Ron Cooper?
 

Campagnolo road bike - $800 (WINTON)

Campagnolo road bike

-D

I have seen that on a Cooper once.

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...long drive from you to Merced. Ihave a funny story about making that drive once from Sacramento to look at a 23" low serial number Schwinn Paramount. Absolutely beautiful bike. It was pretty obvious once I got into the room with it that it was a 21" Paramount.

I've seen little "c" in a diamond on Cooper frames before, but not as a headbadge.

Note the Bicycle Odyssey/ Sausalito sticker as well.

That is a nice looking bike, wow!

Definitely a Cooper and if it's straight then that is a good price.

... just make sure you ask whoever it is to measure it again before you drive down there. :)

Are you going to get it? It looks like a beauty (except that out-of-place Salsa stem has got to go!). Note that vertical dropouts, lugless construction, and use of the "C" diamond as a headbadge indicate a very late Cooper frame, probably 90s or 00s. Sausalito Cyclery was always the main (or perhaps only) outlet for Cooper frames in Northern California. If you call Tony at the shop he can probably tell you something about this frame.

Not in the budget. As you said very late and probably very rare. It would great to ride and compare to his earlier work.
Hope you are getting big miles on your Cooper Dave.

-D