Regia was a small, short lived, brand produced by Talleres DOMEC at Carrer Puigblanch, 2, Mataró (Barcelona). They were slightly unusual in that they produced a 175cc machine, when most of the market was aimed at 125cc.
The production of the Regia apparently did not reach fifty units in total and, according to Francisco Herreros, nearly half of them would be registered in 1959, after production had ceased. The supporting publicity material states that it is fitted with a Regia 175cc engine (59mm x 64mm = 174.921cc). The engine was an air cooled, two stroke that is claimed to produce 8 CV @ 4,500 RPM and had a four-speed gearbox activated by a foot pedal.
The bike had a simple cradle frame with both front and rear telescopic suspension. I have never seen a Regia and I don’t know how many, if any, examples of the 175cc variant have survived.
There is increasing evidence that the Regia was produced in 2 variants and here, we start to try and unravel the mystery. The bike below is identified as a Regia on its data plaque but is fitted with a Hispano Villiers 200cc (197cc) engine.
Whilst the Regia 175cc model used a simple cradle frame and an in-house engine, this Regia uses what is almost certainly a Dunjo built and supplied, backbone type frame identical to the type of frame that Dunjo had supplied to Lifante of Barcelona. Furthermore, this Regia is not a single example as at least 2 others exist, both with the same Dunjo(?) backbone frame and a Hispano Villiers 197cc engine. The Regia in the photographs is part of the Familia Mercado Collection – who kindly supplied the photographs. The Mercado family have a second, nearly identical machine that is awaiting restoration.
It is known that Arcadia Dunjo had designed another bike for Lifante that never went into production and there are striking similarities. It is quite possible that Regia took on this design and produced the bike itself.
This image is extracted from a Lifante publicity document and was downloaded from http://www.cartelmotor.com
Spanish Motorcycles 