Originally Posted by
joe englert
picchio. your right no excuse for not spelling the master jaques' last name. buy i did get merckx and coppi right. by the sound of it-i take it, your not too hot on ron cooper? the reason i mention that is because in my area i was semi-considering either a ron cooper or a grandis bicycle. both same price and in same condition. what would you take??
I'll answer the way most questions of this type deserve to be answered: It depends. Depends on the individual bike in question and the era it's from. Those might be two of the top half dozen or so most under-appreciated builders, at least as far as the prices they tend to fetch is concerned. But they could be stylistically quite different. I don't know what gave you the idea I'm not hot on Ron Cooper - Ron Cooper is one of the greats. Among English builders, he belongs in the same discussion with Bill Hurlow, which is saying a lot. If I had to pick sight unseen, I'd probably pick the Cooper. Just another notch more bespoke, so to speak. And Grandis's are not super rare, so another one usually comes along sooner or later. But I might take a mid-70's Grandis Superleggera over a more clean-but-basic Cooper. I might buy both ('cause you really can't go wrong either way, which is good news for you). It depends ...