Actually, there was way more engineering in the art collection than in the bikes. He built three or four different bikes, all of them using two-stroke Villiers engines -made in Spain under licence-. He just built the motorcycle around the engine, and, quoting him -he is really a man with a great sense of humour-, "I just copied things I liked from other bikes. In my company there was never any engineer employed".
He also managed to get permission from the spanish government to import BMW's R27, but not fully assembled because imports were banned under Franco's regime. He imported the bikes disassembled and assembled them, to be sold to the highway police. Those bikes were marketed as "BMW-ROA", and has been the only time in history that BMW has allowed his bikes to be assembled and marketed by an outside company.
He also built small delivery three-wheelers -in one picture there is a green one reflected in the glass-, powered by both Villiers and BMW thumper engines -The R27 was basically the ubiquitous BMW boxer, with one of the cylinders amputated, and then the engine turned 90ยบ so the remaining cylinder would face upwards-. Being a 250cc, the power output was low, and due to the weight of either bike -Earles fork- or three-wheeler, the performance was lousy.
None of his vehicles were intended to be flashy. In a recovering country, they were intended to provide cheap transportation to the people. When the car became affordable, these vehicles lost their appeal and he moved to other businesses.
ROA, the brand he used for his bikes, is the acronym of his name, Rafael Onieva Ariza.
