Originally Posted by
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.
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?