# Cook's vs Cook Brothers cranks???



## JohnnyH (Mar 21, 2004)

I was checking out a friend of mine's vintage cranks. I notice they don't say "Cook Bothers" as my newer ones do -- just "Cook's 181mm" down the side on each crank arm. Are these cranks actually Cook Brothers, but just really old? Just curious as to the lineage of these.


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## Vegetable Man (Jan 31, 2006)

Oh no. What's that sound? I can hear it coming, sounds like stomping... snorting, a mad demon perhaps? A last surviving tyrannosaur? No! It's a thread! Sounds like... no, looks like... no, I see it clearly now... It's "Bride of Cooks/Cook Bros/Cook Brothers Racing/Cook Quality Products/Topline/Grafton". The saga continues. Produced by George Lucas, the battle over the relevance of name/crank/family squabble/money lost/divorce/naughty CNC shops/ego/wit continues, this evening at a website near you. Grab the popcorn, and hunker down. This will either be Indiana Jones IV, or well, another Star Wars...


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## bushpig (Nov 26, 2005)

Not Cook Bros.


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## erkan (Jan 18, 2004)

Vegetable Man said:


> Oh no. What's that sound? I can hear it coming, sounds like stomping... snorting, a mad demon perhaps? A last surviving tyrannosaur? No! It's a thread! Sounds like... no, looks like... no, I see it clearly now... It's "Bride of Cooks/Cook Bros/Cook Brothers Racing/Cook Quality Products/Topline/Grafton". The saga continues. Produced by George Lucas, the battle over the relevance of name/crank/family squabble/money lost/divorce/naughty CNC shops/ego/wit continues, this evening at a website near you. Grab the popcorn, and hunker down. This will either be Indiana Jones IV, or well, another Star Wars...


So in other words, Cooks, Cook Bros and Cook Bros racing is three different companies version of the same crank?


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## richieb (Oct 21, 2004)

Cook's bros. Made awesome parts for along time for the BMX and MTB markeys through the 80's and early 90's. Sometime in the early 90's they sold to another owner who kept the name and some of the designs and moved forward with things like the e-crank, etc...

Meanwhile, the very same Cooks fellows started a new company called Cooks Quality Products. Similar designs because it was the same brain coming up with them as the original Cooks Bros. products, but I guess nobody signed a "do not compete" clause and Mr Cooks knew how to get around his own design patents, etc to create a great product that could compete head to head with his old company.

Hope that helps.

Cooks Bros is still around...CQP...I can't say the same. I think the answers you are loooking for may be on the old Bike Pro website in more detail, though.

rb


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## ckevlar (Feb 9, 2005)

To add soon after the original bros produced the cook's labeled dog bones. Jack, the new cbr owner sued the old bros. Then the old bros changed the name on the cranks to CQP and adjusted their old dogbone cranks.


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## Williwoods (May 3, 2004)

ckevlar said:


> To add soon after the original bros produced the cook's labeled dog bones. Jack, the new cbr owner sued the old bros. Then the old bros changed the name on the cranks to CQP and adjusted their old dogbone cranks.


I had no idea it was all jerry springer and stuff with those different designs, thought it was all clever copy cat tactics.


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## ejr13 (May 8, 2005)

> Cook's bros. Made awesome parts for along time for the BMX and MTB markeys through the 80's and early 90's. Sometime in the early 90's they sold to another owner who kept the name and some of the designs and moved forward with things like the e-crank, etc...
> 
> Meanwhile, the very same Cooks fellows started a new company called Cooks Quality Products. Similar designs because it was the same brain coming up with them as the original Cooks Bros. products, but I guess nobody signed a "do not compete" clause and Mr Cooks knew how to get around his own design patents, etc to create a great product that could compete head to head with his old company.


Close. The Cook Bros sold the company to Jack Whitmer '82-'83. From then until now Jack has always owned it and developed/built all the Cook Bros Products.In the mid/late '80's the "Bros" started "Cooks" and as RichieB said after that.

It's all confusing..


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## westsiderider (Jun 26, 2009)

This makes it crystal clear for me and my confused whose my daddy COOK'S cranks .


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## First Flight (Jan 25, 2004)

I've scanned some stuff in @ http://mombat.org/Cook_Bros.htm


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## mechagouki (Nov 30, 2007)

I think the pertinent question here is: which ones have a high probability of snapping and ploughing an inch-wide furrow into your leg, and which ones don't?


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