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[FM350]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you all for the help and advice, I have Peter at Bultaco Parts looking and was hoping a new old stock would be OK. Thinking that deterioration would only come from use or corrosion, maybe I have got this wrong?

Graham, have not ruled out converting to points and I may try to fit my M49 ignition?

Joe, I will pass on info to a friend that owns the Fantic 240 in my shed with weak spark. Have given him a shopping list and he is saving as he is keen to get it rideable.

David, thanks for looking for the part for me.

Below is a photo of some of the rocks that I have been riding last week, can anyone identify my bike in the picture?

I know someone in the UK who back in the day was a works supported Bultaco enduro rider, and they used to bin the electronic ignitions and fit points, as this improved running considerably. Even today a properly maintained points system is still a good idea, and certainly works better than most of the recently made aftermarket electronic set ups.

[David Lahey]

I have been working on my Cota 348 a fair bit over the summer break and am now really starting to enjoy riding it. For many years I have only ridden it a bit here and there because I had not been able to get the motor to run anywhere near as well as the motors in my friends Cota 348s. The carby swap covered elsewhere has really made a difference to that and so I have been getting other aspects fully sorted with the intention of using it in competitions this year.
On Australia Day last week I went for a ride with friends from the local club and re-rode the same sections we rode a couple of months ago at the last trial of 2011. I thought the 348 compared favourably with my hotrod TY175 on those same sections so it will be interesting to see how I go on it this year.
I am especially impressed with the way it feels stable on obstacles and in rocky riding, and also feels good in tight turns. It has always felt stable, but previously, when the motor was running unevenly it was quite a struggle in tight turns.
Here is a photo taken on the 33 degree and 90% humidity Australia Day ride

[Bully fanatic]

Hello David. It looks very good for one of those imitation Spanish bikes and I am glad to hear it is running well. Where are all the old Spanish trials bikes I wonder. When I started riding in about 1979 there were more Spanish bikes than Japanese bikes. Weird ! I hope you enjoy it David. Graham.

[Mark K]

............ Here is a photo taken on the 33 degree and 90% humidity Australia Day ride

It looks more like the 33 degree 90% humidity Australia Day REST to me.

[David Lahey]

............ Here is a photo taken on the 33 degree and 90% humidity Australia Day ride

It looks more like the 33 degree 90% humidity Australia Day REST to me.

Ahhhh Mark.... yes.... there were pauses in our otherwise action-packed day. We even went on a bushwalk/mountain climb of sorts to see a local landmark at the top of a hill (skull rock). You may believe that truth, but after seeing the next photo your imaginative mind may lead you to suspect that we were actually planning some seriously high-level sections for our next trial?

[David Lahey]

Hello David. It looks very good for one of those imitation Spanish bikes and I am glad to hear it is running well. Where are all the old Spanish trials bikes I wonder. When I started riding in about 1979 there were more Spanish bikes than Japanese bikes. Weird ! I hope you enjoy it David. Graham.

Imitation Spanish bike? I'm pretty sure it was made in Spain about 8 years before the Japs had anything to do with Montesa so what gives? Someone well known even managed to win something significant on a 348 too - beating all the people on Bultacos in the process, so 348s can't be all that bad hey? (I know I know - Montesa were desperate and paid him a lot of money to do it)
It actually is pretty good to ride though, just like some of the top riders of its era have been telling me for years. Not the easiest bike to keep going, but it is nice to ride.
Don't worry, the Bultaco M49 is going fantastically now with the bugs ironed out, and will also be seeing some action this year
I've just reread your posting. Yes late in the 1970s was a quiet time for the Japs in trials. They had all temporarily given up the idea of making trials bikes and sold their leftovers to those poms making Majestys and Beamish Suzukis which of course were very thin on the ground over here. I've got a fair idea where all those Spanish bikes are now - same as most bikes of the era - buried in landfill, melted down for scrap, or still sitting under houses and in chook sheds across our wide brown land. The bloke across the road had been living there for a few years and I had no idea he had his original 1973 CZ MX bike in his chook shed until it got started and ridden around a bit (very noisy too). After that it went back into the chook shed and that was about 12 years ago now and it hasn't seen daylight again since then. Must be thousands of bikes like that around the country.

[Mark K]

................. planning some seriously high-level sections for our next trial?

OK I give up. Just give me a 5. There aint no way I'm going anywhere near that rock on my bike. I wouldn't even want to walk / climb there.

I was stuffed enough just walking back up the hill at Deongwar at the working bee last weekend. And incidentally, a couple of the steep muddy bits got me thinking.... How come work shoes don't come with trials universal tread pattern for the soles?

[Bully fanatic]

Hello all. Mark you needed some high class japanese flying boots for walking up those hills. Mine worked fine. David. Iwas refering to my last post to Cedric about the Montesa`s. Bultaco and Montesa were the ultmate trials bike in the seventies and really early eighties and I suppose you would have to add Ossa as well. It was surprising that very few people could switch between them though. Graham.

[David Lahey]

Hello all. Mark you needed some high class japanese flying boots for walking up those hills. Mine worked fine. David. Iwas refering to my last post to Cedric about the Montesa`s. Bultaco and Montesa were the ultmate trials bike in the seventies and really early eighties and I suppose you would have to add Ossa as well. It was surprising that very few people could switch between them though. Graham.

Can't imagine you (not) stirring up Cedric about his Montesas - poor guy even bought a Bultaco just to keep you quiet and it obviously isn't working. Does he have to ride it as well as own it to keep you quiet?
And another thing. I was trying to find your last post about Cedric and his Montesas and found this instead "Sorry David I just couldn`t resist. Here is one to practice your editing on. To really improve your Montesa you could keep the shocks and tyres and change everything else with some real twinshock parts from another Spanish maker!!!"

[FM350]

Here in the UK there are plenty of old Spanish trials bikes still around, but the fact they arent competitive against later TS bikes, and there are no classes here for P78 machines, means that not that many get used in serious TS competition. This seems a shame, but until those making the rules can grasp the fact that old Spanish machines are not as capable as modified Fantic's or £10K Whitlock TY's or TLR's, then the older bikes are simply not going to get used as much as they would if specific classes were introduced!