The Ron Cooper Thread
 

I'm glad there are enough Ron Coopers around to motivate this thread. We're continuing this hijacked thread here.
Here's mine after its repaint.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...t/P8020015.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...t/P8020018.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...t/P8020019.jpg

I bought mine in the early 70's. The RD is dated 70, but I can't be certain it is original to the bike. It seems that there were originally braze on derailleur guides that were removed before I had the bike. I had the bike repainted a couple of years ago by a fairly local framebuilder. Although the original decals were on the bike when I gave it to him, he put incorrect 531 decals under his clear coat. I preferred the brown suede Unicanitor saddle to the currently mounted leather one (also purchased with the bike), but the suede is now badly worn. The small flange hubs mounted have world champion colors around them. The large flange hubs have oil ports. Both sets of wheels have Fiamme rims, but the stickers are gone and I can't remember if they were the yellow or red. I have the slightly road rashed original brake levers, but it is costly to replace the gum hoods. More later perhaps.

... and enough of us who appreciate Ron Cooper frames. Very nice-looking bike!

Hi Cranky. Beautiful bike. It was great to meet you at Topsail. As for that rear cluster and your hills and Nuovo Record RD, it should take a 26 if you push the axle back in the dropouts and keep the chain short. That's what I'm doing on my 73 Holdsworth Super Mistral but have yet to iron all the bugs out.

Great to meet you too. The freewheel pictured has the lowest range of the two 2-notch Reginas I still have. I've always got my eyes on Ebay for reasonably priced Regina freewheels with a few more teeth. (Next BD shillfest that I see on BF, I'm planning to claim that I admired your "Bottecchia," you admired my "Bottecchia," I admired your Windsor, and we each paid the other $20, making us both shills.:lol: )

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/e.../RonCooper.jpg

This is my brothers Ron Cooper - I am trying to get him to build it up. BTY it is a frame and fork - serial #007 1/2 as in 007.5!

Beautiful:thumb: I think I've seen photos of it while researching Ron Cooper on-line. If it rides as nicely as my frame, it is a crime not to build it and ride it. I've gotten the impression from my research that Mr. Cooper reserved some low serial numbers for special frames to be built in the future, so I guess they are not really "serial." I wonder why he decided to slip one in between 7 and 8? Thanks for posting.

Two more photos and then it's someone else's turn!
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...t/P8020017.jpg
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...t/P8020020.jpg

Wooo! Those sure are some purty coopers.

Thanks for sharing!

I see that your Ron Cooper also needs a 2mm spacer on the bottom bracket fixed cup to compensate for the bottom bracket only being 66mm wide, instead of the 68mm norm. I always thought mine was an oddball, but I guess not. Sixty Fiver et al, how about yours?

BTW - I think the paint job on yours looks great.

Wow, those are really beautiful bikes.

Last year my wife and I took our classics to the beach and by the end of two weeks little specs of rust were popping out everywhere. This year we took the newish (BD+Giant) bikes, which certainly have much better corrosion resistance. Ride on.

I've never measured the bottom bracket width. I installed that spacer years ago to increase the clearance between the chainring and stay. Looking at it these days, it seems there would be sufficient clearance if I removed the spacer. Perhaps I'd been drinking when I serviced the BB and had reversed the spindle when I installed it? Next time I service the bottom bracket I might try removing the spacer. I'll measure the width today.
Brian Bayliss found a drip in the paint when he looked at the bike. Do you folks think I should try to redo the white pinstriping that was around the lugs when I bought the bike?

Someone who will be visiting the Outer Banks with his vintage bikes is posting here on C&V for folks with whom to ride. I suggested that bringing his vintage bikes to the beach is a bad idea, but he said they are to ride. The little specks of rust in my Cooper's paint were what freaked me out and led to the repaint. I wish I had kept the bike in the house proper rather than the basement/garage, because the paint was in great condition other than the surface specks of rust. I treated the interior of the frame with Framesaver after the repaint.

I did not have a problem with clearance for the 42T inner chainring, however, I noticed that the adjustable cup did not screw in sufficiently so that it was flush with the outside of the lockring. Since the distance between the spindle races is fixed, it doesn't matter how you install the spindle, the overall distance between the cups will not change. It's not the end of the world I suppose if the adjustable cup protrudes by 2mm, however, it just doesn't look right to me, so that's why I installed the spacer on the fixed cup side. Now that I look at it again, I think it also provides a better chainline as well.

As to your question about adding pinstriping, I would say no. I think the elegant simplicity of the Ron Cooper lugwork would look tacky with pinstriping. In fact, I believe that pinstriping is often used to distract attention from less than perfect lugwork, and does not work unless it is done extremely well.

Mine... the serial number is 8 71 and this bike was designed for 27 inch wheels which makes me think it dates to the seventies.

I built it up with an eclectic mix of spare parts... the stem and bars are Cinelli, brakes are Campy Victory, front d is a Campy Victory, rear is now a Cyclone Mk1 (Mk2 shown), crank is a 171mm Sugino Mighty with Superbe pedals, wheels are Maillard / Rigida blue labels with Avocet tt30 tyres.

I had a Campy crank but I like the Sugino Mighty and it adds some contrast to what would have otherwise been a very monochromatic bike.

After spending some hours removing the frozen Zeus post I replaced it with a Shimano 600 aero and topped it off with a Selle Italia saddle.

The bulk of the parts that were on the bike were Zeus 2000 and they are in dire need of some cleaning... the Mighty came with the bike and it had a Shimano XT rear and a 14-30 Suntour freewheel on Zeus hubs / Weinmann wheels.

It hits the curb at 21 pounds... it is an absolute rocket on the flats and climbs with wanton abandon... those wheels and tires are very light.

My friend has some Campy dt shifters for me... I used some Shimano 600 Arabesque for the time being.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/cooper3.jpg

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/cooper4.jpg

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/cooper5.jpg

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/cooper6.jpg

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/cooper7.jpg

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/cooper8.jpg

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/cooper1a.jpg

Beautiful bike. I like the contrasting chainrings. The clover leaf cutout on the downtube lug makes me wonder if the inside of the fork has card-suit cutouts descending from the lug.

Indeed it does... the bb shell also has a club cutout which was the only reason I was able to eject the old seatpost. :)

65er - Could you please post a photo of the BB from underneath? I'm curious to see if you needed a spacer for the fixed cup.

Cranky - Sixty Fiver's and my Cooper are vitually identical in terms of lugwork, fork crown, seat stay detail. I also have the clover leaf cutout on the head tube to downtube lug, but left it unpainted.

There is no spacer on my bike... it has a Sugino bb.

Mine is a Sugino also. I had to add a spacer because the BB shell is only 66mm wide and the adjustable cup would not screw in flush with the lockring. Cranky's is apparently the same way. Perhaps your BB shell is the normal 68mm width? Is your adjustable cup flush with the lockring?

Is that a clover, or Mickey Mouse upside down with a triangle above his head?

-Kurt

I just bought a Cooper and it's being shipped to me now! I found some cool scans of coopers from the bikeology catalog on flickr that I thought this thread could use:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zbillst...7606789001880/

I have had a Ron Cooper since 1982. I worked in a LBS during college and we were dealers for his frames. On a trip to England I paid Ron a visit at his small modest Honor Oak Park shop, watched him work on part of a frame, during which time he took my body measurements for a frame I was ordering. I have photos of Ron in his shop and of him holding my frame outside his shop. I was able to have several conversations with him about frame building during the building process. It was a honor to meet him. What I remember is that he was very unassuming, welcoming and willing to share his knowledge.

I have attached a photo of my bike as it is today. Everything is 1982 original with the exception of the brake pads, hoods (replica), derailleur pulleys, cables and of course bearings (campy replacements). Campy Record hubs, Nuovo Record pedals (with Binda straps), derailleurs and shifters, Super Record seatpost, chainrings and BB, 3T stem and handlebars.

Wow, that is the cleanest one I've seen! Do you know where I could find decals for mine which has been repainted?

Asking your LBS's would be the best place to start. The process works basically like this (so I am told). Once you find someone who specializes in painting bike frames, they use a laser to scan your old decals to duplicate onto a cutter and once the frame has cured they add the coatings to the entire frame for protection. Not sure how I would approach this if you have already repainted it but you need some sort of template. Ron used the rainbow band on mine and shorten the decal to Cooper on the seat tube and a slightly larger "Ron Cooper" on the down tube. The head tube sports the traditional gold triangle seen on the bike photos in this thread. The UK decal was applied after and has since been removed. I believe the typeface is Eurostile Extended Black (see myfonts.com). If you get to a point where you find a frame painter and they want some references I would be glad to post more detailed photos. I am riding this bike currently but plan to retire it once I find another one to ride regularly.