I have wanted a Ron Cooper racing bike ever since Richard Oddy brought his 1969 Cooper on our first ever Retro Ride back in 2002.Early this year I posted a wanted to the Classic Rendezvous email list, and within a couple of days I was in negotiation with CR listmember Gabriel Romeu for his celeste Cooper frame.
Gabriel emailed a few photos, and I was sold as soon as I saw the four neat holes in the bottom bracket shell.
The frame arrived in the mail 4 or 5 weeks later and, as is my wont, I quickly assembled the bike for the following morning's ride with the Solo bunch.
Most of the parts were handily lying about, but the Roy Thame sacrificed its wheels, to which I glued a pair of 25mm Continental Competition tubulars.
My plan was to build a basic Campag Nuovo Record road bike, but, as I rummaged around, it became inescapably obvious that I should use a lightweight OMAS headset and titanium bottom bracket which presented themselves.Continuing in this vein, after a couple of rides I felt compelled to replace the steel Nuovo Record derailler pivot bolts with titanium Super Record parts before venturing onto the Butter Chicken loop with Gayle.
The initial build left a bit to be desired.I struggled with the 14-21 cluster on the wheelset, and the modern Brooks Professional saddle was a bit wide, so I found a 14-24 freewheel and a rough looking old model Pro which has become more presentable with use.
Gabriel had told me the frame took a 26.8mm post, but my 26.8 post seemed to slip every couple of rides, so I reamed the seat tube out slightly to take a nominally 27.2mm SR Royal post.
While I had a broken collarbone recently, Gayle very kindly came round and buffed the post, which I had de-anodised with ovencleaner, to its current shiny finish.
The Salsa stem was quickly replaced with a plausible looking 14cm TTT Record that came at very good price from ebay.To further improve my hillclimbing performance I replaced the expander bolt with an aluminium part that requires a 7mm allen key, a tool which is never to be found when you need one.
MORE PHOTOS
| Headset | OMAS |
| Bottom bracket | OMAS Big Sliding titanium |
| Crankset | Campagnolo Nuovo Record 175mm, 41/53 |
| Brakes | Campagnolo Record, standard reach, pre 1978 |
| Brake levers | Campagnolo Victory |
| Shiftlevers | Suntour bar end shifters |
| Front derailler | Campagnolo Nuovo Record |
| Rear derailler | Campagnolo Nuovo Record Pat.82 |
| Hubs | Campagnolo Record, wide flange 28h |
| Freewheel | Suntour Ultra 6, 14-24 or 14-26 |
| Rims | Fiamme Red label tubular |
| Saddle | Brooks Professional |
| Seatpost | SR Royal ESL |
| Stem | TTT Record 14cm |
| Handlebars | TTT 44cm |
No comments:
Post a Comment