Ján Koba: My story - Other - Articles - MTBS.cz

What comes to mind when you say Koba? It will most likely be the name of the Swiss bicycle brand. Maybe someone will remember the name of the Swiss biker Sarah Koba, who became the European Champion XCO U23 in 2006 and narrowly defeated Tereza Huříková. And maybe there will be someone who remembers the name Ján Koba. Naturalized Swiss, coming from Michalovce from what was then Czechoslovakia, one of the first cyclists with a professional contract coming from this small country. Now a successful entrepreneur, founder and current CEO of Koba. We used the invitation to meet this very active guy in the town of Buchs, where Koba lives and also lives.

Our meeting, organized by my namesake Ondra Němec from Bikebrothers, could not have started other than on a bike. And not on anything other than with a Koba sticker on the frame.

"What do we want to feel, guys?" John asked. I pretended not to hear, because over the morning I had filled my wait for Ondřej in Vaduz with a quick sixties on a gravel. "We don't measure it on the pounds here, but on the meters climbed. So let's go to my house, it's a beautiful 750 meters up. ”Fortunately, Ondra and Ján had something to say, so I just hung on their rear wheels and was glad to push them upstairs without talking to them. The first acquaintance is therefore as sharp…. It was already a trumpet downstairs, Koba Trailtool helped me downhill much better than uphill, so I was able to enjoy the second half of the trip to the full.

In any case, Jánko started his long and engaging story. There was beer, cheese and sausages. I devoured his every word, because this sixties full of energy has so many stories that he certainly wouldn't be ashamed to process a book. They were exciting, incredible, inspiring.

Secretly across the line

Janko, who will celebrate his 60th birthday in a month, raced at a time of hard normalization. Which was not easy for ambitious athletes who had their dreams and goals. The only option was emigration.

"I was advised not to wait for anything and to leave Czechoslovakia. I made a decision for a year, I gained enough courage and stayed in Austria. Then I called from a phone booth somewhere under Brenner to a friend who loaded me into a car with a bag of things, and it was, "Jánko told us.

There are also older, but still serving pieces in the workshop ...

"Then I was looking for a team, I still wanted to ride a bike, that was my biggest motivation. I managed to get it in Switzerland, so I had to leave Austria illegally and I applied for asylum here then. They didn't give it that often, but they didn't send you back to the communist country either, "Ján, who was last in Slovakia six years ago, continued the engaging story in Slovak with the typical Swiss accent. "I don't have parents anymore, but I still have a sister and two cousins ​​there. My parents didn't know it at the time, I was afraid to tell them, because they would try to stop me, they could easily have told the police.

Professional contract

The purpose of life at that time was for Ján in the early eighties, cycling and a dream to work in a professional team. And the motto that has been spoken of many times, that it is necessary to constantly pursue your dream, has also been confirmed for him, otherwise we will not achieve it.

Ján Koba squats first in the right group ...

"At first I rode a team, but I had to work part-time to make a living. Then I got a job in a professional team from Peugeot and for six years I lived only on cycling. In the end, however, I had to quit due to frequent sinusitis, "said Janko, who focused mainly on classics, in which he collected several victories.

Koba was born

"I was wondering what I was going to do next. At that time, the first bikes began to appear, and because I liked it and I was able to fix everything on my bike, I said to myself: I would set up a bikeshop. But even then I didn't like the bikes I sold, so I went to Cologne for one of the first cycling fairs. There I met a Taiwanese manufacturer who made aluminum frames… Word got the word out and I ordered a hundred frames to order, I invested all my money in it. ”

This is how the Koba brand was born. The year was 1991.

In a shack on the Rhine

And in the meantime, in the sauna above the mighty Rheintall valley, we look at the opposite slope, where Liechtenstein's smallest alpine country stretches.

"My son works for the Prince of Liechtenstein, manages all his accounts for him," reveals Ján, who has a total of four children from two marriages. He now lives with his girlfriend Martina in a miniature older cottage on a steep slope, high above the river Rhine. "The sauna also had to be brought here by helicopter, otherwise no one would have gotten it here," Ján laughed, continuing to tell his story.

"The Koba brand grew rapidly, we made custom bikes from the very beginning. The crisis in the company came six years ago, we made super aluminum frames, but we did not solve carbon, because I did not study the technology. But then my friend designer Ralph Lebüner joined the company. And together we started to solve, develop and still develop it today. I have an excellent cooperation with Fox, who makes shock absorbers directly to order for our frames and they also advised us a lot, "says Ján openly, who heads a small company, but today the hardest work is done by well-paid colleagues.

"I am just deciding. The most important are the designer Ralph and the designer Johannes. But it's teamwork. Then I'm the first test driver, I ride every day. "

"By the way, do you know who started Koba's career?" He asks me. I shake my head. "Mathias and Lukas Flückiger or Ralph Näf!" Is proud of Ján Koba, whose bike has also been ridden for a long time by the best Slovak biker Janka Števková.

It is not possible to produce a cheap bicycle in Switzerland

Today, Koba produces less than a thousand bikes a year. Everything is custom made. The customer "clicks" his bike online. "I think we are on the right track, there is interest in bicycles and people are satisfied. We only produce high-end bikes, with cheap bikes we would not survive. The share of manual work is high and mainly there are high costs. For example, our chief mechanic of bicycles has 6,000 francs net (approximately 145,000 CZK)! An hour of his work costs me 40 francs. The 18-year-old girl, who started her apprenticeship, takes 4,500 francs. Good people need to be respected. It's basically impossible to put together a cheap bike in Switzerland. "

We both sniff at the native of Michalovce with an open mouth and quickly recalculate what we can earn ourselves. And before we say anything, we prefer to put another can of Pilsen to our mouths. By the way, a thousand of them drink a year at Kobů in a company with twelve employees! "It's the best beer. I still have some visitors here. "

It is clear that demanding Swiss will tolerate the Made in Swiss label. "Exactly. When they can stack things on their bike that they like or have tried. We can have the whole bike made in China much cheaper, but we don't want to. There is a lot of competition. We have the cheapest bike - crocus - for 3000 francs, the cheapest bike is for five thousand, the average selling price is slightly below 7000 francs. But it is not a problem to put together a bike for 13,000 or more, "reveals Ján.

The pandemic also waved vigorously with order processing. While before the covid they made 1,000 laps a year, last year they were a third less. Ján leads us in warehouses with half-empty shelves of individual components. "So here we have the last few sets of Shiman, here are the last forks. Lack of parts is a big problem. "

Elan and dreams

Despite the current situation on the market, Ján Koba remains optimistic, full of vigor, desire to continue working and, most importantly, to enjoy life to the fullest. He does not tolerate expensive pomp on his own. He lives in a cottage reminiscent of those we know from the Sázava river valley, he rides an ordinary Transporter. He literally drowns his wealth in experiences.

"I go to work almost daily by bike, in winter on ski alps. Every year I spend a month kiting in Brazil, every year I travel with friends on longer cycling expeditions, such as this October in Kilimanjaro. And I started sailing, because it is clear to me that after the age of seventy, my physical strength will decrease. So my next goal is to travel around the world. "

True, not everyone can afford to have such bold goals. But Ján Koba is living proof that if you want, you can. Long and hard.

We thank you very much for the warm welcome, incredibly relaxed visit, beautiful talk and we wish you good luck in the years to come.

More information about Koba bikes can be found here: www.bikebrothers.cz/koba/