VOLUME ISSUE NOVEMBER , P127
the corners…good straight-line
stability. It was hard to get into
any situation where the Cooper
enduro would do you in." The Be-
tor forks and Boge shocks were
good, as were the brakes, though
they "went away when wet and
took a fairly long time to dry out."
The clutch was also finicky when
the engine was warm, but the
correct adjustment fixed it.
American Frank Cooper
conceived the Cooper, and he
had been involved in distribut-
ing Maico in the U.S. He con-
tracted with the Moto Islo moped
manufacturer in Saltillo, Mexico,
to build his motorcycles. Cooper
borrowed technology from Sachs
and Yamaha and even enlisted
Malcolm Smith's help with the
engine design. These were good
names in the motorcycle indus-
try, and on paper, that should
have been enough for Frank to
sell a bunch of motorcycles in
the early '70s.
Few things are harder than
starting a new motorcycle com-
pany, especially in North Ameri-
ca. And though Frank had a fine
first effort, later models began
to have quality-control issues. In
a story for another day, Cooper
eventually became motorcycles
called Ammex, an effort spear-
headed by three-time National
MX champ Gary Jones. And then
it was no more.
But no motorcycle is ever fully
dead, as long as wingnuts like
Iowa racer Jack Randleman own a
fine example of a Cooper MX bike.
"It was really a basket case,
more of a parts bike," Randle-
man says. "But it had the original
fiberglass number plates, and
I think those are probably the
rarest and hardest parts to find.
I got my fenders from a friend
I made in Mexico. We used
Google Translate for months,
and ultimately, I traded a bunch
of parts he couldn't get for his
Honda projects, and he sent me
the fenders.
"I have no clue why I started
my obsession with the Cooper.
I love the story, the concept of a
bike made in North America to
compete against the European
bikes, where you could get parts/
repairs much faster. It's interest-
ing that even back then there
was this 'Made in Mexico' men-
tality. I like that it's a rather rare
bike but pretty much worthless
to collectors."
Nuts to the collectors! Frank
didn't build his motorcycle for
them anyway. He built his bike to
ride and marketed it as some-
thing truly different. A dirt bike
you could ride on the street,
even if you had to mix the oil and
gasoline, was something to be
thankful for.
Viva Frank Cooper!
CN
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(Above) Cooper Motorcycles got its
name from American Frank Cooper,
the motorcycle's founder. (Below)
Iowan Jack Randleman restored
this Cooper 250, not just to look at,
but to ride.
