this is the Cooper from 35 years ago. It looks the same today, except a Brooks Pro seat. Very nice ride even today.

Mine is also a touring or sport touring model.
It has a single pair of eyelets front and rear and accommodates true to size 700c x 35 Paselas I am running on it.
They add to the great ride of the bike and give me the cush I prefer for my style of riding.
I am not sure the exact angles but guessing between 72 & 73. Will have to check that out.

It also has Nervex lugs. The paint is a bit rough and tubing sticker is missing as is head tube decal but does anyone know if he mostly used Reynolds 531 tubing?

It came to me as a frame/fork only & I built it up with an assorted mix of parts I had on hand.

It would also be nice to know the date it was made. I am guessing late 70's. It has a 3 digit serial number beginning with 7.
At any rate very grateful to have it and ride it. The craftsmanship and attention to detail are very evident.

Down the road perhaps I will have it painted and get new decals.

Wow, beautiful Ron Cooper. I like how it is set up for riding, too. Not just a wall hanger!
Stevie

My R Cooper on a ride last week encountering dangerous conditions as plaque mentions.

Yeah, I have 2 different colors of bar tape & need to re-wrap.

I took the Cooper for a 40 mile ride day before yesterday, and I'm in love again. Great bike.

Here it is, my 1982-ish Cooper. I took it to Ed Litton to get the frame repainted and the fork rechromed. I just finished the build-up last night, and it has only been around the block a couple times for final adjustments - it well get some serious attention this weekend. It looks even better in sunlight - the blue is dazzling and the white lettering just pops. I have a white Rolls saddle that I just put on another bike, and I'm debating moving it over to the Cooper.



Here is a repost of the "before" photo. I know it doen't lok like it needed a respray, but the paint and the chrome were both showing signs of potential bad things happening underneath that I wanted to nip in the bud.

Bikingshearer,
I posted early in this thread and you got the color spot on--looks like mine. Mine is original paint and I picked it out when I was at Ron's shop in 1982.

I think your blue may be just a hair lighter, but it's hard to be certain in photos. Your bike is certainly more "period correct," especially since mine isn't the least bit "PC." (I have a large carcass to drag up significant hills - a 42x28 just isn't going to get it done.) But boy, they both sure are pretty.

When I was at Ed Litton's, I saw a frame hanging on the wall and said "I want that color!" So that's what I got - and I love the result. I am sorry to lose the ridiculously thick original enamel, but as I said above, there were some indications of potentially bad things starting to happen under it to go with some significant chips that were there when I got it (although what could have chipped it in the first place without denting the tubing is beyond me - that paint was thick). Also, the first Cooper I ever saw was a friend's in the late 70s with a similar shade of blue, and I always thought it looked tremendous. So I did it. And with all due respect to the "it's only original once" group, I have no regrets.

Enjoyed a slow meandering 50 miler around Dallas yesterday on my Cooper.

Was able to fit 700c x 35 tires on my Ron Cooper.

this is the Cooper now.

Do you know what year model your Cooper is?


The colors & decals look very similar to mine.


From mine having a 3 digit 700 series serial number I am guessing mine is a 1977 model.
Mine like yours has no TT cable guides and needs the cable clamps.

Also what lugs are on yours? They look very nice.

Enjoy your Cooper.

Have been doing some refitting...

Before...



After... swapped the 600 post, Cyclone derailleurs, Zeus shifters, and Kool Stops for Campy NR and vintage Matthauser brake pads... am running a Regina CX 7 speed racing block which the Neuvo Record seems to have been made for.







Don't think I will NR the brakes as I cannot see anything stopping me better than the Zeus Ti centrepulls and Matthauser pads... have Record tubulars that just need glueing up to give me some vintage race wheels although I cannot complain about the Suzue / Araya wheelset on this bike at all.

My Proctor has modern 8 speed and brifters and is my hill climber... the Cooper is set up to set fire to the rolling hills we have here on the prairie.

I got it prior to 1978 (maybe 1976 or so) from Bikeology in the L.A. area. I worked for them for about a year. I haven't found the serial number, yet, but it's the touring version of his frames. I think the drop-outs are Zues (not Campy). Everything else on the bike is Campy and I recently put back the Mathouser brake pads and it stops a lot better. I don't know if they make those pads anymore.

Got a call from the manager at our local co-op to come in and see a really nice road bike that had been donated and am currently eyeing up an early seventies Ron Cooper (1975-ish) that has been fitted out with a mix of early black Dura Ace, first year black Cyclone, and a black Sugino Mighty crankset which seems to have been a very popular choice on many bikes of this era.

Will be nice to see it find a new home once I go over it and make sure everything is skippy and figure out a value... 56.5 cm frame (square) made with R531 with a Shimano Dura Ace sticker as well... the Cyclone may have been chosen over the Crane as a superior rear derailleur.

Will have to take some pictures tomorrow as I forgot my camera.

Or maybe because the original Cyclone was incredibly light.

Hi all

New to this forum but active on a few other cycling forums.. Stumbled upon this thread looking for info on my newly aquired ron cooper.. Originally thought it was an 80's frame ? Has mix of 70's and 80's campag ..
Not to sure now frame/fork no. 502

I got bike in bits and have cleaned/polished/serviced and put back together. Just to finish off and enjoy..

Any info ideas on age would be great it has columbus decal on but not of which tubing.. Paint/frame is in exeptional condition and looks original..

Cheers..
Untitled by Plus one2010, on Flickr

Stamped Prugnat lugs with an investment cast fork crown,and the 'C' inlay in the headlug suggests early 80s to me.

I would agree with masispecial. Compared to my serial number it makes sense. The fork crown was not sloping in 1982. I do recognize the "C" lug cutout which is also on mine. I say this is pre-1982, either 80 or 81. Mine also has braze-ons for the downtube shifters and second bottle cage but similar to yours. Cannot be certain but all the models I ordered in 1982 came with downtube braze-ons for shifters as stock and had to specify to make without them.

Thanks for info helping me narrow it down What is frame no. On yours ?

A 'Colnago' track frame recently came up for sale in Australia. It was suggested that the clover cut out in the bottom bracket shell might allude to it being a Ron Cooper. Thoughts?







Did Ron make many track frames?

Photos stolen from ebay, there were a few others but nothing too telling - Campy track ends, that's about it.

Enjoying this thread, I am the world's newest Ron Cooper fan!

Edit: we know it might be a Colnago, but we're not convinced.

I'm not aware of any connection between Ron Cooper and the "Clubs" design motif. I've also never seen a Cooper with seat stay caps like those - I've only ever seen the semi-fastback style of joining the stays to the seat lug. That does not conclusively mean Cooper never did either, but I've seen a couple dozen Coopers in person or in photos over the years and have yet to see one with either feature.

As for making track bikes, I personally have not seen a Cooper track bike, but my guess would be that more than one trackie ordered a track iron from him. Just a hunch, but I would also guess that most, and possibly all, of his track frame production stayed in England. It's one thing to make a batch of road frames to export, and quite another to ship off-the-shelf track frames, a niche market if there ever was one, overseas. I could be way off here, but it would seem to me that the economics of it would not makes sense to both the supplier (Ron Cooper) and the importer.

I am pretty sure the Colnago is just that... The club cutout is something people associate with Colnago but this was also used by Cooper and shows up on mine at the head lug and bb shell and is part of a card suit motif.

Wondering if Cooper moved away from this when the club motif became so commonly associated with Colnago...

That is striking...

I picked this Cooper up this morning. I will post more pics and information once I tune her up and ride her a bit.

-D


Ron Cooper by djk762, on Flickr


Ron Cooper by djk762, on Flickr