Décathlon Cobra

For a number of European cheapskates searching for readily available frames that are not terrible but still reasonably priced, the Cobra line of bikes from the 1990s made by/for Decathlon are a very good bet. Most of them use the most common standards and can come in great tubing. The downside is the sizing : a lot of low-end Cobras are very poorly sized, usually S (51), M (54), L (57), XL (60) and XXL (64).

Regardless, this page stands to give as much information about these frames as possible.

History

Decathlon made bikes a long time before making the Cobra series of bikes, they first started making bikes in the early 1980s, with few different models of bikes that all had different names, one of which was called "Cobra" but this page isn't about this specific frame. The true genesis of the Cobra line of bikes is the "Vitace" line of bikes. They were largely identical to the "first generation" of Cobras, with the latter keeping the naming convention of the Vitace. Some of the Vitace bikes had an additional brazing, namely "Decathlon" written in the steel. I could find the Vitace 315, 320, 530, 535, 540 and 750.

It's hard to tell when the first Cobra bikes were released, an educated guess would point towards the early to mid 1990s. But it's only towards the end of the 1990s that they started heightening the grade of their bike by using Columbus, Dedacciai or "exotic" materials like Titanium. It's at that height that they took the opportunity to market this grade of bike.

Because the Cobras didn't have much reason to stand in the face of performance, they never were raced and Decathlon was an enthusiast-level bike seller. In 2000, Decathlon struck a deal with the AG2R La Mondiale team and provided them with bikes. This launched the R-series of bikes. The only similarity with the consumer bikes was the branding on the down tube as the race bikes and only a very few premium offerings were made out of the same mould. I mention this because Decathlon probably didn't have their own bike factories so to speak, their bikes had to be assembled somewhere and Cyfac, for example, or others are prime target when you're aiming to pinpoint who made certain of their frames. Not their low-end but their high-end Cobra bikes.

Visuals

There are at least 3 different "generations" of visuals used for the Cobra line of bikes. The very first examples of Cobras have the same visual aesthetic as the Vitace line : they have Cobra written on the top tube in a single colour, with the model being carved out of a rectangular sticker of the same colour. The visuals that came after that are easy to spot as their decals are usually unicolour, with an aggressive font for the "Cobra" logo, the all making for cheap looking bikes. And the last kind of visual aesthetics of Cobras have the most refined decals, they are visually class : being sober but keeping an insight into how high the grade of the bike is. For example, they clearly say what kind of steel was used : Hi-Ten, CrMo and the likes. The most telling sign is a two-tone decal where the number designing the grade is written.

Bikes

The nomenclature is simple : the bigger the number, the better.

Cobra 520

1st generation

Tubeset:

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Colourway: White with Blue branding

2nd generation

Tubeset: Unnamed Hi-Ten steel

Fork: Unnamed Hi-Ten steel

BB Thread: BSA

Seatpost diameter: 25,4mm

Dropouts: Short horizontal with eyelets

Sizes available:

Colourway: Silver (Yellow accent), Silver (Blue accent), Black (Orange accent)

Cobra 530

The telling feature of this rare frame is the wishbone seatstay. It's also one of those "very first examples" of the Cobra line up, having that characteristic visual aesthetic.

Colourway: Black with Orangish Yellow decals.

Tubeset: Unnamed Hi-Ten steel

Fork: Unnamed Hi-Ten steel

BB Thread: BSA

Seatpost diameter: 25,4mm

Dropouts: Short horizontal with eyelets

Sizes available:

Cobra 540

Tubeset: Columbus Gara tre tubi

Cobra 545

According to a forum post , this is a rebranded KG 56. I can't help but feel suspicious about this, even if the info comes from Look themselves, because there are clues that don't match up : according to Look "our frames also featured windows" (that would let you see the carbon underneath the paint). But the KG 56 didn't have these windows, while the next generation of frames KG 176/166 had them. I realise minute differences are at stake, but I thought it would be interesting to share.

Cobra 560

1st generation

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Dropouts: Short Horizontal with eyelets

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Colourway: Blue with White branding

2nd generation

Tubeset: Columbus Thron tre tubi

Fork: Unnamed CrMo steel

BB Thread: BSA

Seatpost diameter: 26,8mm

Dropouts: Vertical

Sizes available: 51, 54, 57, 60 and 64

Colourway: Blue (Yellow accent)

Cobra 580

Tubeset: Dedacciai Zero Tre

Cobra 600

Tubeset: Columbus Gara tre tubi

Cobra 620

Dedacciai

Cobra 640

Dedacciai, very similar to the 580

Cobra 720

Thron custom

Cobra 740

1st generation

made by TVT

2nd generation

White, Genius

3rd generation (-1997)

Yellow, Genius

4th generation (1998-)

White, Genius custom

Cobra 760

1st generation (-1993)

This is a successor to the Cobra 751, it's essentially the same bike : an Aegis Aro Svelte.

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Colourway: Blue with White branding

2nd generation (1993-1995)

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Colourway: Raw Carbon with White branding

3rd generation

Tubeset: Columbus Altec

Fork: Columbus Genius

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Colourway: Red with White branding

4th generation

Tubeset: Dedacciai

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Colourway: Orange with White branding

Cobra 1000

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