José Antonio de Sopeña e Irabien (1906–1978) was a Spanish industrial engineer, a professor of Automotive Engineering at the Bilbao School of Industrial Engineers, and the Managing Director of the company Construcciones Acorazadas S.A. (Bilbao). The company had premises on Gregorio de la Revilla 7 and Rivera de Zorrozaure 16, in Bilbo, Bizkaia (1953-1955).
The company originally specialized in safes and metal furnishings before a Senor Frade, working with Senor Sopeña, developed an auxiliary engine for bicycles with the name Fraso, a contraction of their surnames.
This example of a Fraso engine is in the Sala Santy Collection.
In 1953 the Fraso auxiliary engine was launched on the Spanish market. It was a two-stroke Diesel cycle, 24cc, 1 CV power, variable compression that could run between 6,000 and 9,000 rpm. However, with the gradual rise in the standard of living and the appearance of more mopeds and small motorcycles, the auxiliary engines were abandoned, and the company began to manufacture the Triver microcar.
The Triver, was designed primarily by Sopeña with the first prototype built in 1953 with a hand‑made body, in house EMB 339cc engine (EMB = Engine, Microcar, Bilbao). The Triver Rana 500 was in production from 1955 to 1960 with 75 units built.
This 1955 Triver Rana is part of a Private Collection and was photographed at an exhibition at Gironella, Catalonia in 2023.
In 1959, Triver built another prototype, the Cervato, but it this never went through to full production. In the early 1960s, the sales for the Triver were not a great success and the company reverted to other metal construction work. In 1983, Construcciones Acorazadas SA ceased trading after devastating floods hit the area..
The reproduction of the contemporary newspapers adverts here is authorised by the Ajuntament de Girona and are taken from their Digital Newspaper Archive (Los Sitios de Gerona)
Spanish Motorcycles 