Cooper x Spoon Collaboration to celebrate 60 years since back to back F1 victories
Charlie Cooper’s handmade Cooper Custom 001 standing next to a custom Spoon Custom XCR. Spoon Customs have completely reworked the bike for the limited edition collaborative effort, available to order for Cooper Bike customers
Cooper Bikes, the bicycle division of the Cooper Car Company and the company behind the original Mini Cooper, has partnered with fellow British bike brand Spoon Customs to build a range of limited run custom bikes. The first builds, sold on a strictly limited basis to customers worldwide, will celebrate 60 years since Cooper won back to back Formula 1 World Championship titles in 1960 and 1961.
The new custom bikes have been designed by Andy Carr, founder of Spoon Customs and Charlie Cooper, MD of Cooper Bikes and grandson of the legendary John Cooper.
The bikes, hand-made for each customer, feature progressive road/gravel geometry and will be expertly TIG welded by hand in the highest quality HSS and XCR Italian steel from Columbus. The bikes will be individually hand painted in Surrey at Gun Control, Spoon Customs in-house paint company, with paint schemes that celebrate the Cooper brand’s racing heritage. Finally, the bikes will be assembled under the watchful eye of Andy Carr and team at the new Spoon Customs facility in Surrey, England.
Charlie Cooper commented “I’ve followed Andy and Spoon Customs for a while and when we had the opportunity to work together, I jumped at it. This partnership will allow us to offer a new range of beautiful custom bikes that are totally unique and best in class in finish and build. We are also excited to be working with Italian craftspeople too, using the very best steel technology from Columbus Tubi near Milan. The Cooper brand has a great history with Italy, the idea for the original Mini Cooper was born in Monza in 1959 when my grandfather took a prototype Mini to the Italian Grand Prix. When working with the John Cooper Works brand we also built the first MINI GP with an Italian company - coach-builder Bertone”.
Andy Carr talks of Cooper fondly: “The Cooper brand has been at the pinnacle of engineering excellence for 60 years, winning two Formula 1 World Titles and producing some of the most engaging and iconic racing cars ever made. To work with Charlie on the design of a new road bike was a privilege and to be entrusted to engineer a performance product worthy of the Cooper brand is a dream come true”.
Andy Carr of Spoon Customs, with Charlie Cooper of Cooper Bikes. Custom XCR Spoon Custom bike alongside Cooper City bike and a 2019 John Cooper S Works Mini. Image by Luke Barkaway