Luis Muñoz – Aycuens is one of the 
Recently on a social network I commented on the first entry of my blog ” Starting the house from the roof” with these words:
“Congratulations on the blog and the article! You have made a perfect summary of the problem of the management of motorcycling in Spain, especially the trial which is the most disadvantaged. I hope that the managers of our sport will read it and it will serve as a source of self-criticism. If you let us, we’ll help you!!”
Luis is old school; you just have to look at the photo in which we can see him competing in a trial in La Coruña, I think back in 1965 with an old Sherpa model 10. However, being back in his life, he continues to do trials, keeps his old Sherpa and a beautiful Triumph Cub, Doing trials with them and leaves the door very open to hope with his biker attitude and with those last two phrases that only an experienced person can transmit so serenely and without hurting, in which he calls for self-criticism to whom it corresponds and at the same time extends a hand to them: If you let us we will help you!!
Well, if they let us, I’ll sign up for that with you, Luis; if they let us, we will all help them so that trial lives another golden age and is the sport of many more people than can appear in any cold statistics of results of the CSD. I’m going to work so that new blood and also old blood like yours or mine can practice our sport and help get a new start for the whole trial in general.
Thank you again for all the generous comments and words of encouragement. Although in reality animo is the one that all the Spanish trial needs; modern and classic; Amateur riders and motorcycle clubs. Together we can; Let no one doubt it.
A NEW BEGINNING
“My story begins in Sant Adrià de Besós in 1965; I’ve never been able to know when and how I learned it, but I’ve always had in mind that in that year the best trial riders were Don Smith, Jacky Ickx, Gustav Franke, Bill Wilkinson, Gordon Farley, Peter Gaunt… and that a certain Sammy Miller won the Six Days of Scotland by riding a Bultaco.”
By the way; I have never understood the reason for such a strong magnet that Scotland exerts on all of us, but none of us are spared from it.
I remember the first time I saw the light; that endless journey from Catalonia to Madrid riding in a Pegaso truck and above all I remember the first night at home and that first walk through the mountains of Madrid; the smell of rockrose; the touch of granite, the sensation of feeling the cold mountain water when crossing the streams or the soft and slippery slipping when stepping on a root bathed in mud. I could spend whole days walking through the mountains without stopping, going up from Cercedilla along the Roman road and crossing to the Segovian slope; eat in Valsaín and start the return quickly so that the night would not catch us on the dark roads. Climbing up to the Bola del Mundo was always a challenge, but the excursion I particularly liked was the climb to Abantos through the firebreak and then continue through the moors of the northern slope to Peguerinos…
During the golden years I did a lot of trials; thousands of kilometers of interzone and thousands of zones. I participated in many trials; from Casa de Campo to Robledo de Chavela; We even once travelled to Catalonia to see and share areas with our idols up close in Santigosa and we took our first steps in a World Cup in Matadepera.
I remember very well the days I spent at Motos Cauca, the dealership in Madrid on Palma Street and where so many people came to see me; Bultaco’s proud new trial bike; the brand new Sherpa model 10.
It didn’t take long until someone decided to buy me as a gift for their son for passing the pre-university course, and I keep the first night in my memory as if it were yesterday that my young owner stayed awake in the garage next to me, waiting for dawn so that he could finally go out into the field.
Men don’t know it, but we need objects to be desired and we like to be needed, even though we don’t know it. It has been forty years since I gradually ceased to be useful, since my broad red and grey reservoir gradually became a nuisance; Ever since little by little my abilities were slowly surpassed by others and forty years ago I was definitively cornered, forgotten and covered by rusty scrap metal in the deepest and darkest part of a warehouse. Forty years without seeing the light of day and longing for that contact with nature that I loved so much and that was the main reason for my existence, although I continue to formulate every day the secret desire to escape this fate and make someone’s life a little sweeter…”
I’ve never asked a classic bike to tell me its story; I imagine that if it told me it I would probably get a good scare at the beginning and also with a lot of fun.
no one would believe me, or perhaps rightly so; I’ll be put in a mental hospital. Although surely if the Sherpa model 10 that Luis Muñoz-Aycuens used that year 1965 could talk, its story would not be very different from the one I have told you. History shared with so many thousands of trial bikes that for a long time have been condemned to scrapping, to rust in a dark warehouse or with a lot of luck to be part of some private collection where they are mere static objects with no use.
But life takes many twists and turns and every now and then surprises us with an unexpected twist.
Who would have thought at the end of the 80’s that the old bikes of the 50’s; Were 60s and 70s going to get a second chance? Who in their right mind would have predicted then that with the arrival of the new century the sport of trial would have a new beginning? However, slowly, but inexorably, the classic trial gained strength and once again extended its roots within our little world of the motorcycle.
They say that both the Scots and the Catalans are quite clutchy and that they don’t throw anything away if they suspect that in the future they can give it some use or if they believe that what they have is worth something, however little. Thanks to this way of thinking, thousands of motorcycles that were apparently worthless have been saved from scrap dealers, and today they are part of a new and potential industry that has brought with it the rebirth of the trial of that time.
Many of us trial riders from the past have returned with our old bikes; others who could not enjoy having their desired Ossa, Bultaco or Montesa at the time, have decided to buy and restore one; or several in many cases; to federate, and to participate in trials. Other riders, overwhelmed and outclassed by modern trials, their techniques, their zones and above all by the federation’s policy of forging champions but forgetting about sport for the sake of a hobby, They have discovered a new, friendlier way to enjoy our sport and everything that surrounds a good trial; A trip, a good meal with friends or a spectacular interzone through the depths of a forest or the top of a mountain.
Many clubs have started to organize truly remarkable trials that have nothing to envy to many of the great international classic trials; Cabrianes, Robregordo, Santigosa Classic, Pobladura, Costa Brava, LARS, Maeztu, Ripoll, All; although some with serious errors of approach that detract from their attendance year after year and endanger their continuity, are undoubtedly huge trials that could serve as an example of how to give an injection of hope and strength to modern trials, since forging champions is a very honorable and necessary task; But it would be much better to make the trial available to the thousands of fans of the crowd so that they could enjoy good and affordable events, being able to give their support sooner or later to brands, riders, clubs and federations. It would be better and fairer, it would also be more honest and honorable in my opinion.
It was in Scotland that it all began more than a hundred years ago; and it has been in Scotland that it has started again; in our sacred Scotland where not only competitions with old bikes and old areas have been taking shape, but also competitions with new bikes and old areas have gained strength and prestige; And it seems unbelievable how in such a short time the classic or modern trial with classic areas have been able to gain so much vigour and attract so many practitioners in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the United States, Italy, Belgium… and of course something also in Spain.
That Spaniards are different is something that we ourselves do not question; “Spain is different” is the motto that we insist on proclaiming to the four sides to define ourselves and to make it very clear; And boy are we. The only ones capable of throwing stones at our own roof to prove that we are right.
In no country have they stopped seeing the classic trial as a new opportunity, as a way to broaden their horizons. as a way to have more federated members, with more races, with more industry, with more clubs, with more sport per hobby and sports that really create a hobby for life; opening a door and bringing “old new ideas” to the battered modern trial.
In no country except us Spaniards, where some see classic trials as a threat, as a form of competition, as a way to lower the sales of modern motorcycles even more, as a way to lower participation in modern trials. Others who in the end intend to turn and simplify the classic trial into a new way of raising funds. Or those who focus on the classic competitions as if there were any need to forge champions, forgetting again all those of us who just want to do sport and have a good day and thus start the house again from the roof also in the classics. It won’t work that way.
As that old Sherpa model 10 would surely tell us today if he could talk:
“I made a wish and it was granted. Magicians changed my condition. Mechanics, painters and upholsterers; polishers, turners and millers remade my engine, removed the rust that was corroding me; chromed, zinced, restored, painted, and adjusted my pieces; They lined my seat, equipped me with modern electronics, and put me back on.
Thanks to them, I have benefited from the most modern technology and have preserved the advantages and essence that I had then. I walk around Spain and Europe proudly competing again in great trials. I have a job again.
I attract the gazes of locals and strangers as I pass by on the street; I pride myself on who I am; one Bult
1965 Model 10 Sherpa in use, and I hope that the dispute between the ancient and the modern will end forever, I hope that once and for all our common destiny in trial will be sealed.”
Let’s try to give them as much work as we can; Our old bikes deserve a fresh start; Modern ones need it. As generously offered by Luis Muñoz-Aycuens; “If you let us, we will help you!!
Javier Cruz ©
