Ron Cooper
12 December 2012
Ron Cooper passed away this morning from complications following an accident. He was 82. in 1947, at age 17 , Ron was apprenticed to A. S. Gillott Cycles, London.
In 1967, Ron left A.S. Gillott to build frames under his own name, and by 1970, he set up a small shop in Honor Oak Park, S. East London. and continued to make many fine bicycle frames until recently. RIP.
Mark Stevens, Curator of the Gillott Collection on the Classic Rendezvous Google group
”Ron Cooper was the ONLY builder at Gillotts from 1958 until he left to set up Ron Cooper cycles in 1971. He was still building the occasional Gillott on request in the 1970s and then later in the late 80s early 90s built some fabulous frames for Mark Joynts’ re launched Gillott concern before he (Mark) went on to build titanium Omega frames.”
“Ron was working until he died at Colortech in Crayford. He was known to build a Gillott now and then on request. I asked him to build me a frame in October 2011 …. He told me then he had just finished a Gillott frame and forks and had another to build. He died December 2012. Does that make Gillott the longest continuous make built by one builder? He was apprenticed there in 1947 and would have built his first frame about 1950. circa 62 years! ”
