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When I was a kid in the 70's there was a guy across the road that had a Bultaco and a Montessa. The Montessa was a trials bike. To this day he is the only person I have personally known that owned a Montessa, a Bultaco or a trials bike.

Ring, Ding ding ding ding...

Natman: Rickman is a name I haven’t heard in a longggg time. I owned a Rickman , Zundapp 125. Beautiful SS frame, a work of art in itself. I foolishly traded it off to my brother for something. It quit working and he carried it to a repair shop and never picked it up. Wish I had that one back. I didn’t have too many bikes, probably best for my health. I did have a Honda XL 175 or 250. Always wanted a Rokon for my hunting adventures, quickly went to Honda 3 wheelers then quads. Still have a Polaris 4X4 Sportsman to ride around our 30 odd acres.

I don't remember it ever called "Baz's Box." I only remember it as Jody's Box. Either way it was the first thing my dad and I would read from Motocross Action each month. Here is an example of one of his stories with pics.

https://motocrossactionmag.com/best...garage-this-is-the-story-of-one-of-them/

I owned a Bultaco 125 Pursang back in the mid 70's, it was a bit hard to find parts for but I enjoyed riding the hell out of it, same color as this one..

Nailed it.

The Pursang is the model I remember.

Lots of Bultacos around the dirt hills in the early 70's, with an occasional Ossa or Montesa. They were the bikes ridden by the expert riders. I had a whole succession of lesser dirt bikes, including a Ducati Jupiter, Triumph 500 and Yamaha 350. The last bikes I owned were a Yamaha XT 550 and a '68 BSA Victor 441. I like thumpers, but they tried to injure me.

When I was riding motocross in the late 60's, There were a few Bultacos, CZ Hodakas and the king was Dicky Mann Ossa. The Ossa came race ready right off the floor. With number plates and all. It was a power house and fast. Yamaha stated coming on with 125, 175 and 250. I used love to ride trails and scramble. Those were the days of replacing broken levers for clutch and front brake. Constantly changing rear sprockets and countertooth sprockets. Everyone was best buds then. Bring back a flood of memories. Good Times for sure.

Viva Montessa! A friend had one, a 250, when we were stationed in Pensacola. He let me have it for a long weekend in return for taking his duty one day that weekend so he could make a trip home. As I recall, it was a pretty quick-handling bike and yes, that SOB was hard starting.

I had a 125 Montessa in high school circa 1972-73. It was a good bike with a very narrow power curve. Constantly shifting gears. If I remember correctly the shifter and rear brake pedals were on the "wrong" side.

Sold it when I went in the Army and bought one of the early Suzuki RM250s. Started motocross racing a little. Unfortunately, I learned to ride really fast without learning to ride really well. Got tired of healing up after high speed get offs and crashes.

Very lucky and amazed to be mobile in my decrepitude based on the exploits (and stupidity?) of my youth.

I'd forgotten the Rickman's. I rode one a friend had. The Controls were opposite but the handling in the Dirt was magic !!!

Back in the mid 70's I rode a 250 Bultaco Madador. What a great handling tractable trail bike that was. Rubber enclosed drive chain and ultra comfortable. It wasn't uncommon to do a hundred mile trail ride on that one. It did shift on the right side which was about all that I disliked about it. I had a '76 Husqvarna 360CR at the same time and the Bultaco went to a friend of mine because I couldn't have two bikes that had left and right side dissimilar shifting. Had Yamaha, Bultaco, Husqvarna, Triumph, Harley, Hondas and Rokons. Good memories. Just a Honda CT110 and a Rokon Trail Breaker now.

I recall the Bultacos were a sort of exotic bike, back in the day, and made a lot of power for their displacement. How reliable one would be today, or if you could get parts, would be very good questions

My dream bike as a kid was probably the 450 radial Maicos, especially after everyone realized that longer suspension travel = greater speed on rough terrain. I recall magazine articles on bending frames to move shocks and adding extra reservoirs to shocks, so they could survive a race heat.

I would bet pristine examples of those hot 70s motocrossers would be worth a lot of money.

My dad had an Ossa and a Bultaco back in the 80s. He and his friends rode them into their backcountry hunting camp when motorized bikes were legal

There are vintage motocross races here and there, and yes, those old dirtbikes are getting valuable.

I started with a 100 Hodaka. I kept that one through all the rest. My dirt riding started in '65. From the Hodaka I went to the BSA 441 Victor with the Compression release and yellow and aluminum tank. I had 2 of those over about 4 or 5 years. Mostly Enduro and hair scrambles. Then got hooked up with Huffy's Enduro Riders out of Huntington IN. Then got into Maico 360 Enduro with a 4 gal tank. Then my last upgrade was the new 400 Maico square barrel in an Enduro and the 400 Motocrosser. I did ride several national Enduros around the country but Thought I had better hang it up as a new house, 2 kids, and their mother depended on me and I could not afford to be laid up with injuries. I just threw out most of my trophies but did keep the one from the Jack Pine 2 day event. Rode from Lansing to Grayling and then back on day 2. Those were the days.
Have a great day.
Jim

After the Metralla, I had several Rickmans, a Zundapp 125 frame with a stroked 125 Honda engine dirt bike, a BSA 441 engined street bike and a CR750 Honda four that was a lot lighter than when it was in a Honda frame. All of them handled great, but that Bultaco Metralla was something special.

I remember this one, cuz it's sitting in my shop, works good.

I saw a couple of Bultacos as motocross bikes, but the vast majority I saw were trials bikes like yours. They seem to dominate the trials in our area.