Charlie Young wrote:
> I believe that Ron's handiwork is certainly on a par with the
> Bianchi Reparto Corsa works.
Though you obviously didn't mean that as a slap at Cooper, I feel it's way too generous towards Bianchi. Though small compared to Bianchi's other factories, Reparto Corsa is still a mass-production facility compared to Ron's shop.
I talked to a guy who worked at Reparto Corsa, maybe about '92 (sorry about the OT). He actually was employed there when I talked to him so it's not a disgruntled-ex-employee scenario. (He seemed fairly gruntled.) I'm not naming him though as this story could get him in trouble. He said only the production frames got carefully designed! The one-off custom frames were just sorta built on the jig, without any CAD or even so much as a drawing in lipstick on a cocktail napkin. They had a guy who just "knew" what length and what angle to miter the downtube for, say, a 57 x 57 frame. He'd take a stab at it, and hold it up to the jig, and recut it if it was too far off. "Too far" was defined a bit more loosely than this fellow was used to - he said Gianni Bugno's frame went out with a sloping top tube and a BB height lower than they planned, and this was when he was the reigning World Champion. The attitude was "don't worry, he'll ride whatever we give him"
I like Bianchis, love the one I own (warts and all), but I don't think I've ever seen one as finely constructed as the average Cooper.
Mark Bulgier
Seattle, Wa
USA