Lynskey Cooper tested

I received my M/L Lynskey Cooper about 6 weeks ago. Built with SRAM Force which was leftover from my cross bike last year, DT Swiss RR1850's, 3T Ergonova aluminum bars, and Thomson stem/post, it came in at about 17 lbs. Not bad for a road bike with nary a wieght weenie part in sight. I couldn't help but to dress her up for the photo shoot with some Zipp 808's, so enjoy the eye candy:


Initally I was blown away by the finish more than anything else. The hand brushed Ti just does it for me. With the white decals the frame just screams class.

Background: The Cooper is a new frame for Lynskey. If you can do without custom sizing, the Cooper may be a good idea for you. It comes in small, medium, medium/large, large, and extra large. Geometry can be found on the site, but with this kind of size run, there's a Cooper for most everyone.

My initial rides are hardly something to base a review on. Not because there was anything wrong with the bike, quite the contrary. The rides were short and very spirited, so I was able to test the stiffness of the bottom bracket for power transfer.

From a near stop at a light and jumping on the pedals at full-force (which for me right now is less than impresive!) showed a very stiff bottom bracket and no flex. At the same time, while tooling around Chicago I noticed the frame did a very good job of keeping the harshness of the road at bay.

Flashing back to the finish, after a somewhat wet ride which included a couple of not-so-nice roads, I got back to Iron Cycles with a very dirty bike. I threw my bike into the stand, wet down a shop towel with some Green Fizz from Pedro's, and about 4 minutes later I had a bike that looked brand new. You can't beat Ti for durability.

As the weather gets better I plan on putting some more miles on my Cooper. With such spastic weather in the Midwest in the spring, you never know when a good day is to ride, so she'll be ready when the time comes.