From England with love

Fate can lead us in strange directions, sometimes good, sometimes even better!

My new ride.......more pics and description to follow.....

More pictures attached, with my favorite backdrop, my neighbor's neglected garage.

So here is the story of my RC and how I ended up with this beautiful bike.

Late last fall I took a epic road trip to pick up a lovely Rossin SLX, gorgeous bike but it was just too big for me to ride (58cm). So there it sat in the man cave over the winter, looking sad and neglected.

Yesterday I finally decided to release it into the wild and post it for sale locally. I received a call from a gentleman who had some questions and asked if I might be interested in a trade, possibly was my response. He had a nice Davidson that was too small for him and I had a Rossin that was too large for me, sounds like a logical swap.

About an hour later the man shows up and pulls a really nice Davidson out of his car. Super nice bike with a great build, actually parts were quite similar to the Rossin. I looked it over impressed. Then he said he brought another that had just been sitting around. He pulls this beautiful sparkling blue bike out of the trunk, it caught my eye immediately. The craftsmanship was obvious and parts were near mint. Davidson? I immediately forgot all about that bike.

We made a deal, swapped Rossin for Cooper. Now we each have a bike that fits properly and both pleased.

Build kit on the Cooper is full 7402 Dura Ace including seatpost, Campy bb. Needs a little tune up but otherwise looks minty fresh. There is a little bubbling of rust on the top tube that concerns me a little. I plan to remove the cable housing and take a peek inside.

Anyway here are a few new pictures of my new ride.

Very nice bike , well done!! Chap here in Edinburgh has got a nice one too, he's on Retrobike..

Really nice, you should have had them both off him

Your neighbour's garage makes a good yardstick! I can see you've lost about an inch of bike-height there compared to the Rossin. Can't have been much in it frame-wise though... a centimetre, or half an inch? Good that it worked out for you and the new Rossin owner anyway. Guess you heard that Ron cashed in his chips some few months ago....there's a little obituary thread back there a few pages somewhere..

Take 'ssi' out of 'Rossin' and there you are..

Just started learning about Ron and of his recent unfortunate passing. From what i've read on-line he had a long and low-key career building one frame at a time, without a jig. Wow, I feel fortunate to be able to ride one of his bikes.

Astute observation Torqueless. The difference in seat tube length is 2cm, but the top tube length on the RC is about
4cm shorter. So with the shorter stem it just fits me much better.

So after a tough week filled with tight deadlines I managed to sneak out for a quick 20 miler on RC 294 (# stamped on bb shell). The bike rode really nice. Super smooth yet agile. The frame has very short chainstays and accelerates fast, yet was always stable and smooth. Ron knew his stuff!

Thank you Ron!