Red Merlin Nomada 500 Dakar 1988.
Merlin was a Catalan brand of motorcycles, manufactured in Vilanova i la Geltrú (Spain) from 1980 to 1984 and in Fornells de la Selva from 1984 to 1990. Currently, it seems that the brand is back on the market, judging by a new website that has been registered in Germany.
The company was founded by Ignasi Bultó and his brother-in-law Pere Arpa (Miki Arpa’s father) once the former’s family had lost the company founded by his father, Bultaco. At the beginning, Merlin only manufactured minibikes with Italian Franco Morini engines, but later began to manufacture also trial and trail bikes equipped with Cagiva engines, as well as trial mopeds.
At the end of its existence, the company unsuccessfully tried to bring the Yack engine of the defunct Mototrans to the series.
In December 1988 the merger of Merlin with Gas Gas was announced, which in practice represented absorption by the latter. Finally, the brand disappeared from the market in 1990.
This exhibit comes from The Salvador Claret Automobile Collection
