Revolution – A Short History

Back in 1999, Edinburgh Bike Coop launched an exclusive brand known as “Revolution”. The name was inspired by the slogan we adopted in the 90’s “ The Revolution Will Not Be Motorised” . This was our proclamation that, for most people in most circumstances, the bicycle is the smartest way to get around. This is something that we still believe in today however, has time and technology have moved on, we are now proud retailers of e-bikes.

True to our co-operative ethos, our Revolutionary ambition was to make quality bicycle equipment more affordable. Two factors inspired the creation of every Revolution bicycle or piece of kit.

In the late ’90s some of our mechanics got into cobbling together ‘hack’ bikes. A hack bike would typically start with a discarded mountain bike frame and wheels. Then it would be built into a street bike with narrower slick tyres and a simpler transmission – 8-speed or even single speed rather than 24 gears. The result was the perfect urban machine: one that married mountain bike-like strength with close-to-road-bike speed. The hack bike might be the mechanic’s sole do-everything bike. Alternatively, it might complement the more bling road or mountain bike that he or she wouldn’t dare to leave locked outside the pub.

We had a hunch that a fast, tough, low-maintenance bike wasn’t just for bicycle mechanics and couriers. It could be the perfect bike for others too. We therefore set about creating a good, honest, stripped-down bike – not with discarded parts this time – but with a brand-new lifetime-guaranteed mountain bike frame, stout wheels, 26×1.5″ tyres and an 8-speed Shimano Rapidfire transmission. In 1999, the Revolution Courier was born. The bike was an instant success. So much so that over the following decade, many of the bigger bike companies brought out similar (but significantly more expensive) hybrid bikes, the best example of which is probably the Cannondale Bad Boy.

Over the years, our ambition to sell our own brand bikes became harder to achieve with the competition for manufacturers and in 2016, we ceased their production. However, to this day, you will see people riding Revolution bikes and now you know their story!

Revolution Timeline