Josep Rovira Paxau was born in Mas Carbonera, a 10-hectare farmhouse in the municipality of Gurb (Osona-Barcelona) on the 27 May 1952. He was the fourth child of Andreu and Maria, he was preceded by Montse, Carme and Joan and followed by Andreu and Miquel. Despite his parents’ wishes, Josep was never too interested in farming, the land or the cattle… The tractor, the car, the motorbike and the tools took his attention, tinkering was his goal and his challenge. He studied EGB (elementary) at the school Sant Joan in Roda de Ter, ‘Els Capellans’ as the school was called, an hour’s walk from his home. The next step was to study Maestria Industrial (Vocational Education) at La Salle in Manlleu, combined with learning at the textile warehouse Salamí (Can Grau) in the Masies of Roda.
He started coming into his own as a motorbike technician in a small repair shop improvised at home, after leaving the world of cycling, in which he competed up to the amateur category. When he was back from mandatory military service, he opened the garage Motos Paxau in Torelló and immediately became the epicentre for a large number of preparations, both of trial and motocross motorbikes, although eventually he would focus mostly on trial, his great passion.
Nonetheless he played a fundamental part in the sports career of Toni Arcarons, multiple times Spanish Champion of Motocross. One of his motorbikes, the Montesa Cappra 125 water refrigerated, proved how he was widely capable of technical innovation and was deserving of many articles in the specialized press. The Bultaco Sherpa, the Montesa Cota and the Ossa Mick Andrews modified by Paxau increasingly obtained relevance in the trial world, when he also started pushing to promote trial races for amateurs, which eventually turned into a provincial championship (COTA).
Paxau started a direct collaboration with the competing team of Ossa before taking charge of the development of the motorbikes Merlin, a young brand created in 1980 by Ignacio Bultó and Pere Arpa after the dissolution of Bultaco. The first successes were achieved with the state champion titles junior 83 (Jordi Solé) and senior 84 (Alberto Puig – current manager of the MotoGP world championship Repsol Honda team). In 1984 and 1985 the Paxau Merlin motorbikes were victorious in the Spanish Championship with Lluís Gallach as the rider and obtained a commendable seventh position in the World Championship.
The Barcelona car show 1985 was the setting for the presentation of a project for a new trial motorbike promoted by Narcís Casas and Josep M. Pibernat under the name of Gas Gas. The prospect of facing a new technical challenge from scratch attracted Paxau and it was his garage in Torelló that witnessed the birth of the new motorbike, which started racing in 1986 (with the name Gas Gas Halley 325 referring to the comet Halley which was visible in 1986) and with Gabino Renales as the rider obtained the first state victory at the Trial of Llafranc. The same day Àlex Crivillé became champion of the Speed Criterium Solo Moto at the Jarama circuit in Madrid, with a Honda Hurricane of team Taulé prepared by Paxau, after clear wins in the previous races of Jerez and Calafat.
The first great success at an international level, where Paxau had already built substantial prestige, occurred in 1987. Gabino Renales was the winner of the Belgium Grand Prix. The development of the Gas Gas motorbikes in Torelló was relentless, as new technical solutions were applied and made the Catalan motorbikes the centre of attention of the entire world. At the beginning of the ’90s, the successes of the Gas Gas motorbikes were incredible and Amós Bilbao was a great ambassador as the reference rider.
The competitiveness of the motorbikes made by Paxau was the ¨go to¨ and the desired tool by the best riders. This was Jordi Tarrés take on the matter, the world champion in previous years signed with the brand established in Girona. The pair Paxau-Tarrés was infallible in 93, 94 and 95 obtaining all possible titles, both in national competitions as well as in the World Championship, winning world titles with a motorbike and a rider from the same region for the first time. The interest of the brand towards enduro, despite the vast success of the trial motorbikes, made Paxau uncomfortable and forced the split at the end of 1998.
This termination brought along the creation of a new project for a trial motorbike, the Sherco (Sher for Sherpa and co for Bultaco), promoted by the French industrialist Marc Tessier and the former rider Andreu Codina, fully aware that the viability of the project depended entirely on the participation of Paxau. The first model was presented in 1999 and was used that same year to compete in the world championships by the British rider Graham Jarvis. The Sherco, designed and developed in Torelló and made in Caldes de Montbui, very soon covered a large part of the trial motorbikes sector, reinforced by the design and development of a four-stroke engine, which at the hands of Albert Cabestany recorded several achievements. In 2017, Paxau ended his professional career of more than 40 years dedicated to the world of motorbikes, having had a great impact at an international level and leaving his technical footprint up until today, both in the brands he worked with as well as in a myriad of others, which recognized his body of work as a guideline to be followed.
During these 40 years of professional dedication, the facilities of Motos Paxau in Torelló have hosted most of the best representatives of the world of trial, as well as other aspects of motorcycling, and have played an important role in the sports careers of a lot of them. Toni Arcarons, Jordi Arcarons (motocross), Àlex Crivillé (speed) and trial: Albert Juvanteny, Lluís Gallach, Alberto Puig, Jordi Solé, Amós Bilbao, Xavier Vilalta, Jordi Tarrés, César Panicot, Marc Catllà, Angel García, Juan Luis López de la Torre, Jorge Arjones, José M. Juan, Xavier Puigdemont, Marc Freixa, Josep Arcarons, Marcel Justribó, Andreu Codina, Gabino Renales, Josep Manzano, Joan Pons, Albert Cabestany, Dani Oliveras, David Cobos, Melchor Estorch, Graham Jarvis, Steve Colley, Loris Gubian, Emma Bristow ... Amongst all of them, numerous national as well as European and World Championship titles with motorbikes created by Paxau.
In addition to this impressive career in the world of top level competitive motorcycling, the Motos Paxau garage in Torelló was the epicentre for repairs and preparation as well as a place to find advice for thousands of motorbike fans and riders the world over. They trusted they would get the best fine-tuning for their motorbikes for more than 40 years when the garage was open to the general public.
Torelló (B), October 16, 2021 |
