OSSA Motorcycles

Love this shot of Ewan McGregor his original OSSA Motorcycle. Founded by Manuel Giró, an industrialist from Barcelona as Orpheo Sincronic Sociedad Anónima, the original OSSA company got its start in 1924 by making movie projectors for its home market in Spain. The company’s four-leaf clover emblem wasn’t actually a four-leaf clover and rather an escapement mechanism of a film projector. Before World War II, Giró was the Spanish sidecar racing national champion, along with his co-pilot, the future founder of Bultaco motorcycles, Francisco Bultó. In 1940 Giró changed the primary focus of his company to building racing motorcycles and after the war, he obtained superior two-stroke engine technology from the German DKW factory as war reparations and was mass-producing his two-stroke motorcycles by1949.

OSSA reached its highest production levels in the motorcycle boom of the 1960s, exporting large numbers of exports to other European countries, but also significantly, to North American markets. In the United States and Canada, off-road motorcycling – and particularly the newly imported sport of motocross to which the lightweight and powerful Ossa was well suited – enjoyed surging popularity. In addition to their suitability for racing, in terms of power-to-weight, Ossa motorcycles gained a reputation for reliability on and off the race track. OSSA bikes continue to enjoy popularity even today among collectors and enthusiasts.