Bultaco Pursang

Those rose-tinted glasses have a lot to answer for sometimes.

- Tim Britton

To a greater or lesser degree all of us in the classic world tend to look back fondly on the bikes we liked a while ago, or the bikes we were impressed within a particular period – it could be because we wanted one and couldn't get one or perhaps it is because we had one and regretted selling it, or perhaps a particular model was part of our growing up.

Whatever the case, and for Damon Wood, it is the latter of these reasons, we seek out the object of our interest. Of course, when you make your purchase via an internet auction site, sometimes you are surprised by what turns up. Looking at Damon’s superb little 125 Pursang it is hard to believe what it was like when it arrived at his house.

“To be honest I doubted my sanity at buying it when the delivery wagon turned up and unloaded it,” he grinned while showing me a picture of what was dropped off. He continued: “I raced one just like this in 1973 and that sort of connection always stays with you and I started thinking ‘I wonder if there’s one out there…’ Next thing I knew I was bidding on it.”

What Damon was bidding for and raced in 1973, was a Bultaco Model 89 Mk5 125cc Pursang, a genuine UK machine for the new thing of schoolboy MX, which had moved on apace from the Bantams that were the first bikes to be used.