This is an update to my Ron Cooper that I have posted here previously. Gone is the stylish but very uncomfortable Vetta saddle, and in its place an amazingly inexpensive but very comfy and well made Charge Spoon. The bar tape was a crumbling mess and the Modolo black brake hoods were crumbling, so I replaced them with Easton Velo foam bar tape and EAI replicas of the Campy hoods. The Charge Spoon saddle costs under $30, and is better made than saddles costing twice as much. The Easton Velo Tape is about $10 a set, very comfy and very stretchy, making it very easy to put on. I've been taping top down with it, which makes for a very clean look, especially on stepped bars with stem shoulders. The EAI gum hoods are $20 from Harris Cyclery as compared to about $100 for NOS Campy hoods. I also had to replace a cracked pulley wheel on the Campy Nuovo Record rear derailleur, and found an old pulley wheel that came off a broken Simplex plastic derailleur that was a perfect replacement in diameter, width and bore. The Ron Cooper rides like a dream, although it is a bit flexy when I stomp hard on it.

The main component group is all Campy Nuovo Record, except for the headset (Specialized) and bottom bracket (Suntour Superbe). The freewheel is a Suntour Winner Ultra six and the chain is a SRAM 8-speed that work very well with the Campy shifters and rear derailleur. The bar and stem are Cinelli. I bought the Ron Cooper frameset off the rack in 1976 from Bikecology in Los Angeles, California for $250, which would be about $1000 in today's inflated dollars. The braze-ons for rear brake cable housing, bottom bracket derailleur cable guides, water bottle mounts, down tube shifter mounts and top tube pump peg were all installed later by Mark Nobilette, who also built me a complete custom lugged steel criterium racing frameset.