When did jack take over from the brothers cook? What projects are his designs? Anyone? CT

Anyone?

not sure exactly but my guess would be 83ish

So who made the 26 cruisers jack or the brothers cook or both?

I think Gary made the cruisers before he sold to Jack. You could contact Jack, but it's kinda a touchy subject. There was some bad blood after the sale with Gary starting CQP. I think that's how it went. You can guess the rest.

bill mcintyre made the original 26" cruser for himself in what he said was 78 or 79. here is a picture of his prototype as it sat last summer.someone said 77 and he said definetly not, later than that. a lot later.
and a photo by mel stousenberg that i pirated from another site

Right but Jack was selling them till 83-84 no?

i saw he made a 25th anniversary cruser but he said originally made in 77 and that is why the date came up.don't think he made them for a while in the middle of that time frame

I am 99% sure you are correct Claude, and I have the article at the shop that describes the change. I will quote from it and give the month/year as soon as I go back there.

I ripped this page out of a Super BMX mag because I loved the Cook cranks even back then. It says "Six months ago Cook Brothers Racing got a new owner: Jack Witman..." The page isn't dated, but the back side has a Hank & Frank ad saying "prices good through October 31, 1984". With the delay of publication, and the extension of prices, sounds like six months prior would be late 1983.

The article shows a photo of the CBR cranks...so it would appear to me that any cranks with the logo not centered on the arm would be after CBR changed owners. It might be hard to see, but the logo includes the 181mm designation.

John, that is an awesome read!,,,,i cant tell from the picture but does the logo read from spindle to pedal, or pedal to spindle?....i have two sets that read "cook bros racing 181mm", both read from spindle to pedal, BUT i have come across sets that one arm goes from spindle to pedal and the other arm reads(opposite way?) from pedal to spindle...i've always wondered if there was a method to the madness.......also, i heard from a reputable source cook bros traded ownership dec '83, which would put your estimate dead perfect........im going dig up something else im trying to figure out, see if anyone has info, its also weird, claude

ok before i screw up and post this can of worms, is it against site rules to post a link to another popular bmx site,? and also i've heard of craig and gary cook, but who is bobby cook?, claude

YES,,,heres the "new line" '84 catalog, these lok different, not sure if Jack continued the old style cruisers too,claude

In that photo, the lettering is upside-down, so spindle-to-pedal. PM sent to you also.

thanks John!

Cool article on the cranks.
It was written by the founder of RRS (Craig Kundig).
I just ran into Craig the other day.

As for Jack, he is a pretty cool guy.
I've chatted with him a few times over the years at Interbike (back in the early 90's).
He seemed to have a passion for cnc machines and manufacturing like I do, so we usually talked about that sort of stuff.

gary cook had two daughters with his first wife (cathey and lori )now in their late 40's, and two sons with his second wife kay. bobby would be the oldest son(late 30's now) and the younger brothers name is jeffery i think (not sure). craig had one son.
I saw craig about 10 or 15 years ago and he told me gary had had a stroke. does anyone know if he is still alive? he was a heavy drinking, heavy smoking individgual.
In the early 80's craig had gary buy him out of the business and owned it by himself when sold to jack.jack had some money problems making the payments originally voiding the no compete agreement allowing gary to start cqp making the same cranks.that is the source of bad blood

I spoke with him a few weeks ago myself. Talking about CNC Machining is the best way to make a connection with the guy.

PM sent to you Helixbmx

Not everything that cbr made was in their catalogs. I had contacted Jack about that last cruiser on the bay with the internal cable routing to see if they did the cable routing or if so putts drilled some holes in a good frame. Jack said that it was their doing and that they made the frame in the spring of 84.

Kookbrosexpert, thanks for the info on bobby cook!,,,,,,heres the strange thing/link i came across couple years ago...i purchased the box of spindles, the prototype arms(they arent titanium) and the silver drive side arm in the pictures that is stamped "cook bros racing", all from codeblue,,,,,,,, after reading the thread it seems to me, that particular logo/arm had to have been desinged by craig and/or gary, ...i, like many others im sure, always got the impression that logo was strictly Jacks doing,,,but it came from the "cook brothers" attic/garage....of course when Jack bought the company he aquired all the rights to any artwork im sure, which is why he CONTINUED using this logo......heres the arm, and link to as to WHERE and WHO it came from :



link:
http://www.os-bmx.com/forums/index.php?sho...347&hl=cook

they started making the cranks before they sold the company so it only natural that gary's kids would have those on their bikes.i think craig had already sold out and moved to idaho when they were done so it would be cook brother? not brothers.they didn't have a cnc lathe so they farmed that work out.had a seris 1 cnc bridgeport boss 5 machine but i don't know if they machined the ends there or not.i think the square taper for the spindles they made was done by edm (electrical discharge machining) but it might mave been milled(have to see one).guess they were cleaning out the garage and figured they would never be in the bike business again and good of them to give it away when everybody ebays a old jock strap now. maybe they aren't computer literate.
do you know if gary is still alive,haven't seen him in20 or more years

thanks for the info,,,,I heard from someone in California approx 1 year ago, and Gary was still around,,,,the guy also mentioned he had a stroke...havent heard anything else lately though, claude