ANTONIO COBAS

Antonio Cobas was an advanced motorcycle designer and engineer long before he decided to design his own trials bike. Antonio had previously designed and constructed the European Championship winning 250cc roadracemotorcycles of Carlos Cardus. In fact Carlos rode the JJ Cobas motorcycle both in 1984 and 1985.He left his career best results for 1990 when he was 2nd in the World riding the mighty Repsol Honda.
Antonio Cobas  is als oresponsible for creating the modern aluminium beam frame roadbikes ,that are common place today. One of the first modern beam frame motorcycles was the Yamaha YPVS EXUP. It is difficult to imagine motorcycles today without the influence of Cobas.


It is generally accepted that Yamaha used the 80's designed Kobas 250cc race bikes as a starting point when they first designed the Delta box frame.  Look at the similarities

2007 Yamaha YZF

An original Kobas MR1 chassis JJ Cobos

So ,after appreciating Antonio's achievements and this influence to is hard to think of anyonewithintheworld of trialswho has had more of aninfluenceontheWorld of motorcycle in general.


Cobos wasborn in Barcelona onAprilthe 14th 1952. Cobos as a youngmanwaspassionateaboutmotorcycle and alsoengineering. The 1980's broughtmassivelyrefined ,developed and increasedengine performance and improvedtyredesign. Handlingwas a "black art", somethingeveryonewanted to improvebutanareathebike-makerscouldnever quite makegoodenough.
So, whathappened? Progress in frames, suspension, and tires changedthelandscape. Aftertheearly '70s, tire developmentmeantthatstickier tires withincreasingly more gripcame to racing. Long-travelrearsuspensionunitsreplacedtheawful short-stroketwin shocks fromthe era legendarymechanicNobby Clarke describedbestwhen he said, "Suspensionwasjust a word." Forks became more refined, precisioninstruments.


In themid-to-late '70s, frameswherestillinfluencedfromtheearlierdayswhendesignersstrived to put as muchweight to therear as possible in order to gettractionfortherearwheel. McCandless' "Featherbed" framehadfound a sweet spot withits 50/50 weight ratio, and properrearsuspensions and better tires solvedmuch of thetractionissue. Nextthedesignerstried to movetheweight forward -- whereitistoday -- in a bid to getthefrontend to handlebetter.

Theconventionaltubeframewasnow a weakpoint, as theframesonracebikesoftenbegan to crack underthestrongerloads. Thesolution? Braces and extra weldsbecamethemarks of a "real" racebike.
In 1982, Cobas developed a stronger and lighteraluminumtwin-beamchassis to replacethesteelbackboneframes.Thetechnologywascopiedbymajormotorcyclemanufacturers and bythe 1990s, allthemajorracingteams in Grand Prix competitionusedthealuminumframedesignpioneeredby Cobas. 


In 1978 Cobos begancreatingmotorcycleswiththemodelname of  Siroko's.Theseweresuccessful in theSpanishroadracenationalChampionship.

In 1982 Antonio created the Kobas brand of motorcycles designing his own chassis powered by the popular Rotax engines. They had great success with riders Sito Pons and Carlos Cardus.
His chassis designs  rocked the motorcycle world

The trade mark Kobas rear suspension gives full rising rate and offers compact installation at the expense of raising the centre of gravity

Cobas'scontributions


1 - Position ing the rider over the front wheel increasing front tyre grip to rear at a rate of 55/45 when at the time the supposed ideal set up was 50/50.


2 - Compacted the bikes mass and juxtaposed the centre of mass and centre of gravity to reduce the polar movement and improve handling.


3 - Raised the centre of gravity to improve weigh ttransference for improved braking and extra tractionexiting a corner and increased rear suspension travel.


4- Rising rate linkage.
All these featured became common place on Gprace bikes but it was Cobas in theKobaswhofirstpointedtheway. A milestone in modern GP design.

JJcobas was created in 1983

In 1983, Cobas formed a new motorcycle company named JJ Cobas. Pons wouldride a JJ Cobas motorcycle in the 1984 250cc worldchampion ship, garneringtheirfirst Grand Prix victorywith a win at the 1984 Spanish Grand Prix and, endedtheseason in fourth place in thechampionship.Even greater success came in 1989 when a Cobas-designed motorcycle ridden by Alex Criville won the 125cc world championship.
In 1988 JJ Cobos manufactured a very small number of theseroadbikes JY4 for sale to thepublic. The cost washigh at 1,450,000 pesetas and the project was stopped after 2 batches. Most of the bikes were exported to Japan.

When Pons moved to the Honda factory racing team in 1986, Cobas followed and served as Pons' crewchief. Pons retired as a competitor in 1991 and created the Pons Racing team, naming Cobas as Technical Director. In this role, he prepared motorcycles ridden to Grand Prix victoriesby Alberto Puig and Carlos Checa. He also rejoined Crivillé duringhisworldchampionshipwinningyear in 1999. He also worked closely with Max Biaggi. When he fell ill last year and could not travel to the races, he s till consulted with the team via e-mail. 

Cobos also worked with the Camel Grand Prix team 

Cobas died in 2004 at theage of 52.


 You are very unlikely to come acrossany of Cobos'screatings. Therewereneverany 'customer' Kobas/Cobas framesmadetheywereallforworksriders, whatdidn'tgetcrashedgotsold and crashedbysomeoneelse. There are only a feworiginalsleftone in the US and 10 in Europe(mostly in Spain). Therewas 5 copies made of the US bike and 3 of thosemadeit to Australia.



Camel Pons owner Sito Pons said this about Cobas: "He was indeed a precursor, onewhoopened up thewayforresearch and development, especially in thefield of framedesign, that others then followed." 
Pons  -  "A top-level engineer, alwaysperfectlyaware of theavailabletechnology and always knowing exactlywhat to do to enterthefuture," 
              "He was always two orthre estep sahead of the others." 

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