avecReynolds531

Gorgeous frame - looks like my favourite Prugnat S4 lugs.

Kabuki12

I never really knew much about them, still don't. My buddy Rich rode one last year at the Eroica event. It is a very nice bike and he tells me it rides well.

photo courtesy of Straightblok

scarlson 

Here's mine. I toured on it all around Europe as a teenager, with horrible MA3 rims, clamp-on Blackburn racks, and Campy sidepulls (broke two rims and two racks in 6 months and Swiss and Welsh descents were pretty scary not being able to stop properly), so when I finally became gainfully employed I had it all repainted, got some braze-ons, and put some proper touring equipment on.



It works well, but the rear fenderline is bothering me. I want to take it apart again and move the seat stay bridge a bit higher, and braze on some posts for the Paul Racers now that I can braze things myself.

I do love the way it rides. Something intangible about it, I don't really know. My Jack Taylor also has this, my Holdsworth/Claud Butler doesn't.

Last ride 76 

I posted the arrival of this previously (Christmas in February). So weird, I've been looking for years, and within 3 weeks, I get 2 Cooper frames... (bikes often seem to show up in pairs with me). I cleaned and touched it up a bit, (the paint was a bit worse than I had thought), and made it ridable. Mostly Suntour "Cyclone", I had to use a set of Campy record brakes, I have 2 pair short arm cyclones, but no long arm. Cinelli bar & Stem, American Classic hubs and seat post. Still figuring out tape color. Too many bikes with white. I don't do well keeping white clean. Used Benotto pearl white, temporarily pirated from another rebuild.

My original Ron Cooper was my favorite climbing and descending bike ever, (and I've ridden some great bikes). It was hard for me to admit, but it never felt quite the same after being rebuilt. Though I'm no longer a good climber, I am curious to see how it feels... I will get a chance soon, I hope.

Keeping my social distance, Eric


I had a spare set of dt decals that I put to good use.

Figuring out bar tape, re-using some saved bits. Old brake cables and housings, which are slightly too short, even by my standards.


I think this may be an early version of the raised "C" that Ron placed in the lower head tube lug cut out. It seems too high on the down tube to be intended as a stop for the shift levers, though it would work as a cable stop for bar-end shifters, I guess.

Ex Pres 

My newly obtained Ron Cooper. Seller thought he bought it circa 1985. He did have it repainted, he remembered late 80's, and no decals.
I'm going to build it up like this and ride it before I decide if I'd like a different paint scheme.
Pictures of a few areas - I've only seen pics of two others with the inlaid "C" on the headtube.
Plain lugs, plain bottle braze-ons, for recessed brakes, Campy drops. I don't see any indication of Columbus tubing, so I assume this one is at least mostly 531.

machinist42

The routing of the RD cable above the chainstay, and the portacanta dropout suggests late 70s or early 80s to me. (Edit: My Bad: crusty eyes and not enough coffee. I see now it's routed under the chainstay, so early 80s?)

Ron Cooper never used any shoddy tubing of which I'm aware. He did use Super Vitus during this period, and if you scrutinize the surface with a strong light at the "right" angle, you may find as I did a stamping indicating the tubing. Then again, your example has a pretty thick coat of something. If the steerer tube doesn't have "rifling," you can rule out Columbus. The unpainted steerer tube may reveal a Reynolds or Super Vitus imprint as well. I found "Super Vitus" partially obscured by the tang on the inside of one fork blade, thus reading "SUPER...US." I think mine was destined for the US market as it's a near perfect match to those featured in the Bikeology Catalog of the mid-70s. He did try to make each bike unique in its own way,

Would you please post photos of all aspects of the underside of the BB, and the chainstay bridge? It's for a database I'm sort of accreting.

Congratulations on your acquisition! Thanks for sharing!

Your Cooper has some interesting and different details: the dimpling of the stays on a "racing model," the chiseled stay end treatment at the rear dropouts rather then his typical domed approach, and the cast chainstay bridge are all of note.

Out of curiosity, is there a shifter band stop brazed on the underside of the downtube? I wonder if some of the braze-ons were added before the respray?

Ex Pres 

No rifling, no manufacturer's marking that I could find on the unpainted part of the steer tube. Just to add some fun the stamped, and also written in black marker serial number "149". There is not a shifter stop on the underside of the downtube. The BB shell is mostly unremarkable as well, except for what I assume is the maker's mark. Kind of looks like a tuning fork or wineglass? No drillings or slots. I've attached a few pics of the BB underside, chainstay bridge, and also the inside of the brakebridge.

Who is the BB shell supplier?

surveyor6

Here is my early 1970s Cooper. My boss found it abandoned on a canal bank in Glendale, AZ. The paint was so sun damaged that I could not determine the color.

Daniel Stuart

I wonder if you happen to know what kind of fork crown that is ...

Daniel Stuart

... has the same fork crown as yours
... is a touring frame w/ rack lugs
... the ser# is on the bottom bracket
... where the lug covers the bottom of the down-tube
... and there is a ‘dimple’ on the back of the bottom bracket between the chain stays (Ron’s ‘trademark’?)
... your ser# might be covered w/paint ?
... mine is a ‘respray’
... I guess it may have come thru ‘Bikecology’ in the late ‘70s

... It’s good to see a post from somebody who worked there
... I saw a ‘70s catalog on the web
... I tried calling but nobody remembered anything about build dates or ser#’s

Mr. 66

Here is my Cooper, mostly Shimano with a smattering of Campy on resurrected and literally saved from the dump wheelset. Primal purchase with a seatpost that had 8" of inserted stuck seatpost

Daniel Stuart

I had an ‘Avocet’ seat post stuck in mine ... I soaked it w/‘PB Blaster ... it cam out ‘OK’ ... I’ve also used 50/50 ATF & Acetone when soaking for several days ...

Ex Pres 

My Cooper is finally built up and had its maiden voyage. Bike was great, rider/motor, not so much


Super Record / OMAS / Record / Cinelli / Araya / American Classic = 19.84# with cages & the modern pedals. I may try to shave a little more off with a lighter bar/stem.

Daniel Stuart

[QUOTE=Ex Pres;22159042]My Cooper is finally built up ...

... Congratulations! ...
... is that a 60 or 62 cm seat post ? ...
... # 578 here is a 58 cm touring ...
... might be a bit ‘short’ for me, as I can stand over a 69 and have been riding 60 or 62 mostly ...
... it’s a ‘respray’ with ‘chips & scratches’, but i’m looking for some ‘touch up’ where nail polish is sold ...
... it’s been on the work stand for a while ...
... I keep going back to admire the lug work ...
... and trying to decide if I should build it and ride it just yet ...

seagrade 

Finally got this one onto the road for near three hours today and it was great. It came as a frame only, without fork, a year or two ago and has taken a little time and expenditure to get together. Once it’s fully sorted and I’ve taken it for a benchmark six hour ride I’ll probably tell its full story, at least since it came to me, although some of the parts came to me 35-plus years ago…

jdawginsc 

Wow. That’s got to be one of the more unique Coopers out there. Wishbone stays, raised air foil ornate lugs. Must have been a super custom make...? Repainted nicely.

You kept the steerer tube longer?

seagrade 

This one all started with a quote from Rouleur magazine perhaps ten years ago. “You’re always knew you were on something special riding a Ron Cooper” said early 80s British pro David Akam, supported by a photograph of him riding a track variant. Further reading of the story of the storied English builder who continued into his 80s building frames without jigs prompted occasional searches, and negotiations with a former colleague who owned a fine pale green Ron Cooper for which a transaction agreement not only in principle but in price was was reached. Time passed and further discussion confirmed he was just as happy not to sell as to sell, and almost contemporaneously the frame below surfaced on eBay.

Advertised as supplied c. 1995 by A Bicycle Odyssey in Sausalito, CA (RIP Tony Tom, who I never knew, much less met), it looked to be in great condition and little used, although the fork was whereabouts unknown. Fleeting hesitation in finding out the frame was built from Reynolds Cantiflex tubing passed, and with an agreement from the former colleague previously mentioned to build a suitable fork, I bought the frame for what I thought was a very fair price.

Having to have at least the fork painted anyway meant choosing a colour for the frame as well. I’d always thought Maurizio Fondriest’s Alfa Lum Legnano was a stunning bicycle, so the choice was easy.

Many of the components used were retained when I stopped racing in the early 90s. The C-Record crankset is my all-time favourite design, and the rear changer was assembled from scratch using Nuovo and Super Record spares with C-Record ball bearing jockey wheels. Similarly the C-Record brake levers had been held on to because few others sat well on my old favourite Cinelli 65-44 Criterium handlebars. Even some old red Modolo lined brake housing seemed a good match. The bars and Pinocchio stem are both recent NOS purchases. I have a set of tubular wheels with 28/24 Mavic 550 hubs and Campagnolo Record Pave rims but the newer White Industries T11 hubs and Mavic Open rims will get things under way for now.

Not much left to do but ride it now.

Specifications are 60cm (c-to-t) with 60cm top tube, 102cm wheelbase with the rear wheel mid-dropout, and 62cm front centre. Clears 28mm GP5000s with a little room to spare. The frame is 1-2cm less tall than I usually ride, but the fork steerer was left 2cm long to mitigate that, and there’s plenty of reach anyway.

seagrade 

Having resurrected this Ron Cooper several long months ago I finally got it back on the road again this morning after a recent stem, handlebar and brake lever/caliper reshuffle. Five good hours with no ill effects beyond the pleasant tiredness that comes with such escapades. Next steps probably a different saddle to facilitate a more stretched out position (the Selle Anatomica here sits fairly forward and is quite triangular) and a 28t large sprocket (many thanks again pastorbobnlnh !) to defuse the 53/39 effect a little…

botty kayer

lovely looking bike and great colour, and that rear monostay is smoking hot.

seagrade 

Cheers thanks! I’d been looking for a Ron Cooper for about ten years when this one surfaced. In that time I can’t recall seeing another with large diameter monostay. What’s almost as unusual is that it’s also made from Reynolds Cantiflex tubing, which dates back to the 1930s and Bates Cycles of London…

https://www.classiclightweights.co.u.../bates-cycles/

The Cantiflex tubing wasn’t mentioned in the for sale listing for the frame, and I only noticed the distinctive larger-diameter centre sections of the main tubes by chance looking at the listing photographs..The frame geometry is also slightly unusual in that it’s 58.5 centre-to-centre seat tube and 60cm top tube. It all works for me, as does the clearance for 28-30mm tyres, far from a given on what is reputedly a circa 1995 frame.

The fork was long gone by the time the frame was listed for sale. I like to think it would have been a Bates Diadrant-style fork, Ron Cooper having continued to build Bates frames under licence after Bates’ son retired in the early 1990s, although I’ll probably never know…

botty kayer

seagrade thanks for the info, I had no idea about the Ron Cooper and Bates connection, funnily enough I was riding down Barking Road with work recently completely unaware of its cycling history.

And the fork you have with yours looks a great match, but if you ever see an original extra bendy one in the UK and need a facilitator to ship it tp you across the world let me know, happy to help.

seagrade 

Many thanks botty kayer that’s a very fine offer. I’m not actively looking for a Diadrant fork, it was the Ron Cooper aspect rather than the Cantiflex aspect that drew me to this frame, but one just never knows what might surface while trawling the classifieds in places like this… that’s how I ended up with a very clean RockShox Paris-Roubaix SL fork with titanium steerer sitting alone in the garage waiting for a suitable frame to surface. I should probably list it for sale rather than accumulate another bicycle around it, but I suspect the demand for such things is if not very nearly zero then very actually zero.

seagrade 

Four hours on this one today after a three-way handlebar and stem reassignment between Bianchi, Serotta and Ron Cooper to optimise front-end reach across the trident. The Selle Anatomica saddle doesn’t allow sufficient setback and is on borrowed time until an alternative surfaces. With the period-incorrect TRP SL brake levers and Rivendell/Dia Compe shifters replaced with Cobalto and Simplex Retrofriction the component group is now largely as I raced in the late 1980s, down to the hubs if not the clincher rims and Nitto stem and bars.

billytwosheds 

VERY handsome machine you have there.

Couple questions:

• Is that SR rear derailleur shifting to a 28t cog? With those Simplex retros?
• Did the self-extracting bolts from the C Record crank get pulled out/off?

One bike to rule them all is impossible from my perspective, but this is a contender if we needed one.

seagrade 

Cheers thanks! Answers in the text above. I’m really happy with this one and once it has the 28t rear sprocket it’ll be even more versatile. All going well I’ll shrink into it as I grow old and it’ll fit even better. Rides very well, great for long days on the road with its GP5k 28s and less-than-stiff 531 Cantiflex…