Moto Museum 1 in Spain

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

Moto Museum 1 : Barcelona

You may be thinking that there are two motorcycle museums in Barcelona and you would be partly correct. There are three Moto Museums all run by the same people and is the Mario Soler collection. The main museum is at Bassella some 150km to the north of Barcelona and the other one is in Andorra. I visited the museum in Barcelona that displayed Catalunya motorcycle manufacturers, these are Bultaco, Montessa and Ossa. All famous names from the seventies and eighties with racing pedigrees and competition. Some famous names rode these machines that include Sammy Miller and Mick Andrews.

The Museum in Barcelona is nicely laid out and displaying about 50 machines.  I did my best to photograph them all and try to read as much as I could. Much of the information has an English paragraph or two so you don't have to learn Spanish before you visit. The lady on the reception desk was very helpful and her English excellent. As usual I left fliers and this time collected some of theirs.

 I didn't know how far the museum in Bassella was I could have bought a combined ticket for 10€, but I was not sure I would get there as I wanted to have some culture in Gaudi's architecture that seems around everywhere. Now that was a man who had imagination!

I spent some time going around the museum in Barcelona and among the bikes displayed were Lutetia, Patria, Reiju, Sanglas, Maf, Mymsa, Sanson, Cimson and Derby.

The Derby I was interested in was the 250SS. It is a split single two stroke with interesting head and twin exhaust.





 In the racing section there is the Arisco 250cc twin which, like some engines of that era were two 125's strung together.

Part of the history of Spanish manufacturers Bultaco had stopped production in the eighties and has now resumed. Sanglas, known for big singles and used by the Police was taken over by Yamaha and looks like one. There are lots of names that I have not heard of but were doing much the same as we were in the UK at the time. There is even one bike that has a Villiers twin to push it along. Just for Pete I took a photo of a Ducati 160TS.

It was a very enjoyable visit and the location is just a short distance from the Tourist Information in the centre of the city. I'll be going to Barcelona again next year and will drop in to see it again. I have been told that the exhibition is changed regularly so when I next visit there should be something different to see.