The start of a Bultaco comeback?

  I would rather see companies  do it with their own names and not try and play off the legacy of something they bought. Unless they are really going to lean into it and have the same philosophy and do justice to the legacy brand. Making a better product, but retaining the strengths of the brand.  Having a modern take on the brand so that it can grow and thrive , not  be like JT gear , where they  never got past the retro stuff and were only around a short time.

Leonart is a Spanish company that was making industrial machines before building motorcycles.  Its not a Chinese owned company and they started a separate company to act as the new Bultaco. That will be located in Spain and they have 2 bikes they are working on now that will be  their own. Not a rebadged bike like this first one.  Wild that Leonart  are so small that they sell around 700 bikes a year.   

Below is an AI summary of who Leonart motors is and brief history.  Keep in mind that AI is not always 100% accurate. It tends to be pretty good with stuff like this. But I still wouldn't  live or die from this summary. I'm going to dig into the brands more when I have some time. And I will update this thread with what I find out . 

Its got to be different people.  If you look enough You'll see people shit on or  be excited about just about anything.  

I'm all for  any new motorcycle company that is going to provide a decent product and provide jobs for people in the industry. I've never said anything bad about Beta. I thought people would find it  interesting to see  that the name was back and to speculate on if they eventually had a motocross team. Or if  Chinese  company made a legit push using a  legacy brand name that they bought.  

  Beta bought Apollo , and Beta's electric motorcycle is made in China . Is that what You mean about trashing Beta? The Beta Explorer is a rebadged RFN/Apollo  electric dirtbike.  RFN has been putting together some really fun looking bikes and has a big line up of electric mx bikes   that are supermini sized and smaller.  I would not be surprised if Beta was the next company that put out an electric MX bike that was on par with a Varg.  

They owned Husqvarna for a little while before it became a white KTM.  And  those bikes were some of the worst Husqvarna's  .  I don't know what they did wrong, but they  did not do much right.  

Its that kind of resurrection that  I don't get excited about.  If something is based heavily on the name and history. But the product falls flat of expectations then I agree we need less of those bikes.   

Hopefully this Bultaco re re launch is going to  put focus on making a product that deserves the name they put on it.    I don't know much about those old brands other than I used to hang out in a shop as a kid that worked on the smaller euro brands like Norton and Triumph , and others that are from the period of Bultaco's prime. And those bikes were never that great when compared to modern standards.  So hopefully the new bikes are  what fans of the brand want them to be and it grows.  From what the company is saying, its intending to make small bore street bikes that are for the markets that those bikes thrive in. I hope they do well and open a door for more brands to exist by  using a similar model of leveraging a big manufacturing plant to build bikes to their specs and deliver decent bikes at affordable prices. 

Rieju has a 300 class adventure bike that they are bragging about class leading power at 31HP . So the 28HP doesn't seem very far off , if the leader only has 3 more HP and weight is 302 VS Bultaco's 331 pounds so that is a big difference if everybody is measuring the same way. 

I'm not sure how big the 300 adventure bike class is.  or what the other brands in that class  have for HP or weight. But here is a photo of the Rieju.

Screenshot from Rieju's website