor, I think that the original frame probably took a good bang and was probably scrapped. I have spoke to Paul and he said he would do a dating certificate for me so re registering shouldn't be a problem. It would be nice to find out the history but I think that too much time has passed. The numbers now are, frame, PB-8506201 and the engine no. M-4902598. Any information on any of these numbers would be great but I'm not going to hold my breath.