Shockless rear suspension, a 100mm suspension fork, 2.4-inch tyre clearance and geometry you might find on a hardtail mountain bike – could the new Lee Cougan Innova Super Gravel point the way for cutting-edge gravel bike design?
Well, the bike's designers seem to think so. The questions behind the development of the Innova Super Gravel were: 'Has your gravel bike ever held you back from going further?', 'What is a wrong trail if your bike can handle anything?' and 'Why not choose a bike that can do it all?'.
The new Lee Cougan Innova Super Gravel comes as a full build priced at €5,299 / $5,899 or a frame kit for €2,799 / $3,299.
Suspension without a shock
The Innova’s back end follows soft-tail designs such as the Cannondale Topstone, Basso Tera and Specialized Diverge STR by utilising suspension without a shock unit.
Instead, the Innova combines tapered carbon chainstays that are designed to flex, with a pair of oil-filled pistons to dampen the energy acting on the frame over rough ground.
The patent-pending system, named ISS, is claimed to offer the smoothness of a shock unit without the weight penalty. The frameset is said to weigh 1.2kg in a medium size, including the ISS damping system.
Lee Cougan first used the ISS system on its marathon-focused Rampage Innova mountain bike, although that version relies more on its carbon leaf spring as opposed to the addition of flexible stays on the Innova Super Gravel.
Frame details
The Innova has full internal routing via an Acros headset, two bottle cage mounts, further mounts on the top tube and under the down tube, a steerer lock system by Acros, and most tellingly a 148mm Boost rear triangle.
Making the Innova Super Gravel geared up for a wide range of 29-inch wheels opens a whole world of race-ready mountain bike tyre choices.
Full-suspension gravel
Full-suspension in gravel isn’t a new concept. I first reported on Taiwanese brand A-Pro’s full-sus gravel machine back in 2017.
Since then, we’ve had the Niner MCR and the Cannondale Topstone Lefty. The Innova Super Gravel, however, is the first to embrace a full-length travel mountain bike fork instead of a short-travel gravel-specific fork.
• Best gravel suspension forks
Go-anywhere geometry
The Innova Super Gravel's geometry follows on from that of the Ridley Ignite GTX, Nukeproof Digger RS and Santa Cruz Stigmata in taking its inspiration from mountain bikes.
It has a 69-degree head angle matched to a 73-degree seat angle, long 428mm chainstays, a long reach, tall stack and short stem. The front end is designed to work with a 100mm mountain bike XC suspension fork.
The tyre clearance of up to 2.4in matches the current trend among gravel racers of using larger-volume (mountain bike) tyres.
This takes us back to the early days of gravel, when monstercross bikes with huge 650b clearances found favour. It's having this sort of clearance on larger 700c or 29in wheels that sets the new Lee Cougan bikes apart.
Racing pedigree
The Innova Super Gravel has been trialled by multiple-Traka winner, fifth-place finisher at Unbound 2024 and current Life Time Grand Prix rider Mattia De Marchi, who rode the Innova in the 2024 Atlas Mountain Race.
Is it just a mountain bike with drop bars?
You could certainly argue that’s the case, much like the new Ridley Ignite GTX or the Scott Scale GR, which even goes so far as keeping a flat bar (although it has a rigid fork). Perhaps this is a fad, or it could show the future of gravel bikes, at least for ultra-distance gravel event racers.
Could we be witnessing yet another division in gravel bike design that sees lightweight racers for UCI gravel, burly bikepacking bikes and suspension-equipped do-it-all bikes such as this?
Lee Cougan Innova Super Gravel spec and price details
Full build
- Frame: Toray T700 carbon fibre 1K+3K+Ud, integrated cable routing, press-fit 92x41mm, DI2-compatible, tapered head tube, Boost 148mm
- Fork: Fox Factory Kashima 32, 100mm with lockout
- Groupset: SRAM GX Eagle Transmission, SRAM Rival levers
- Brakes: 160mm Galfer
- Stem: Woz Alpha -20°, 80 mm
- Handlebar: Basso Carbon Gravel 440 c/c
- Wheels: Microtech RK25
- Seatpost: FSA KFX 27.2, 0mm offset
- Saddle: San Marco Ground
Frame kit
- Frame: Toray T700 carbon fibre 1K+3K+Ud, integrated cable routing, press-fit 92x41mm, DI2-compatible, tapered head
- Headset: Acros internal routing headset
- Stem: Woz Alpha -20°, 80 mm
