Montpeó was a Catalan motorcycle brand, manufactured in Barcelona between 1912 and 1929 (and again briefly during the 1940s) by Josep Montpeó, a well-known manufacturer of bicycle components. Montpeó imported foreign motorcycles and manufactured bicycle components. However, if demand dropped for its main products, it would produce small numbers of motorcycles under their own name.
The company began its activity at the beginning of the 20th century on Carrer Pallars 230, in Barcelona, where it manufactured championship winning bicycles.
This 1928, JAP engine Montpeó is in the CASC Collection at Sils (Catalonia)
The motorcycles (along with sidecars, accessories, and frames for other brands) were produced in their warehouses on Carrer de Pere IV, in Poblenou. Later, the family moved to the Sants area of Barcelona, where, years later, a grandson of Josep Montpeó, Joan Ramarez, became a well-known mechanic and created the Orix brand cars in these workshops.
The respected Spanish publication Moto Retro, in November 1989, published an article about the development of sidecars in Spain. They make the point that the first mention of sidecars manufactured by Josep Montpeó dates from the early 1920s.
One of the main motorcycle production problems in the early years, lay in the difficulty of welding the poor-quality iron tubes that were available to make up the frames. Josep Montpeó was probably the first to achieve robust, quality welds with these materials and, as a result, he became the preferred supplier of frames for the motorcycles manufactured by Alpha, Lutetia, Carbonell, I.V.E, Simó etc. This reputation as a supplier also led him to manufacture sidecars although there is little information about them.
Spanish Motorcycles 
Leave a comment