mickle said:
I wasn't suggesting that he would be upset to see his name on a bicycle. Just that bicycle. Cooper was a brilliant innovative engineer. There's nothing wrong with it but you can't escape from the fact that it's a bandwagon fixie, a badge engineered far-east manufactured run-of-the-mill generic frame-set hung with some perfectly serviceable but rather average parts.
Ah. I see your point. But I saw the Coopers up close at the Bike Show It's a nicely done bike, I'd say, better than any other bike I've seen with a car badge (Porsche, B*W, Land Rover, Lamborghini etc etc), and has a distinct identity. I did feel it was a bit bandwaggon-jumping, but I didn't think it was just opportunist.
John Cooper made his name by making the very best of what would seem to others to be unpromising materials. Not one to go for the flashest of anything, but, as you say, being creative with his engineering.
What I do see in this bike is something that is more than the sum of its parts might suggest. What I don't see is that creativity. You're right.
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