A Brief History of the Marque
Maquinaria Y Elementos de Transporte SA (Mototrans) of Barcelona produced motorcycles and scooters between 1957 and 1983. It succumbed to financial problems and the factory was bought by Yamaha.
The factory built Ducati motorcycles which differed in detail to the Italian machines; for instance the use of Spanish-made Amal carburettors and some engine and gearbox internals. As well as a number of Ducati-engined singles they produced a parallel twin closely based on the Ducati SD500 Desmo. They also built the 1978 Yak 410 scrambler with their own engine (although at least one source says it was designed by Ducati), and a rather smart 50cc machine.
49cc engines were built under licence, and these were supplied to other manufacturers including Dismave of Valencia for their Mini Marcelino.
In 1978 Mototrans was in trouble financially, and was also suffering problems with the unions. An agreement between Yamaha and Sanglas resulted in a significant proportion of the Mototrans workforce moving to the Sanglas plant.
Mototrans Virgili Espana
In 1981 the firm began production of mopeds under the MTV label, powered by four-speed Zündapp engines. These came in trail and road versions with monoshock rear cantilever suspension
The following year the company entered administration, the situation with the unions had not improved, and a decision was taken to close the factory. The Spanish government, controlled in large part by Franco's fascists, had brought the country's economy to its knees. In October 1982 a general election was held and the ruling party was obliterated, experiencing "one of the worst defeats ever suffered by a governing party in the Western world."
Ricardo Fargas and Felix Ferrer of Gamma Motors obtained the spare parts, the remaining MTV motorcycles, and the Tecfar competition project.
The Tecfar Project
Ricardo Fargas, the sporting director of Mototrans, teamed up with Tecnoequip to campaign the Ducati NCR in Spanish endurance races.
Fargas had frames built by Antonio Cobas using first bevel-drive engines and, in 1983, belt-drive units.
Riders were Carlos Cardus, Salvador Cañellas, Benjamin Grau and others.
Mototrans Models
24 Horas 250 1966-1974
Vento 350 1976-1983
Mototrans 250cc Four 1967
MTV Yak 410 1979-1986
There is a book on the marque in Spanish:
Sports History Ducati Mototrans - 239 pages, format 17x24 cm, 199 illustrations.
Sources: Spanish resources, paralleltwins.e-monsite.com
Sun Feb 09 2014
ducarc at aol.com
MotoTrans of Spain built many bikes under licence from Ducati. Some were identical to the Italian versions, other had differences, not only to the engine units, but they frequently used locally sourced cycle parts and electrics.
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