The following article originally appeared in Cycling Magazine, November 7, 1970.  Reprinted without permission.

After 23 years of frame-building in the background, for one of South London's most respected firms, Ron Cooper is in business on his own account, opening a shop at 49, Honor Oak Park, London SE23, near Forest Hill.

The official opening will be marked with a lightweight frame display, but many of the South Londoners, including at least one rider who has seen Olympic and Commonwealth Games competition, will already know the capabilities of this unassuming, quiet man, who intends to carry on building frames for the specialist without extending his retail "net" elsewhere.

Ideas on building have changed during his 23 years (he started work seriously at the age of 15), but he has kept pace with the times, making frames for tuggos and top riders, wide boys and world champions.

One of his most eloquent tributes came from an approach by Lucien Gillen, Luxembourg six-day rider, who came to him for a frame during the London six-day of a couple of decades ago.  In contrast to this, Ron was still "fashionable" enough to make frames for two of the youngsters who rode in the amateur six at Wembley this year.

After more than a score of years in the job, he has a knack of realizing his customer's requirements.

"All I need to know is what kind of riding he does," he says.  "We don't run around with a tape measure, finding out the exact length of his arms.  With experience you can judge what people need by just looking at them."

Current "fashion" is for short and sharp frames, steepish angles, short fork rakes, large section tubing (although not necessarily heavy).  "Done properly, it's just the thing," he declares.

His platform for sales is a simple one — he spends that extra time on turning out a frame not only to the customer's requirements, but in a style which marks the buy as someone with a special taste.

Among the standard frames which he will be building is one modelled on the machine used by Eddy Merckx — white and red colour scheme, drilled out lugs, and cut-out bottom bracket (with Campagnolo liner to keep out the wet).

Other models are planned to follow the style of Felice Gimondi.

Fluted chainstays are a regular feature of Cooper rear triangles, to match up with the ultra-short rear end which can be reduce to 16 1/4 inches, with vertical dropouts.  A superlight frame can be "cut down" to 5 1/4 lb, without "freak" measures.

"The main thing is that I aim to give my frames a tailor-made look," says Ron.  "I specialize, try to make my workmanship a little more exclusive."

With only three to four frames a week being turned out and every stage of the building being carried out by Ron himself, one can imagine how much attention his frames receive.

And as a designer? "You're always better off letting a top builder design your frame," he says.  A testament to his own ability is that even before Saturday's opening of the shop, Ron Cooper frames are already being seen around.