Bultaco Sherpa T350

BULTACO SHERPA T350

CYCLE WORLD TEST

Sammy Miller’s 1964 Revolution Just Gets Better Every Year

Trials bikes would look very different today had not Francisco Xavier Bulto in 1964 invited Sammy Miller to spend a few days at the Bultaco factory in Barcelona. The few days stretched to 12 and at the end of his

stay, Sammy rolled the prototype Sherpa T out in front of the factory engineers and Señor Bulto. The concept was rejected at first but after Sammy proceeded to clean sections his factory Ariel couldn’t even attempt, the bike was adopted. Sammy brought the bike back to England for its first competitive trial and you can imagine the furor caused when he arrived with the Bultaco and won hfs very first outing on the bike. Sammy was already a legend in the trials field and his Ariel, GOV 132. was considered the ultimate trials machine— the little Bultaco just couldn’t have been more different.

The bike was essentially a modified 200cc ISDT model fhat Sammy enlarged to 250ec. Fie also made some gearbox changes, changed the exhaust system and added an extra flywheel to' improve low end smoothness and. as Sammy is prone to do, experimented with carburetion. The changes by today’s standards of modification were quite minor but the machine ended up dramatically changing the shape of trials machinery. During the first year Sammy rode the new Bultaco, he won the British Solo Championship and the Scottish Six Day as well. It was the fifst time a two-stroke had won the event and certainly the first time a bike built in a foreign country had won.

Bultaco’s only lasting competition since then has come from the other two Spanish trials bikes, Montesa and Ossa. The Japanese giants were in the trials scene for a while with Honda and Yamaha putting forth some major efforts but when the great American trials boom failed to materialize, the Japartese phased out of production and as we write this, only Bultacos and Montesas are available to riders on the U.S. west coast.

We'd been trying to obtain a new Sherpa T for testing for some time but to no avail so when the chance came up to test a privately owned bike we quickly accepted.

We hadn’t tested a Sherpa T for three years so we read over our last test and were amused to see we had written that we didn't believe the bike could be much improved. The Sherpa T was then, as it is now, a world class trials mount that can be taken out of the crate and ridden in international competition events.

The Sherpa T lost its fiberglass gas tank last year and we found the new matt finish soft plastic tank less than appealing. Sherpa Ts were always a very pretty motorcycle but we must admit owners did worry about damaging their beautiful glass tanks. Well, gone is the worry about the tank but gone also is some of the sparkle.

The new tank holds only one gallon which is more than enough for the loops laid out in most trials events. It can be removed easily by unbolting the two 6mm seat bolts and one rubber-grommeted bolt running through the tank just behind the steering head. Gone forever also is the crossover tube once used on the trials tanks. The older Sherpa tanks had to be removed to service the air cleaner and that always meant gasoline running down your arm and a mess on the shop floor.

The air cleaner is now reached by removing a right side cover and pulling off a rubber band that holds the cover to the airbox. T he rubber band routine is not one of Bultaco’s better ideas for 1979 because every new Sherpa T seems to have the air box cover duct-taped in place. The test bike was one of the first 25 in the country and this may already have been remedied. To Señor Bulto’s credit, he doesn’t wait for the next model year to change items that need attention and each shipment of Bultacos leaving Barcelona usually sports some small improvements.

The only fiberglass still used on the bike are the panels on each side of the airbox and on our test bike both panels were already showing signs of cracks. Perhaps these will be replaced with the new soft plastic. We complained about aluminum fenders on the Sherpa T back in 1977 and the new bike uses a soft plastic fender front and rear that we tested to the limit in a very muddy Saddleback Park—so muddy in fact that the park was closed to the public. After only a few sections the bike was very muddy but we remained unusually clean for such conditions. Throughout the day, even when we were unable to see the wheels, the bike never became clogged with mud to the extent we had to stop and clear away the muck. Someone at Bultaco has already done mud testing.

The lightweight aluminum rims come mounted with the new Pirelli MT13 trials tires that are becoming quite popular with the plonker set. The MT13 is a serious trials tire, built and designed to meet FIM rules and not meant (or certified) for road use. The MT13 (like the Dunlop Trials Champion, which was designed by the same man) has two plies, flexible sidewalls and is supposed to extend its side knobs when the center of the tread is depressed. Great for off-camber climbs. We can't speak for the Dunlop Champion but the Pirellis we tested certainly do the job in the mud. Our only real problem was making the transition from mud to rock where the rear tire would slip at first but then quickly clean itself and grab traction. We ran them at the normal trials tire pressure of 5 psi in the front and 4 psi in the rear.

Walking up to a 1979 Sherpa T for the first time the thing that is likely to catch your eye besides the new blue color scheme is the removal of the frame tubes under the engine. The frame down tube now ehds just in front of the engine cases and is connected to a heavy duty aluminum plate that fufictions both as a skid plate and frame member. Six flathead alien screws hold the plate in place and the whole arrangement seems quite like the Sammy Miller HighBoy frame that has been available as an aftermarket item for several years. Can Sammy still be influencing Barcelona?

Whatever its origin, the aluminum plate saves weight and still manages to protect the underside of the engine. Some riders may still want to add further protection for the side cases but all iri all we like the new' layout.

The frame itself is chrome-moly and decals on each major frame member remind you of that fact. The swing arm is cleanly gusseted. Non-rebuildable Betor shocks are mounted in a manner that allows 100mm (about 4 in.) of travel. The units can be adjusted for preload and we thought the valving and spring rate ideal for trials work. We know a few aftermarket shocks are available for the bike but even the experts seem to favor the Betor unit and we understand w hy.

The front suspension units are Betor as well and according to Bultaco, have 6.5 in. of travel. This is either a misprint in the Bultaco literature or our test bike had an improved model fork for the wdpers showed more travel than this and we never bottomed the forks during testing. Our test riders weighed 165 and 185 lb. respectively and we used the SAE 20 weight oil that Bultaco recommends. No signs of seal leakage were evident and the original seals were still in the bike.

Although Bultaco builds a 250cc version available in Europe, only the 350 engine is sold in the U.S. The engine uses an uncorrected compression ratio of 9.1:1, up slightly from last year, and it remains a conventional piston-ported two-stroke which Bultaco claims produces 20.8 bhp at 6500 rpm. Maximum torque of 20 ft. lb. is reached at 4000. Numbers like these don’t always relate to actual riding but rumor is that the 350 motor will pull cleanly from 300 rpm up to top revs and we tend to believe this after spending time on the bike.

The engine modifications for 1979 consist of slightly changed intake porting in order to further improve response from a closed throttle. The carburetion on the 350 engine is provided by Bing and even this unit has been modified somewhat for 1979 to improve throttle response. A cold start lever is used on the 28mm carburetor and w'e only had to use it once at the start of the day.

Which brings us to starting Bultacos— they start all right but the kicking may be a bit awkward at first. Some riders will step off the bike and use the left side mounted lever with their right foot. The other technique lets the rider stand astraddle the bike and use his left foot. We found the latter method rather clumsy and we had to slip the clutch a bit to get the kick lever to travel part way down its travel. Bultacos have never featured a primary starting arrangement and that means finding neutral each time the engine is killed. Although the kick start lever has been redesigned slightly, our test bike didn’t feel any different than Bultacos we have been kicking for 15 or more years. Still difficult for medium and tall riders and a genuine problem for the grunt leggers.

The magneto is of conventional design featuring points and condensor with the Femsa-made unit allowing both point and stator plate adjustment. A newly designed side cover over the magneto has a vent tube that can now be removed with a wing nut attachment and the fitting itself has been beefed up.

The motor is as quiet as we have come to expect of the Sherpa T and new rubber blocks between the cylinder fins contribute to this. The exhaust system is effective and does include a spark arrester in the second of its two mufflers. An O-ring has been added to the connection between the two mufflers and we couldn’t spot a drop of oil leaking from around the cylinder connection or between the mufflers.

Our test bike arrived in the U.S. as a left side shifter but it was quickly changed over to the right side. Even a quick glance tells you the bike was designed to be shifted from the right because a very strange shaped shift lever must be used to clear the final drive chain if the bike is shifted from the left. Changing the shift lever allows it to be installed at the 45° angle that many Sherpa owners prefer. The lever is much less susceptible to rock damage and the brake lever likewise fits better on the opposite side. A cable arrangement is necessary if the brake lever is on the right and moving it to the left allows a direct pull to the rear brake.

Cowtrailers might leave the levers in the stock position but then we have the feeling most Sherpa Ts are used for competition and for good reason: it wouldn’t be all that comfortable to spend the afternoon on that thin and narrow seat.

Whatever your reasons for buying the Sherpa T, the machine is built for competition and more than one world class rider has won major events on a box stock Sherpa T. Arriving late and not getting the bike out of customs can be a reason for this trauma and usually a local dealer will knock open a crate and do a quick set-up. The rider might change the handlebars and do a bit ofjetting but it’s nice to know the stock bikes are capable of winning.

As mentioned earlier, we tested our Sherpa T in very muddy conditions and what would be a dreary day to any but a trials rider, we found most welcome. Give a trials rider muddy gullies, grey skies, and green hills and you’ve sent him part way to Scotland.

We’ve ridden Sherpa Ts for years but stepping onto the ’79 model was still a pleasure. The incredible balance is still there and the feeling of lightness (207 lb.) is not an illusion. Readers must get tired of hearing about how; precisely certain motorcycles steer but perhaps the Sherpa T has to be experienced to be fully appreciated because it will go exactly where you point it and unless deflected by a good sized rock, is quite easy to steer.

In all our testing the bike only did a reverse lock number once and that only required a minor tug to set it straight again. We used low gear once during the entire test with most of our sections being attempted in second and third gears. We remember a factory rider once saying that if in doubt about which gear to use in a section, you should pick the higher of two and then shift up one. The point is that experts will almost always use a higher gear than novices might think possible.

We understand the final drive ratio in the new Sherpa T is a bit higher to allow for rapid transit between sections but frankly, we didn't get much of a chance to use it in our test conditions. Non-trials riders are often surprised at the speeds trialers ride between sections and at one national event we saw a demonstration not soon to be forgotten. It was late in the day and the late penalty time was approaching. Rather than incur late points, Leavitt, Schreiber, and Whaley were racing elbow to elbow between sections over some very difficult terrain. Even local motocrossers stood slack jawed.

BULTACO SHERPA T350

$1810

With a head angle of 27°, one would expect a bike to be twitchy at anything but a crawl but the Sherpa T could be trusted to a beginner without much worry. We wouldn't want him to ride the bike at desert racing speeds very long but it is quite predictable.

We found no fault whatsoever in the motor, transmission and handling of the new Sherpa T but as usual we weren’t all that impressed with the rear brake during our damp test conditions. This won’t come as a surprise to Sherpa T owners and we are beginning to wonder why Bultaco doesn't build a better rear brake. For all

the shortcomings of the Japanese trialers, they did have back brakes that worked in the wet—Señor Bulto, Que Paso?

On earlier Sherpa Ts the handlebars were one of the first things changed but we think the current Vesterinen bend will be left on many of the bikes. Although on the low side, the new bars suited both test riders.

We liked the 1979 Sherpa T 350 and as usual we find ourselves wondering if the 1980 bike can be much improved. With much of the competition out of production. Señor Bulto could sit back and let the bike stand as is for a few years. We have the feeling that the Sherpa T and trials riding have a special interest to Francisco Xavier Bulto and he’ll not likely be content with the current model. But even the Patron will admit it's a hard act to follow. ^