Bultaco Tss 200
BULTACO TSS 200
Sixteen Years Later Bultaco's Road Racer Looks Too Pretty to Race.
Spain is thought of by most people as a land of Conquistadores, Armadas, gypsy (for which read Flamenco) dancers, the opera Carmen and an apparently endless line of jimmy-jawed Kings who couldn't chew their food properly and thus died off. All very foreign indeed. Consequently the last thing that one expects to find in sunny Spain (the rynes stye mostly in the plynes) is racing motorcycles. Seems to me that between the Wars, Spanish industry produced some bikes, probably French makes under license, but the generally low income level of common folk dictated that most sales were of the basic transportation type. Nevertheless a great many Spaniards were road racing fanatics and there was one little fellow who used to come to the Isle of Man every year on a Terrot I think. Around 1944 Pedro Permanyer and Francisco Bulto got together to form Montesa and after a lot of hard work began to produce a 93cc semi-moped based on a prewar Motobècane design from France. The new Montesa filled a great need, as even Velosolexes beat walking, and the company grew rapidly. Bulto, however, was not only a talented engine designer but a mad keen racing enthusiast and in due course he brought forth a very quick 125cc twostroke which gained numerous successes on the Continong not to mention the Isle of Man itself. In 1958, however, the Spanish economy was having one of its periodic ups and downs and Permanyer decided that the factory could reduce expenses, never mind the advertising, by cutting out racing. Bulto didn't agree with this view and withdrew from the partnership to start his own factory in Barcelona, some number of the upper-level engineers leaving with him. Soon they launched a series of more or less mundane road bikes to pay the bills while work went rapidly ahead on baby road racers to advertise the existence of same. Although a factory team was run, using test personnel from the works mostly as drivers, the bikes were designed mostly with privateers in mind being light, simple, and easy to work on between heats. The gearbox only had four speeds, in fact, up until the middle '60s and the single-cyl engine was comparatively uncomplicated with no rotary valves etc. In due time the cubic capacity was upped to 175, 200 and then 250 with a great interchangeability of parts between street and racing not to mention off-road later. These new motorcycles were as successful as their Montesa cousins had been and in fact the mutual competition spurred them on to increased development. You may well wonder why the Bul has a Hand on its tank badge; this is no Spanish evil eye device but an appreciation of the British motorcycle racers' universal “thumbs-up” sign that everything was going well. Likewise the “TSS” title is nothing more than a genuflection towards the deathless Velocette KSS ohc, top 350 sports bike of the 1930-1940 era. Ain't tradition wonderful?
Henry N. Manney III
The subject of this Salon, belonging to Mike Robinson of Robinson M/C Sales in Spencerport, NY, is in fact a TSS 200 and as such comes after the 125 and before the 250, water cooling, Pursangs and all that. Tom Robinson, another of the four brothers in the family business, at that time bought the machine new in 1964 from the evergreen John Taylor of Schenectady, Bultaco distributor for the area, and proceeded to go racing what they sold. Results were somewhat inconclusive; the Bui stuck at Daytona, finished Laconia, and nobody can remember the others (!) although there was a bushel basket full of stuck pistons to remind him of his efforts. Racing was mostly four-strokes at that time and nobody really appreciated just how rich (fuel-wise) a small two-stroke has to run to keep it operating. As this sort of performance didn't help Bultaco sales very much, Tom then retired the bike and as often happens to used racing machin-
ery, a friend fancied it and stuck the little devil in his barn along with such prizes as a Manx Norton. In due time the friend passes away and there was a general clearout; Mike had been a little kid when all the racing was going on but remembered the brilliant red TSS and took steps to acquire it. The poor thing was “in a sorry state” but complete with only the flimsy Spanish fairing, with seven years of patching inside, unsavable; quite a stroke of luck really as most barn jobs have lost their wheels and carburetor at least. The new owner then set to work putting the machinery into suitable condition while a good friend, Lorin Laurini, took on the arduous job of restoring the remainder to better than original. The alloy castings were all fearfully stained, Akront rims corroded, fiberglass all scratched and starred ... a familiar story but some 350 hours of hard graft not to mention $300 approx of bits and supplies (including replacement cables and a Shoei fairing) later, the TSS glittered on its wheels once more. Mike points out that the striping and so forth are not necessarily standard (what racing bike stays “standard”?) but at least there aren't many ad stickies.
Mechanically speaking the little Bui seems much smaller than a 200, as we forget how cylinder fins have grown larger over the years. Dimensions are 64.5 x 60mm, giving 196.047 cc, nominal c.r. is 13:1, and a 29mm road racing Dell' Orto with remote bowl breathes through a fourport piston to make everything work. Those old Bui owners afflicted at one time with Femsa-itis will have mixed feelings about the flywheel mag with points! However a nice touch visible on earlier Montesas, come to that, is a small oil tank right at the nose of the racing seat. Fitted with a drip feed to the carburetor bellmouth, this enabled the harried driver to turn his little petcock and thus deliver an extra supply of
oil to the internals on those long straights at full noise. What happens at the hairpin following in the wet is not necessarily laid out in the owner's manual, but the gearbox's six speeds presumably gave a chance for the correct ratio to be obtained. The frame itself is quite trick with heavy gussetting around the front downtube to keep the steering head quiet, this downtube continuing on to make a junction with the rather heavier top tube (and thus forming a loop around the engine) before said top tube bifurcates just forward of the saddle. The back end is reinforced by all sorts of loops and extra bracing re the swing arm pivot but then Buis used to win many races, such as the 24 hr. Bol d'Or on handling alone.
External-spring leading axle front forks strike a curiously modern note and according to Mike the ride is quite comfortable with 3.9 in movement forward with the teles and 3.2 in the back. Alloy Akronts measure 18 in. and the tires, original ones no less as is the chain, are both 2.75-18. Clutch is oil bath, chain 428, the tank holds 13 litres, wheelbase is 52 in. and the bike complete without gas or oil weighs 205 lb.
Certainly the TSS looks the job, from massive alloy brakes to upside-down shift to neat little handmade rear brake pedal to rearsets to très café bars. For the moment the Bui is not running, having all lubricant removed so that it wouldn't commit a nuisance during concours; living in a tiny room with its own private lavabo but recently taking first in the track bike division at the Rochester Auto Show. However, the spirits that inhabit Bultacos are very strong, as any Bui owner can tell you, and it is not inconceivable that the TSS will appear at a vintage race one day to show the 250 class the Spanish way around.
