199? (LA Cycles) Lee Cooper

[DaiP]

Hi, I’ve just bought this Lee Cooper steel mountain bike frame that I’m about to start building up using early 90s components wherever possible. I’ve got a set of Pace RC35 forks ready to go in once I’ve got a suitable 1 inch threaded headset. I’m not sure of the exact year of the frame but guessing around 91-93. I’ve been in touch with Lee Cooper to see if he can provide any more details as I believe from the guy I bought the frame from that Lee built this for himself. Fingers crossed he gets back to me to fill in some blanks. In terms of components it’s a bit of a blank page at the moment. I’m thinking Deore DX or early 90s XT in terms of groupset but it’ll largely depend on what I can acquire and condition over the coming months. It’ll be nice to do a mountain bike project for a change as I’ve done several motorbike restorations over the last few years. At least this won’t have knackered electrics or need an engine rebuild.

 

[raidan73]

Nice project

 

[DaiP]

A few more photos of the early days of this build. RC35 forks slaved in place, in need of a headset.
Hope Ti hubs that I intend lacing to a pair of Mavic 217 or similar rims.
One odd thing on this frame that I’ve never seen on any other frame is what appears to be 2 bottle cage mounts on the upper side of the down tube.

 

[raidan73]

Not massively uncommon to have two sets on a downtube. I just noticed the crud guard mounts on the underside too

 

[DaiP]

First time I’ve seen it to be honest. And yes even though I’m not a massive fan of Crud Catchers, I now feel obliged to fit one just because the mount is there.

 

[retrobikeguy]

Very nice that, a rare beast indeed.

I nearly had a punt but was worried about the chainsuck damage.
I think an XT DX mix would suit it well, right era and affordable stuff.

Let me know if you ever want to move on the rigid forks

 

[DaiP]

Thanks. I paid a bit less for it as I bought just the frame only so haven’t got either of the forks it was originally being sold with sorry. I ummed and erred about having the rigid forks to start with but then came across a set of RC35s with a 1 inch threaded steerer that after checking with the seller of the Lee Cooper frame I found it was the same length as the steerer on the rigid forks.
I was a bit concerned about the chainsuck damage too but it doesn’t look as bad in the flesh so hopefully all will be ok there.

 

[DaiP]

A little bit of progress. The RC35s have been attached to the frame via a threaded 1 inch Interloc headset. I’ve also got a set of Mavic 217 rims currently winging their way over from Germany to be laced to the Hope titanium hubs I’ve already got. The last wheel I built was around 20 years ago. My old truing stand has been dug out from under the workbench in anticipation. I just hope wheel building is like riding a bike and it all comes flooding back with the first tweak of a spoke nipple.

 

[DaiP]

I got a bit of useful information on this frame from Lee Cooper himself. He remembers building this one in the very early days of setting up LA Cycles in the early nineties. He’s not absolutely sure but thinks he used Reynolds 653 tubing. He said he just wanted to build a lightweight mountain bike frame. I can confirm it is light, weighing 1.9kg. An interesting fact Lee told me is what I thought was a serial number stamped into the bottom bracket shell is actually his date of birth. I won’t post that up on here as I guess it’s his personal data.
I’ve cleaned up a set of Middleburn RS2 cranks bought from one of the members on here ready to fit to the NOS Deore DX bottom bracket I bought on eBay. I’ve also got the Mavic 217 rims I bought from another member here and got some new spokes ready and waiting to build up the wheels. I just hope my measurements and the online spoke length calculator were all good. I’ll be building the wheels up on the weekend.

 

[DaiP]

Wheels built. New Old Stock DX Bottom bracket fitted. Cranks fitted. Excuse the young pretender in the foreground but my garage is a bit tight on space.