Among Cooper’s offerings of singlespeed and hub-geared urban bikes at Eurobike were a couple of great traditional road bikes.
The new Revival has a lugged 853 Reynolds steel frame at its heart, and is finished with Campag’s 11-speed Athena.
The new Avus is named after the circuit on which company founder John Cooper drove his Formula 3 car to victory.
The vehicle marked a major development by Cooper in that it was rear engine, radical for the time and now standard in Grand Prix racing. Whether Cooper are hoping the new Avus bike will reap the same benefits we don’t know, but it’s certainly an interesting proposition.
The Avus’ drivetrain uses a Gates carbon belt in place of a chain, and at the rear a new Shimano Alfine 11 hub takes care of the gear range. However, it’s the Di2 version of the Alfine, and the Avus is the only bike we can spot to feature it throughout the whole of Eurobike.
Braking on the Avus is handled by discs. The prototype shown here has chromed Reynolds steel tubing, but the production model will be high-grade titanium.
The Gates carbon belt on the Cooper Avus drivetrain
