Montesa Grand Sport
MONTESA GRAND SPORT
Cycle World Road Test
AN OLD SAYING tells us that “good things come in small packages” and this ancient bromide never had more meaning than when applied to motorcycles. Big bikes are, we admit, very exciting — their sheer speed guarantees that. Small bikes on the other hand, are not quite as exciting, but they still hustle from one corner to the next quite quickly.
Most of the real fun is, after all, not so much in speed (which is entirely relative anyway) but in getting the most from a particular motorcycle. We have known this for a. very long time, but the point was driven home particularly well by our experiences with the small, middlin’ fast and incredibly agile and enjoyable Montesa Brio 110 Grand Sport.
When making our initial acquaintance with the Montesa, we were very favorably impressed by the highquality finish of the machine. It is obvious that first rate materials and workmanship go into the bike, and it is most pleasing to the eye whether one stands off at a distance or gets right up and peers closely. The paint — a fine muleta scarlet on the tank and glossy black on the frame and fenders — was free of orangepeel and had that “inch-deep” look that only comes with a lot of handrubbing. Almost no chrome-plating is to be seen except on the exhaust system, and most of the engine and brake surfaces had an as-cast finish, but it all looked good anyway. The only items with which we could find fault were the saddle, which was comfortable but covered with a rather undistinguished leatherette, and the speedometer. This instrument (the only one present on our test bike) was calibrated in kilometers and was too small and badly marked to have been much good.
The Montesa’s frame is fairly conventional. Basically, it is of the single-loop type, but it forks out under the engine into a pair of tubes leading up to support the seat and provide a mounting for the rear suspension’s spring/damper units. This forked section carries the pivots for the wide-based rear swing arm, and on the same level with the pivots there is additional tubular bracing to the frame’s main loop. Up at the steering head there is a very substantial reinforcing gusset and the frame looked strong enough even for scrambles work.
The rear suspension combines swing axles with nearvertical spring/damper units, and is ordinary in layout although it gives rather extraordinary results. The only outstanding feature at this end of the bike was the obvious effort that had been made to insure rigidity.
At the front, there are telescopic forks and these were so light, and gave such excellent results, that several plots were hatched that would, had they been carried out, have resulted in the Montesa’s returning to its owner minus that entire assembly. Certainly, there are many motorcycles that could benefit by having the Montesa’s forks substituted for their original components. The Montesa forks provide a very long wheel travel, and insofar as the springs are concerned are rather soft, but the damping action is quite heavy and we suspect that that is the reason for their fine action. On smooth surfaces, they simply glide along and iron out the road ripples; when bigger bumps are encountered, they stiffen up and begin to feel as though they could never bottom.
On the surface, the engine is much like any other small-displacement two-stroke you might have seen and it has all of the same features — except that in the Montesa it is all carried a trifle further than is usual. There is some question as to the true power rating of the engine: Montesa Motors, the Western distributor for the bike, says 18 bhp, and that seems reasonable enough in view of its performance. We do know though, that in all-out racing form this engine is giving over 20 bhp and that output should not be too difficult to obtain. Indeed, only minor modifications are possible. Full-circle flywheels and a minimum crankcase volume insure an adequate crankcase compression, and the alloy cylinder is prodigiously finned for good cooling. Moreover, a part of the kit that comes with this Grand Sport model is an effective “tuned” exhaust system. This last item gave us a thing or two to ponder: with the stock exhaust system in place, the engine responds to throttle just like any very mildly-tuned tiddler, and the mixture seemed exactly right; after installing the E.P.R. (exhaust pressure regulator) tuned pipe, the engine promptly became a super-tuned tiger. It was fussy at idle and reluctant about doing any work until it was cranking over smartly. Once underway though, it would really blast along — and the mixture was still “just right.”
The only complaints we have with regard to the engine is that it was an uncertain starter — popping right off on some occasions and requiring a push-start on others — and it had a very nasty tendency to run all of the fuel out of the tank and into the crankcase unless the fuel-tap was closed when the engine was stopped. Fortunately, we were saved the embarrassment of discovering this fuel problem for ourselves. Kim Kimball, the distributor, told us about it after he discovered that his own bike’s engine had ingested about a gallon of fuel and had to be opened and drained. The problem seems to be the carburetor, which is mounted at a steep downdraft angle and allows the fuel to dribble through. Perhaps lowering the fuel level would cure this.
Kick starting, which was not always enough to get the Montesa running, would have been easier if the starter crank had not been so awkward. It has to be nudged back into position before one can get a good kick at it, and the pedal itself was just a bolt that slides back out of the way after you get tired of kicking and decide to use the run-and-bump technique. One thing we can say for the Montesa however: it showed not the slightest tendency to stall after it was warm; get it running and it would stay right with you until you poke the kill-button.
The transmission impressed us as a fine, if odd-looking, bit of machinery. It is of the semi-unit layout, with the drive-side endplate cast as an extension of the crankcase, and occupies an astonishingly small space. Three sets of gears are available — our test bike had the closeratio gearing — and these may be ordered, along with a whole range of overall ratios (rear sprockets of from 44 to 58 teeth). We had the 52-tooth rear wheel sprocket, and this gave good acceleration, but limited the Montesa’s top speed. With the small (for a racing 125) carburetor, the engine runs out of steam badly at 8500 rpm and that is what puts the limit on the top end. For road racing, it is likely that a lower gear ratio, or a bigger carburetor, or both, could be used to good effect. Also, while this machine had “close-ratio” gears, they were really not quite close enough to cope with the road racing for which this machine is intended. Of course, Montesa does make five and six-speed gear sets for their machines, and these sets are for sale (we understand), so there is hope.
We started all of this by saying what a grand thing the Montesa is to ride — and we shall finish on the same note. The very low, flat racing handlebars on our test bike were not any foo comfortable over long distances, but they were surçfy the thing for ear-holing. And, higher bars are available for the street rider or scrambler. For us, the~ flat bars were just too racy to resist — we liked them even though they gave us wrist cramps after a while.
The Montesa’s handling is superb. It is low, light and agile, and those 19-inch Pirelli tires maintain their grip on the road even at impossible angles while cornering. More important, they continue to grip when heeled over and braking lightly, or accelerating; you can get away with almost anything on this machine. We might say too that the brakes do what they do with as little effort and fuss as any we have ever tried. They are, like the handling, almost too much for words.
There is — and wouldn’t you know it — a catch to all this: the Montesa sells for a healthy $649, and that will buy a wide variety of motorcycles. Will it buy a better bike than the Montesa? That is a logical question, and it really has no answer. Definitely, it will buy bigger bikes, and faster ones, but we are inclined to doubt that it will buy the two-stroke fancier with a yen for something different any more satisfaction, or fun, anywhere. •
MONTESA GRAND SPORT
SPECIFICATIONS
$646
POWER TRANSMISSION
PERFORMANCE
ACCELERATION
