On both my cota 123 and 348  there is the 'embossed' M on both lower fork legs, on my newly acquired cota 247 'montesa' is 'embossed'.......348 is 1976 Malcolm Rathmell rep, 123 is also around mid 70's,...........and the 247 is 1978.

Anyone know reason for change..........?

The 247 is a model that went for many years with the same round fork sliders so it wouldn't matter if it was a 1972 247 or a 1978 247, they would be the same part. The word "Montesa" wraps around the curve nicely with fairly small letters.

348 has "M" probably because the square sliders that were introduced for the 348 in 1976 had limited space to fit writing (it wouldn't be visible as a complete word from any angle if it had to wrap around two corners, and the characters would be too small to see properly if the whole word was on one face).

The replacement model for the 247 (the 248) shared the square slider design with the 348 and 349.

9 hours ago, feetupfun said:

The 247 is a model that went for many years with the same round fork sliders so it wouldn't matter if it was a 1972 247 or a 1978 247, they would be the same part. The word "Montesa" wraps around the curve nicely with fairly small letters.

348 has "M" probably because the square sliders that were introduced for the 348 in 1976 had limited space to fit writing (it wouldn't be visible as a complete word from any angle if it had to wrap around two corners, and the characters would be too small to see properly if the whole word was on one face).

The replacement model for the 247 (the 248) shared the square slider design with the 348 and 349.

Thanks for that..........