Name/Title
Kosman, SandyEntry/Object ID
470Tags
Design & EngineeringDescription
Despite Sandy Kosman appearing irascible and aloof at times, he had the mind and vision of a genius. As a self-trained designer of high-performance chassis and wheels for customized road-, off-road- and drag-racing motorcycles, Kosman was a builder of champions and a successful entrepreneur — especially considering it is rumored that he rarely, if ever, rode a motorcycle, let alone race one. Nevertheless, for 30 years from the 1970s, most drag-racing bikes, many flat-track bikes, and a handful of early AMA Superbike race teams adopted Kosman products, including American Honda, Vance & Hines, A&A Racing, Performance Machine and others.
Born on June 21, 1941, in Oakland, Calif., Kosman was raised in a family known for their creativity and intellect. His father was a civil engineer for the U.S. government, and his mother was an accomplished painter. He had two brothers, an older brother, the late Dr. Aryeh Kosman, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and a younger brother, Michael Kosman, a Buddhist monk. The latter handcrafts custom violins and cellos in Maryland.
Yet there was something off with Kosman's interpersonal skills. He was known to have many quirks, which was finally explained in his late fifties when he was diagnosed as being on the milder end of the Autism Spectrum. He was regarded as socially awkward, and his puzzling personality traits were often interpreted as rudeness. If a conversation bored him, he would just walk away. He didn't intend to be rude, and he wasn't aware that he had been. His mind had simply shifted gears.
"Because of the autism, my dad spoke a different language," his daughter Nadia DeSimone told the San Francisco Chronicle. "If you learned that language you understood the mind of a genius, and it wasn't just about motorcycles. He could take any situation and flip it around in his mind to solve the problem."
During his teen and college years, Kosman developed a strong interest in motorcycles and motorcycle racing. He loved speed and hoped to become a good racer. However, he soon realized he wasn't even a good rider nor fearless enough to race.
In his college years, during which he never earned a degree, he studied math at several universities, including Michigan State University, University of Michigan, University of Colorado, and San Francisco State University. However, he struggled with in-person learning, and despite his ability to easily pass exams when given a chance to take them at home, he decided against finishing school. Instead, he paid for college by playing poker and shooting pool and was known to be able to hustle at both.
For Kosman, if he couldn't or wouldn't race a motorcycle, clearly the next best thing was to create parts that would enable them to be lighter and faster. So in 1965, at age 24, he began Kosman Specialties by building lightweight motorcycle gas tanks in the basement of his Daly City, Calif., home. The business thrived, enabling him to hire more employees and move the company into a building in San Francisco, where his products and services expanded over time.
Kosman's life was heavily impacted by taking care of his son Seth, who was born with his first wife in 1969 and was diagnosed with Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy — a terminal disease that causes the gradual deterioration of the muscles. The average life expectancy is 17 years.
While Seth was restricted to a wheelchair, Kosman ensured that he would never be restricted in his life experiences. As a marathon runner, Kosman designed a racing wheelchair for Seth so that they both could compete. He also joined his father at the races and was thrilled by the roaring race bikes. Seth died at the age of 17 in 1986.
Kosman Specialties did not build engines, but it did build frames, wheels, and suspensions in a quest to make them ever lighter yet strong enough to hold together at top speeds of 250 mph — all from ideas he formed in his head, translated to paper and then fabricated at his shop in San Francisco. Despite never receiving formal training or having an engineering degree, Kosman and his company soon became a household name.
He is believed to have been the first to design aftermarket race wheels for Harley-Davidson, disc brakes for drag bikes and 15-inch wheels. Kosman Specialties’ chassis have won more motorcycle drag races at every level of the sport than any other manufacturer.
Where frame and swingarm designs were suitable but lacked the strength to handle more power, he modified or reinforced them. When racing rules for a specific class prohibited altering the original frame, he developed adjustable or offset triple clamps that would transform the bike for the particular needs and racing styles of the riders and different racetracks. When available wheel and braking systems were not optimal for specific applications, he created new ones.
AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famer Terry Vance of Vance & Hines won 14 national championships on Kosman's chassis. Larry McBride, Russ Collins, Andy Gotsis, Ron Teson, Carl Morrow, Bobby Carpenter, George Bryce and George Babor are just a few of his well-known drag racing customers.
In the world of off-road racing, AMA Hall of Famers Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Randy Goss, Scott Parker, Mert Lawwill, and Dick Mann all used Kosman Specialties racing products.
In 1987, Kosman married his second wife, Karen, and they became a marathon-racing family with Seth. After Seth died, Kosman never ran another marathon. Kosman and Karen had one daughter, Nadia. Once again, Kosman was a devoted and loving father. After 33 years of business in San Francisco, he moved his family and shop further north to Sonoma County in 1994. Kosman sold a significant portion of his company following the Great Recession of 2008. In 2014, at the age of 73, he and his family moved further north to Portland, Ore., where he returned to the business of building dirt track wheels.
In 2017, he was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, a terminal disease.
Kosman passed away on May 21, 2022, the same date that his son Seth died 36 years earlier. His granddaughter Yael shares Seth's birthday. When Kosman died, he was surrounded by family and passed wrapped in a quilt his wife had made for Seth. He was also buried in that quilt.
Kosman was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2022.Relationships
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Kosman, Sandy