Cooper Motorcycles was the brainchild of Frank Cooper, owner of Apache Limited, the U.S. Maico distributor in Burbank, California. Cooper saw a gap in the market between the inexpensive Japanese dirt bikes and the expensive European brands. He approached Moto Islo, a high-volume Mexican commuter bike manufacturer, to build a dirt bike that would fill this gap. Frank hoped the Mexican-built Cooper would handle like a Maico, run like a Yamaha and cost less than the Japanese entries.
Unfortunately the Cooper had major reliability issues and the company only lasted a few years. In the end, the famous Jones family bought the brand and renamed it “Ammex” with the intent of having four-time 250 Champion Gary Jones race it to sales success. The Ammex was a vastly superior machine than the Cooper, but was doomed when the Mexican peso was devalued in 1976.