Originally Posted by
joe englert
another guy i want to mention is ron cooper from england. i hear he does and always has made all of his frames himself.
I know who built my Ron Cooper... and it is a beautifully made frame.
Many Gillots were built by Cooper during his 20 year tenure there and he is now contracted to build Bates Cantiflex bicycles for Classic Cycles in addition to producing his own bicycles.
I would expect that these new Bates to be even better than the original.
He is proof that a small one person company can produce a world class product that is often without equal... the number of Cooper frames might number 10,000 if we assume he has produced 200 frames a year over the 40 years he has been putting his name on the downtube.
He has never taken on an apprentice and has been doing this work since 1947.
Back to your Italian love fest.