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the motorcycle industry. "He was very open and would talk to anybody," says Martin. "We'd go to Inter-Am races, and he'd go right up to Joel Robert and start talking to him, and [Roger] De- Coster. He was a charming guy." Martin connected with Montesa, as well. He first rode for Montesa then moved to Spain and worked at the factory. "That was almost the training ground for the rest of my life," he says. "They moved me all around the factory, into just about every position. It was like they were grooming me [for something]." Martin eventually returned to the States and Costa Mesa, California, and worked for the Montesa importer. He did, in his words, "take the 1980s off." "I didn't ride motorcycles or anything. I had three brand-new daughters. When they got older, we moved to Minnesota—decided to make a change. We were there for about 12 years. Great place to raise a family." In the 1990s, Martin got back into the motorcycle business again as Montesa's U.S. importer —on the side. He already had a "real" job working in the painting business, helping design painting equipment. "It was a good job, it had benefits, my kids could get braces," he says. Martin ran his importing busi- ness out of his home, in the garage to be exact, in between his regular 40-hour-a-week job. "I never had commercial space, always did it out of my home. It all worked out and I'm really grateful for it." When the economy went off the cliff around 2010, Montesa came out with its fuel-injected four-stroke which brought with it a larger price tag, which came at a bad time when the exchange rate went through the roof. As a result, there was a gap when Montesa, as well as other manu- factures that sold trials bikes, such as Honda, stopped import- ing trials bikes. "We were priced out of the market," says Martin. However, both Montesa and Honda felt there was a market for trials bikes in the U.S. and the two manufactures worked out a deal to get Montesa, and Honda, back in the U.S. market in 2014. "Montesa is Honda," says Martin. "People find it hard to separate what is what, but I tell people, 'Acura is a Honda.' It's just a dif- ferent market segment. Montesa is Honda's trials division. Honda saw that Montesa had all this knowledge about trials, and trials is important to Honda. It's a great R&D platform for them. There's a Honda factory in Barcelona where Montesa's are made. It's the same facility where Honda runs its MotoGP team, Dakar, it's like 12 different companies—Hon- da entities—at this one facility. The bike is a Honda." Martin is still heavily involved with Montesa/Honda. "I'm con- tracted with American Honda in Spain, and I run the U.S. trials team. I travel to all the U.S. trials events, major events like the UTE Cup, and represent Honda/Mon- tesa and take care of our riders. That's Honda's main concern—to take care of the guys that bought the bike. In the past we've had pro riders, we've won champion- ships, but we now only take care of the amateurs, everybody on a Honda. Honda wants to focus on the customer, not the pro guy. People say, 'You don't have a team,' but there are 18 guys [am- ateurs] I support, and anybody else on a Montesa. I can help 20 guys for the cost to support one pro rider. These are the guys that bought the bikes, the customers. It's been a real eye-opener." So, as you can tell, Martin is keeping his father's legacy alive while also still doing his best to grow the sport of trials in the U.S. So, the next time trials comes to your town, do yourself a favor and look for the Montesa and Honda logos in the pits and strike up a conversation with Martin Be- lair and talk trials. He'll love it. CN CN III ARCHIVES P132 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives "My dad was at a trial at Saddleback Park one day, and the Montesa export manager was there, a very distinguished- looking man; you know, goatee, turtleneck, sport coat."