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
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."
