BULTACO PURSANG REVIVAL: SPANISH DESIGNERS REBUILD A LEGENDARY MOTOCROSS BRAND FROM THE SEVENTIES

“There are two types of race freaks ? Bultaco Pursang freaks and non Bultaco Pursang freaks,” reads a 1975 copy of Motocross Action. “If you want to win in motocross, get a Bultaco Pursang, hold it wide open and hang on!” it continues. But since 1975 the Bultaco Pursang brand has all but vanished. Now a 35-year-old Spanish automotive designer, Jim Palau-Ribes and partner Roger Gubert, plan on reviving the brand.

In 2008 Palau-Ribes released the first set of CAD drawings about a prototype he planned to have ready in a year. His idea? To build a modern Pursang?based on the values of the 1970’s model with substance and high quality components, and fuses retro styling with modern technology.

The original clay model in the Barcelona Studio.

The Pursang 450 prototype wasn’t ready in a year and the bike isn’t an exact replica of the original drawings (as Palau-Ribes designed them), but the designer stayed true to his artistic angle.

Although one would assume that they are going to use an existing engine, the proof-of-concept drawings show a right-side chain. That, of course, didn’t happen by the time they got around to building a real machine.

“We thought that the project should keep the essence from the golden era of the Spanish motorcycle brands and its dynamic qualities. We wanted to reborn a myth from the seventies: the Pursang. It was a motocross bike well known around the world. Some of you already know that we were doing this Project, it took us seven years, that wasn’t so fast! Well, we made a lot of modifications from the original, so at the end we made a lot of Pursang projects!”

THE PROTOYPE IS DONE: SEE IT NOW

The most recent proof-of-concept drawing maintains some of the original design concepts, but with a better understanding of the realities of fitting an engine to a frame.