Test / E-Bike: It's been ten years since Cooper Bikes launched the first bicycles. It was founded under the umbrella of the traditional company Cooper Car Company from Great Britain - known for the eponymous and iconic Mini (Cooper) and successes in motorsport in the 50s and 60s. Two years ago, they agreed to cooperate with the e-bike specialists from TechniBike to develop their own line of electrified two-wheelers under the Cooper name. After the starting signal with the unusual, but successful Cooper E the E-Portfolio gets a further growth: With the Cooper E Disc.
As you can already see from the name, the new e-bike from Cooper is based on the already available and well-known Cooper E. In addition to the slim, puristic steel frame, the hub motor from the Italian manufacturer Zehus has also remained, with the compact hub housing also housing the 160Wh battery is. In contrast to the well-known Cooper E, the new model now comes with hydraulic disc brakes from Shimano and a Gates carbon belt drive. The latter in particular is a logical further development of the single-speed e-bike and promises durability, clean waistbands and quiet operation.
The Cooper E Disc relies on minimalism both visually and technically: There is no gearshift, no display or even a control element for the drive. In return, the chic speedster is given metal mudguards painted in the same color as the frame, which completely cover the narrow 28mm tires. If you want, you can also mount a rear luggage rack, the corresponding eyelets are available - this turns the chic urban bike into a veritable commuter bike for sporty demands.
The fact that the Cooper E Disc is not a boring touring bike, but was built to dash down the bike path at real speed, becomes clear as soon as you get on it. The seating position is not extremely sporty, but depending on the cockpit setup, a decent saddle elevation can be achieved, which puts the driver in a slightly stretched seating position. In this way, you can put a lot of pressure on the pedals, which is immediately supported by the quietly whirring hub motor in the rear. Anyone expecting the power of a Bosch or Brose mid-drive motor will be bitterly disappointed, and a Fazua drive also provides noticeably more support. This is not meant in a negative way, however, as the Zehus motor is not designed to take on the lion's share of the power, but merely contributes some power to that of the driver.
The result is a pleasantly nimble bike that accelerates quickly and can still be pedaled at speeds of 25 km/h without any problems – i.e. when the engine has long since given up. In practice, however, this not only happens when you are driving too fast, but also when the small 160Wh battery is discharged. 160Wh? Sounds puny? However, if you were to reduce the range of the Cooper E Disc to just the small battery, you would be doing the exciting urban bike an injustice: One of the big highlights is its ability to recharge the battery while riding. This works through the so-called Kers technology, which motorsport fans may also know from Formula 1. If you just roll along on the Cooper, the turning of the rear wheel is used as a kind of generator or oversized dynamo to charge the battery.
Of course, the system brakes a little bit, but in practice this is hardly noticeable. If you want to direct additional energy into the battery, you can simply pedal backwards while driving. This maximizes recuperation, properly charges the battery and almost feels a little like a very gentle coaster brake. With this system, really reliable information about the range can hardly be given, but 25-30km is not a problem if you keep pedaling backwards on the way. When you get home, the battery can of course also be charged at the socket. The connection for this is located in the rear wheel axle.
By the way, if you miss a display on the Cooper, you can use the free app, which also allows you to adapt the support and characteristics of the drive to your own needs. If you can do without it, simply activate the drive by turning the crank three times backwards - no button, no display necessary.
Driving the Cooper E Disc is a lot of fun. The possibility of being able to charge the battery yourself on the go even invites you to play from time to time and makes driving somehow entertaining. Anyway, we thought it was great! However, we were not quite as convinced of the choice of tires. However, we had nothing to criticize about the Vittoria tires themselves, we simply found them a bit too narrow. At 28mm, they are as narrow as on a modern racing bike - on the one hand, comfort suffers and ruts or tram rails become even more uncomfortable. In the frame and fork and also under the mudguards there is unfortunately no space for much wider tires.
After we already did that last season original Cooper E tested, it can be said in comparison that the disc brakes and the belt drive justify the small surcharge for the Cooper E Disc. The brakes always bring the bike to a safe standstill, regardless of the weather, and the belt drive is not only wonderfully quiet, there is also no need to lubricate the chain. The new Cooper E Disc is warmly recommended to those who like to be out and about in bad weather.
