Do you ride a Ron Cooper?

The next seasons of The Bike Show is going to feature a fairly substantial show on Ron Cooper, arguably one of Britain (and the world's) finest framebuilders. It will be based around a series of interviews I'm doing with Ron, but I'd also like to talk to people who ride his bikes.

Do you ride a Ron Cooper? If so, would you be willing to talk about it for the radio? Would need to be based in the London area.

Reply or PM me if Yes.

Do you ride a Ron Cooper? If so, would you be willing to talk about it for the radio?

Would you black out my face and disguise my voice ?

Would you black out my face and disguise my voice ?

I feel certain you have a great face for radio.

I feel certain you have a great face for radio.

I will also need a pseudonym - maybe just 'Irish Patrick from London' ?

And after the interview I want all the tapes burnt and my DNA back.

PM Phasergunalex, he has a lish Ron Cooper

He makes all of the 14bikeco frames, so anyone who rides one of them, is technically riding a Ron Cooper.

That's not true, James...

Lee Cooper makes the 14 frames

: )

crazy!

JackT, Fixedwheelnut rides a ron cooper, PM him, he has ridden PBP on it.

How did I manage to completely miss no bike week?!

That's not true, James...

Lee Cooper makes the 14 frames

: )

Oops My bad! How was Austria mate? I was out in the Hof just the week before lol.

Good dude... There was a Brit (Jack Shackleton) in the winning freestyle team and three Brits won the photo comp! Good stuff.

I'm out again next week...

Good dude... There was a Brit (Jack Shackleton) in the winning freestyle team and three Brits won the photo comp! Good stuff.

I'm out again next week...

Lucky bastard! Up there for snowbombing I take it?
The snow was amazing when we went, did you get much boarding done?, there was some sweet powder down from the ahorn into the park :) :)

I ride this when the sun is shining.

Best frame i've ever owned.

thanks all. I'll be in touch shortly via PM.

I should also have mentioned that I'd be interested in talking to anyone who'd care to wax lyrical about any post-war Gillott that they might be riding. Ron learned his stuff at Gillott was the last master framebuilder working there when the company was sold and Ron started his own business under his own name.

So goes without saying that Gillott is central to the Ron Cooper story... and that many Gillotts were built by Ron. Ron told me he could recognise any of the 9000 frames he's built in his lifetime in a matter of seconds.

I ride this when the sun is shining.

Best frame i've ever owned.

Nice! The colour looks really similar to mine, kinda like an icy blue...

How did I manage to completely miss no bike week?!

By riding your bike?

Nice! The colour looks really similar to mine, kinda like an icy blue...

Very nice.

That chainring is fricking huge!

Please note that the comments in this reply refer only to the frame which Ron built for me. It is not intended as a criticism of his work in general.
Thirteen years ago I asked Ron to build a prototype frame which I had designed. He said it was no problem and quoted three to four weeks delivery.I paid for the work in kind, ie frame tubes etc. the value of the goods was about £325, frame to be delivered unpainted. Remember, this was 1996, and a trade build was costing approx £150 plus parts - I know this because Ron had built several frames for an associate and myself in the previous year.
I had made contact with the editor of an American magazine who was willing to do an article about the frame, (helped by me presenting him with a very rare headbadge which cost me an arm and a leg to have re-enamelled), only snag was that photos would not do - the frame had to be sent over to the States.
A month passed, and I had not heard from Ron. I telephoned and Ron told me he was waiting for a special part for his frame jig which he said was necessary to build my frame. This was strange because the frame had been designed to be an easy job for a skilled builder with no special formers or jigs. Later, I saw on a website that he claimed not to use a framejig anyway.
The frame was delivered more than a year late. My contact in the States had moved on, and the (only) two provisional orders I had for the frame had been withdrawn months earlier.
As it turned out, it was just as well because the frame was built to a very low standard. The lugs had not been filed, the brazing was untidy, the chainstays which were round section which were to be crimped to a thin oval to round section were not symetrical, one being crimped thinner than the other. The top eyes, which Len Phipps had hand-cut for me and the top of which formed a kind of 'S' shape along the top tube were not brazed in the right place and one 'S' was 1/4" further along the top tube than the other.The bi-laminations for the bottom bracket had been cut wrong and the one at the bottom of the down tube was longer than the one on the vertical tube. The underside of the d/t also showed a gap where the bi-lam had been cut too short.
As I had just had an acrimonious split with a business partner, I had neither the money or the inclination to start another battle. I tried to tidy the frame a bit myself and filed the lugs (not very successfully) and removed the top part of the top eyes .
My Ron Cooper classic has remained unpainted and unbuilt in my attic, to be cringed at each time I pass it.