Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128202
JJ-Cobas BMW K 1OOR "Flying Brick" now delivered 122 bhp reliably at 9400 rpm. This was sufficient to allow the Cobas-BMW to dominate the balance of the 1984 Spanish Superbike Championship against the Yoshimura Suzukis and BimotaKawasakis that offered stiff competition' not to mention the RSC-kitted Honda CB 1000 and Ducati 950Fl. Cardus won each of the six remaining rounds to convincingly win the Superbike title before the team invited me for an exclusive test ride on the bike at the tight, twisty Calafat track south of Barcelona, which places handling and braking at a premium. There was such worldwide interest in the Superbrick that plans were mooted in BMW's Munich HQ to commission Bimota to develop a limited-edition street version. Sadly, these were aborted - but the JJCobas team's success with the bike in sprint racing meant that they faced the 1985 Montjuic 24 Horas witlLgenuine confidence that, this time around, victory would be theirs. Sadly, that turned out t be illfounded. Cardus and Pons were joined by another GP star, Luis'Miguel Reyes, on a singleton bike that completed the first lap of the race in Cardus' hands dead last in the 45-oike field; -it ran very erratically. Electronic problems had resurfaced, and though they were resolved well enough to allow the BMW to pull up to seventh place after six hours, Pons crashed the bike, and the JJ-Cobas team lost ~alf an 'hour making repajrs in the its. Cardus took over but rode too hard trying to catch up for lost time, crashing the BMW into retirement just three laps into his stint. End of story. By then, JJ-Cobas had become a Contender for GP honors in the 250 A.. later on, 125cc classes, so the W:powered endurance racer was p "llW'ay, while the company con_ceotrated on winning the 1989 World 125cc Championship with a young kid c:aUed Alex Criville riding a Rotaxpo cat slng1e. Fast forward a decade to the sad ~jiljIdlJ death 01 Jacinto Mariana, wblch (Above) The BMW K100 was brand _ when Cobas decided that It wQUld put tile 988cc flat-four from that .... to wort< In Its chassis. It _ tile tlrst ..-cebIka of the modenI . . to .u machines entrusted to Spainls fmest private motorcycle useum, the Folch Collection. It was a the behest of patron Joaquin Folc that I was asked to renew m hands-on acquamtance with the K100R Superbrick in the display of BMW bikes at the Goodwood Festival of Speed hiDclimb this summer - followed by a more intensive circWt test session at the Mallork Park track. If Goodwood was the hors d'oeuvres, Mallory was the main course. Riding the Cobas-BMW again 17 years afterward opened a window on a forgotten worM of motorcycle development - the era of 16-inch wheels when tire companies and chassis designers hunted for more grip at both ends via wider rubber, coupled with tradeoff steering geometry featuring a wide fork angle and minimal trail to try to get the result to steer reasonably quickly while remajning relatively stable; antidive front suspension to prevent that geometry altering unduly under heavy braking; and a forward weight bias to make sure that, -when you did brake hard, the front heel sta ed glued to the ground vIa t e WIder footprint of the 16-inch tire. It all sounded plausible. and to a certain extent it stiU works okay today - I cer- bIs superb collection 01 JJ-Cobas M...,.... ..... .-1aflI ~ TIle IaIb _ 40mm K.,.-.-Its .................. d.... . I { h l I -. TIle br'aIIea_ 300INn .....11 II 011 • lIS-1nc:Il front rtIn. tainly never rode ny bike, even a smaller and more agile Supermono single, that flicked from side to side as quickly through the tight Mallory chicane as the Cobas-BMW. Relatively small and compact for a one-liter racer, the Coba -BMW's chrome-moly tubular steel space frame weighs only 13.2 pounds, wi the DOHC engine suspended horizontally from it, acting as a fully stressed chassis member. Cobas retained the stock Monolever shaft final drive casing with its single-sided rear wheel - some years before Honda adopted the sjmilar ELF system on the RC30, which also offered added convenience for endurance racing quick,changes - while designing his own nsing rate linkage for the single DeCarbon rear shock. Up front, II set of 40mm Kayaba forks with hydraulic anti-dive SOW'Ced from an RG500 Suzuki GP bike are fitted, with a 16-inch Marvlc wheel and 300mm Brembo brakes. The TIle 8rk:Il" atIII faatuncI IIIIW's shaft drive .,...... IMd It didn't upset tile chaaIa 011 tile ~"acL 48 FEBRUARY 26. 2003' CUD I • n __ s .......... ...... _ t .,..... including EFI. street K100's stock rear brake is retained, while the 18-inch rear wheel originally used on the bike was replaced for Montjuic 1985 by a 16incher. New rubber in this unusual period size is notoriously hard to come by nowadays, but Avon came up trumps for Goodwood with racecompound treaded tires that probably have as much grip or more than slicks of 17 years ago. The wheelbase is 1445mm acceptedly short in view of the lengthways 67 x 70mm longstroke engine configuration - with 53(47percent weight distribution, a forwa~d weight-bias whkh Cobas was one of the first to explore, but we nowadays ake for granted. The complete JJ Cobas- BMW scaled 394 pounds, ready to race in Superbike for,\" - as it is today, 407 pounds with lights, a larger battery and such. ready for Montjuic. The riding position feels a bit strange to start with, because you sit quite far forward in order to load, up the front wheel with your body weight, which in turn leaves a good part of your weight on your arms and shoulders - not ideal for endurance racing, but the bulky 24-liter fuel tank nestles nicely into your chest and takes a good deal of the strain the upper body. it'S great for Goodwood: walt for EddIe Irvine and Carl Pogarty to get tired- of trying to outdo each