Cougar

Monkeydog

Retro Newbie
Hi

Am wondering if you can help me out on the heritage of this Cougar bike that I own. There is so little out there about these and all I have learned is that Terry Dolan made them and Chris Boardman rode them.



This example is made of Aluminium and it has a Dura-ace group set with stem, Bars and seat post in Titanium. The wheels are Mavic Tubs. I think it is around 20 years old??? I was going to sell it but a colleague says not to as although it would not fetch much it is a classic and I should hold on to it. If you need any more detail I am happy to supply. The bike rides beautifully and is as light as a feather



Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
 

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cougar were made up in the wirral, terry dolan i believe only made the custom ones though and as far as i know only out of steel, the aluminium ones i believe were of european origin but designed by cougar, iirc they were bought out by a company called Van Tuyl but i don't know much more after that.

yours looks relatively new as far as the groupset goes, a mix of 8 and 9 speed by the look of it, i think maybe 97ish

here's is mine, a 95 columbus slx model, this is it's 3rd paint job now :D
 

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Nice one! Thanks for the info and taking the time to post it. It is indeed a 9 speed and your estimate on the 97 would stack up well.

Was thinking of getting a respray done on this as it has some very superficial scratches in the clear top coat but have decided not to mess with it and keep it original

Cheers
 
resprays are always cool, but sometimes it's nice to keep them original, the paint in that picture looks pretty good although it's a little dark for my liking.

if you are going to get it done though i would suggest bob jackson

http://www.bobjacksoncycles.co.uk/

i have used them loads and have always been pleased although my cougar was done by colortec who do all of the "roberts" of croydon frames.

the other option is argos,

http://www.argoscycles.com/www/frames.htm

argos are a little more expensive but personally i prefer the bobjackson finish as it has more of a shine to it, this is becasue it is a "wet paint" as opposed to stove enamel finish, the wetpaint is more fragile though. pros and cons i suppose! :)
 
Thanks for that, I will keep Bob Jackson details and look him up if I change my mind on the paint. I guess there will come a day when it will be a necessity. The decals that are on mine I recently obtained from Ebay as the originals had almost all come off.

Cheers
 
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I have this one made from Reynolds 731 OS, and a very similar style lo-pro which I suspect is made from Deda steel. Both have wishbone rear seat stays which might indicate they were made by Venom for Cougar.
 
Cheers for the post, a fine looking example that one of yours. The seat stays on mine are not in a wishbone style and am quite sure the metal is Aluminium as the welds are super smoothed out and blend into one another, also the top tube and down tube are squashed into an elliptical shape at either end and at opposing angles which is an interesting detail.
 
Monkeydog":34kc6ejv said:
Cheers for the post, a fine looking example that one of yours. The seat stays on mine are not in a wishbone style and am quite sure the metal is Aluminium as the welds are super smoothed out and blend into one another, also the top tube and down tube are squashed into an elliptical shape at either end and at opposing angles which is an interesting detail.

Could be Columbus Max steel tubing. Have you tried it with a magnet?
 
his is defo aluminium, have seen them before but there never seemed to be that many about.
 
Pretty sure I can help you with this as I think I nearly bought one of these. Well actually I did - it just says Wilier Triestina on it instead of Cougar. But I did look at the Cougar at the time. Even had the catalog with the frame in this same colour. There was also a Metal Matrix/Ceramic version which was in Pinarello's catalog the same year.

That would make it 95 or so.

A few manufacturers used these frames round that time. Italian made - in a factory (I think it was called Podium or something like that and I think their house brand was Sintema) but they also built for other brands including Pinarello and Wilier. It's Oria 7020 tubing for sure, going by the tube profile. The Pinarello and Wilier models both had internal rear brake routing.
 
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