In 1956, a group of Catalan industrialists, created COMESA – Construcciones Mecanicas Españolas S.A.- for the purpose of obtaining the necessary licences to manufacture Italian Mondial motorcycles in Spain. Initially COMESA were based at Carrer de Rossllón, 345 in Barcelona from 1956 to 1959 but then relocated to Carrer Floridablanca in Mataró until their closure in 1962.
Whilst the company was being established and the administrative hurdles were being tackled, the business leaders created a race team using imported Mondial motorcycles with Spanish riders. This venture created lots of positive, advance publicity for the project and, in 1956, the formal launch of the company took place.
The new venture was spearheaded by the beautiful Constellation model, initially launched as a single cylinder, overhead valve (OHV), air cooled, 4 stroke, 200cc (62mm x 66mm).
The strength of demand surprised the mangaement team and they had to find larger premises to boost production. In 1958, an agreement was reached with the industrialist, Eloy Català, to carry out the machining and assembly of the Mồndial motorcycles at his facilities in Mataró. Production was established at Carrer Floridablanca, Mataró by 1959.
This beautiful 1961 COMESA Mondial Constellation (220cc variant) was photographed at the Museo de la Moto y Coche Clasica, 10700 Hervás, Cáceres, Spain
By 1960, new models were launched, based on the 200cc Constellation, but with modified engine sizes. These engines were modified with a slightly increased bore to give options of 220cc or 250cc.
The build quality of the COMESA Mondial Constellation variants was very high, with a subsequent price to match and this made them unaffordable for many. As a result, COMESA expanded the range and presented the Champion 125cc (54mm x 54mm) at the 1961 International Trade Fair in Barcelona. Originally, the Champion was to be offered in 2 variants, a Special and a slightly lower powered, Commercial. As it happened, the Commercial never went into production.
Despite expanding the range, COMESA closed in 1962, another victim of the general crisis that hit the Spanish motorcycle sector. By the time of the closure, they had produced a total of approximately 700 units. After the closure, remaining stock was sold and the final registrations continued into 1964/65.
This advert was downloaded from the Biblioteca Virtual de Prensa Histórica (BVPH). BVPH works are offered under CC-BY 4.0 license (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
This 1961 publicity document was downloaded from http://www.cartelmotor.com
To end with, a mystery. The bike below carries clear COMESA Mondial tank badges but very little about it is known. It is fitted with a 175cc Monoalbero engine (Engine #44) and, in 2025, it was offered at the Grand Palais Auction, Paris by Bonhams, who dated it as circa 1956. The bike (Lot #79) had been in a private collection in Italy and was part of a sale following the death of the owner but no other details were available. It was estimated at between €7,000 and €10,000 but did not sell on the day.
Obviously, more research is needed but it is possible that it was one of the machines used by the COMESA Mondial Race Team as part of the launch of the brand.
Spanish Motorcycles 