Folding Bikes, Recumbent Bikes & Trikes, Cargo Bikes, Tandems, Custom Framebuilding
Superbe Tech:
Probably Suntour’s most innovative and beautiful derailleur – and the company’s first glorious failure. The 1983 Tech has a completely enclosed linkage instead of the open parallelogram other mechs use. The cable routing was clever too – straight along the chainstay with no loops of cable.
That clever linkage would be the downfall, though – it wore and broke very quickly, and was very difficult to fix – so the Tech only lasted for a year.
A visit from Dave Holladay many years ago, originally uploaded by Ben Cooper.
This is a picture from the old shop – so maybe 8 years ago. The bike is Dave’s much modified Brompton, the trailer is a clever single-wheel one, and the bike on the trailer is a Cresswell Micro that snapped and I’d just welded back together with lots more reinforcement.
Sliding dropout Kona, originally uploaded by Ben Cooper.
An old Kona steel frame, converted to Rohloff sliding dropouts and repainted.
Finished Mikrokopter Okto XL, originally uploaded by Ben Cooper.
A completed 8-rotor Mikrokopter, built for the government health & safety laboratories.
Ovo tandem, originally uploaded by Ben Cooper.
The Ovo tandem is ingenious – it splits and the seats come off in seconds, so it packs into a few rather small bags. Still rides very well, though. Trying to decide if I can afford to be a dealer for this 😉
Now for something completely different – a project I completed last year, studying the giant Scottish explosives factories which are now rapidly vanishing…
Rohloff Disc Brompton, originally uploaded by Ben Cooper.
A retrofit on an older bike, in stealth black – with a SON Delux front hub powering the lighting of course…
Hetchins, originally uploaded by Ben Cooper.
The latest restoration project – a 1954 Hetchins Nulli Secundus, frame restored and repainted by Bob Jackson, rebuilt with a mix of original and modern parts by me 😉
Bike blender, originally uploaded by Ben Cooper.
A fun project for Westerton village fete – see it in action next Saturday 🙂
Rohloff Disc Brompton 4, originally uploaded by Ben Cooper.
Not the easiest Brompton conversion I’ve done 😉
Rohloff Speedhub in the back, SON Delux hub dynamo in the front, Hope X2 hydraulic disc brakes all round, and an Edelux front light.
It needed a new rear triangle, new forks, and quite a bit of custom machining…