Monty Bicycles was founded in 1983 by Pere Pi, an enterprising person with extensive experience in motorcycles: 9 times champion of Spain in three specialities: motor-cross, trial, and speed. This, combined with an extensive knowledge acquired during 25 years as technical designer at Montesa motorcycles was the base for the birth of a prestigious brand: Monty Bicycles.
The first idea of a trial bicycle came when Pere Pi was trial rider with Montesa and designing trial motorcicles. He had designed a motorcycle for his 6 year old son Ot. Ot, however, preferred a bicycle, so Pere Pi set about finding a trial bicycle for his son. But no such bike was available anywhere.
Taking a standard bicycle as a base, Pere removed all the large components such as the fender, lights etc, leaving a lighter bicycle, and added wide handlebars and some wider tires for greater grip. Having prepared some areas for his son to practice it soon became clear that the sport of the trial would be possible with a bicycle.
Pere asked Sr Permayer, owner of Montesa, if they would be able to manufacture Trial Bicycles, and the answer was that if the Pere took care of everything there would be no problem. And thus they were born, the first Biketrial bicycles in the series, the famous Montesitas. They sold the lot.
Subsequently, contact was made with all the motorcycle clubs that organized trials. Quite a difficult task in principle. To choose the name of the new sport it had to differ from the Motorcycle, Trialsin was finally agreed. Contact was made with the confederacy of motorcycles and of bicycles to know which organization would be able to deal with the legal requirements. Finally, Trialsin was federated in 1981.
In 1983 Montesa had labor problems and subsequently ceased operations. It was then that Pere Pi together with his wife presented the idea to manufacture trial bicycles under the name Monty.
Later, as the philosophy of BikeTrial was not understood by the confederacy of Cycling, the BikeTrial International Union was formed in 1992. An organisation dedicated to the sport with its headquarters in Japan with Mr.Hiroshi Hirano as president. Since then two organizations now exist for this sport. BikeTrial international Union and The Federation of Cycling.
Monty has obtained many world titles thanks Ot Pi, son of Mr Pere Pi, and has been a perfect ambassador of Monty Bicycles and of the sport around the world. A perfect tandem: A designer, businessman and an exceptional sportsman.
At present the Monty competition riders are: Cesar Cañas, Ot Pi, Dani Comas, Josef Dressler, Ján Sidlik, Václav and Kazuki Terai.
Currently, Monty Bicycles exports to more than 30 countries, with England and Japan being the countries where this sport most popular.
In itadori, Japan, BikeTrial is considered the national sport, there even being a museum dedicated to Ot Pi, where you can find all the models manufactured by different manufacturers up to this day.
The sport of the BikeTrial and the bicycles have changed according to the evolution of the riders. 1988 saw the first model of bicycle mounted with hydraulic brakes, and 1992 was the first trial bicycle made of aluminum.
Monty Bicycles continue to evolve and develop exceptional ideas and innovations, setting the standard by which others follow.
|
Email to a friend
Share on Twitter
Share on Facebook
