Tehuelche! A History, Part 1

Tehuelche, an obscure Argentine motorcycle

By Vladimir Nekola

In the 1960s, an obscure motorcycle brand called Tehuelche dominated weekend races on dirt and paved circuits in Argentina. Despite fierce competition from larger manufacturers (Rumi 125, Ducati 100, Honda Benly Super Sport 125, Mondial, Sterzi, Puch and Zanella 100), the Tehuelche won the South American Championship in three categories: 75, 100 and 125 cc.

It had no real competition in South America until the more efficient two-stroke engines started appearing on the circuits. The challenge that the Tehuelche faced was the same as the one that eventually led to Honda pulling out of factory racing in the rest of the world, around the same time.

Tehuelche, the Argentine motorcycle par excellence 

The architecture of the Tehuelche engine was different from any other engines manufactured in Argentina at that time. At the heart of the minimalist four-stroke all aluminum engine was a gear-driven overhead camshaft. This feature distinguished it from the rest of the motorcycles being made in Argentina. Another feature that makes it special is the lack of an oil pump.

Instead, it has a “spoon” at the tip of the connecting rod that lifted the oil and splashes it on the gear train and up to the camshaft. With it three-speed gearbox, the engine could rev up to 6500 rpm and a maximum of 75 km (46 miles) an hour. A well-tuned 100 cc racing engine, with an added external oil pump could easily reach 11,000 rpms and a speed of 132 kms (82 miles) per hour.

Prehistory of the Tehuelche

At the end of the second World War, Argentina welcomed immigrants whose countries were suffering from economic and physical destruction. Many of these immigrants were also worried about a possible third World War, and Argentina was looking to populate a vast land full of resources. The Argentine government was especially keen to facilitate emigration from Spain and Italy. Three Italians with technical knowledge and skills to design and build motorcycle engines saw a unique opportunity to start a new life in the new world.

Giovanni Raffaldi, Carlo Preda and Roberto Fattorini left Piacenza in Northern Italy and arrived in Buenos Aires in April of 1948. Their first goal was to complete a prototype engine that they had started to design and build in Italy. Upon arrival, they rushed to finish a motorcycle which consisted of a four-stroke engine of 250 cc, overhead cam, with a separate gearbox, in the style of British motorcycles of the time. They intended to look for investors to support mass production.

The prototype, called RPF (for Raffaldi, Preda and Fattorini) was presented officially to the government and the public in October of 1949 at the Argentine Industrial Metallurgical Exhibition in Bahia Blanca. The press and the public were enthusiastic about this new bike. Laudatory articles appeared in Argentine newspapers as well as in Piacenza showing the accomplishment of these three paisanos.

Juan Péron, president of Argentina at that time, was present at this event. The governor of Buenos Aires gave the Italians the Gold Medal and the Stimulus Award for having produced a motorcycle that was 100% Argentine. Peron was impressed with the three Italians’ endeavor and personally invited Preda to write a proposal to mass-produce the bike. A proposal was submitted but it was eventually rejected.

Four reasons may stand behind the refusal for financial support. First, none of the three partners had any connections inside the government. In addition, their political tendencies were not compatible with that of the government. The second reason was due to corruption; as the proposal moved from one ministry or department to another, the budget was increased to benefit individuals. As a result, the total cost of the project got so inflated that it became impracticable. Third, the gearbox and magneto had to be imported from Italy or England, which also complicated matters. Finally, the proposal was submitted for the production of only 30 bikes a month! Quite naïve thinking by the partners, especially when there was a need for thousands of bikes a month.

When the project came to a standstill and the partners realized that the prototype, RPF, had no future, the partnership was dissolved. Raffaldi and Fattorini moved to Rosario in the province of Santa Fe, where they had friends. There, Raffaldi started to design and manufacture another engine, this time a 125 cc two-stroke. This engine would be more practical for a utilitarian motorcycle. However, this project also came up short, again for lack of financial support. As had been the economic state of many Italian immigrants before them, Raffaldi and Fattorini were financially ruined.

Tehuelche!

Not having lost their motivation, the two Italians moved once again and settled in San Martin, Buenos Aires, an area that had a substantial community of Italian immigrants. They found work in different factories in order to support their families since they were almost bankrupt from their previous projects. In their scarce free time, in 1954, Raffaldi and Fattorini started fixing motorcycles for the neighborhood. At the same time, Raffaldi began working at a new project that was realistically closer to what the country needed for utilitarian transportation. It was a 50 cc four-stroke, all aluminum engine, with a single overhead cam.

The engine was mounted on a minimalist chassis and started participating in local races as a way of advertising and attracting potential investors. After two years, the owner of a refrigerator manufacturing company was interested in this little motorcycle as a way of diversifying his business. It was his way of dealing with aggressive competition from numerous producers of refrigerators. In contrast, there were very few motorcycle factories, all of which produced bikes under license from Italy and Germany. This refrigerator company was called Tehuelche, an indigenous group from Patagonia, and thus the motorcycle by that name was born. In 1956, Raffaldi, along with Ollero, owner of the factory, agreed to convert the bike from a racing to a street utilitarian motorcycle that would allow two people to ride with sufficient and reliable power. This required an increase in displacement to 75 cc, easily resolved by enlarging the cylinder bore.

The process involved tooling, searching for suppliers, planning of assembly and eventual production. By February of 1957 a completed Tehuelche motorcycle was presented to the public, again at the Argentine Industrial and Metallurgical Exhibition, this time in Palermo, Buenos Aires. The brand-new bike was met with great enthusiasm for its design and look. But people also recognized it with pride as a fully Argentine bike, designed and created locally unlike the other popular motorcycles that were manufactured in the country, but all under license from other countries, including DKW, Gilera, Puma and Siambretta.

The market competition

In 1957, among the four factories that were producing motorcycles under license, the most important ones were Puma from Germany and Gilera from Italy.  The Puma was a licensed copy of the 2-stroke 98 cc Göricke that began manufacturing in Argentina in 1952 and continued until the beginning of 1960. Puma was the chosen name for this licensed motorcycle after the South American feline. More than 110,000 hit the market in less than 10 years. The Gilera, with the same name as its 4-stroke 150 cc original in Italy, was also readily available; in 1957 when the first Tehuelches were sold, there were already 10,000 Gileras on the road.

The production of Tehuelches in the refrigerator factory lasted only two years. One reason for this short life was the competition from the bikes made under license that had support from abroad. The huge annual inflation of 200%, with no support either from the local government nor from foreign licensing factories, became a major challenge for Tehuelche. To add to the financial challenge, Ollero, the owner of the refrigerator factory, had racked up a significant debt to a private industrial bank.

A government policy that prohibited the importation of motorcycles could have helped the Tehuelche production and sales. But a few devious businessmen figured out how to cheat the system that allowed spare parts to be imported and started to bring in entire motorcycles that were dismantled and declared as spare parts! This gave these importers a tremendous advantage over local industries that were in difficulty because of the lack of raw materials, strikes, inflation, etc. With much desired foreign bikes being available on the market, the Tehuelche once again was in deep trouble.

One of the biggest importers of these “spare parts” was Motormovil, owned by Natalio Cortes who happened to also be the owner of the bank that carried Ollero’s debt. In addition, he was the president of the newly formed Chamber of Motorcycle and Related Industries that protected their interests. The easiest way to settle the debt that Ollero could not pay back was by handing over the Tehuelche section of his factory to Cortes! Raffaldi and Fattorini became part of Motormovil.

Next week, Part 2 of the Tehuelche story.