Mountain Biking - New ride-age stoke. Corsair Marque. [o]

The bike f'ing kicks ass. Caveat: I'm only running one ring, and have the new pulley. Sounds as if most problems were with two rings/the old pulley. There have been reports of many people on this new frame having issues with the pivot pulley dying and mangling the chain, particularly with running more than a single ring, or just having crappy shifting, and tons of chainline issues. So far, so good. For where I live and ride, a single ring works quite well. We'll see if issues crop up over time, or if I should decide to try a dual ring setup. Probably will at some point, just to see...
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0109.jpg

Blue Mtn. over in Peekskill, NY has some fun stuff. Nothing super big, but pedaly techy. We had a nice big rain dump late last night, so the places I'd really have liked to ride where a bit too slippery. The wet leaves here had me far more upright in the corners than I'd rather, but this thing likes tight corners, even with slack (for a "trailbike") geometry.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0119-1.jpg

A lot going on there. It's a linkage actuated single pivot, with an idler pulley in line with the high-ish rear pivot. This is supposed to cancel out drivetrain induced problems that you may otherwise get with a standard single pivot bike. Bike pedaled beautifully. Felt great in out of the saddle grinding, and smooth spinning. Braking felt extremely neutral - no big untoward influence from the suspension action, at least that I could feel. A little rearward axle path with travel - something I couldn't really notice, but things felt nice and smooth on the few little drops and square edged hits/ledges.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0160-1.jpg

Stinger, the frame pulley, and a totally rigged "upper guide" made from some parts bin bits. Just sitting right over the chain, not actually rubbing up top. In three hours of some good trail today, no derailment, no chain manglement, or pulley exploderizing.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0158-1.jpg

Buildup: everything went nice and smoothly. Things threaded and tapped in nice and slickly. Pulled the shock out; no binding or bad contact of the moving bits. One of the linkage pivot bolts was a touch loose, out of the box. Pulled them all, cleaned threads, daubed on a bit of blue Loctite, reinstalled nice and tight.

Lined up lots of sticky Velcro (soft side) inside the chain tunnel.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0155-1.jpg

A bit of Sticky side up on top of the tunnel, seems to quiet things a bit more.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0153-1.jpg

Things were nice and quiet, as opposed to the racket in the stand. Didn't really notice a ton of noise when actually riding. The pulley is already fairly chewed up and grooved - we'll see about the longevity. Have the "original" styel as a mid-ride backup, and a Blackspire spare pulley (harder than the MRP stuff) to try out as well. Also have asked for a couple more from the company.


Some of these are off a bit.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0159-1.jpg

Gobs of room. 2.35 Intense DH tire with plenty of space.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0156-1.jpg


It's fun. Pedals well. Very easy to get the front end up, and get in the air, even for a non-air guy like myself. Back end is very solid feeling. My little self wasn't feeling flexy goings-on.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0143-1.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0113-1.jpg


It isn't svelte. 34# as shown. Granted, with a full DH rear tire, a Graivty Retarder post, and that pig of a Roco rear shock. Going to try the non-dh version of the same tire (been liking it on the back of the hardtail, has behaved so far...) and a RS Monarch rear shock to see how it gets on. It may or may not play nicely with the 2:1 leverage ratio. I figure with the large air can version, it should still let me run low pressures to keep thing feeling fine. Not sure if it'll give me screwy rebound or not.

What does Corsair need to do?
*make the chain tunnel have more clearance
*ensure the pulley is durable, and if it ends up being a replaceable "wear item" with short mileage, make sure replacement bits are cheap and easily available.
*give you a spare driveside/hanger dropout for whichever version you order stock. c'mon, not a single spare with the purchase? at my sale price of 1099, not so bad, but if you paid full price for it??? c'mon.
*either enlarge the open area on the downtube, or spec a shock that doesn't require unbolting it from the damn frame to mess with standard adjustment.
*make a simple single pivot or linkaged "faux" bar frame with the same attention to detail/quality and geometry/sizing. it would sell very, very well, IMO>

Uno mas.


http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f12/scrublover/January%2009/December/IMG_0133-1.jpg

jealous yet again. good report too.

What bike did this replace?

What bike did this replace?

The Pitch frame. Like it very much, just felt like trying something new. The fire sale pricing was...enticing. Near two inch shorter wheelbase, near and inch shorter BB height (with only 130mm travel, no biggie) It feels really, really good.

It felt like the fully I've been seeking since I began screwing around with them - something that handles like my hardtails, yet has the squish for those "heavy flow" days. :)

44" WB 17" stays 23" tt 13.3" BB height 66* HTA Short travel, slack, tough. Very little tweaking on trail to get comfy on the thing. Other contenders were the Sinister Gruitr, and a Specialized SX with a 140mm fork. Either setup how I want would give me similar numbers tow hat I'm after, but I"ve been curious about these frames for a while now.

Very nice.

I'm curious about the weight of the complete bike.
BTW good pics. Looks nice, but a little heavy for my purposes.

I'm curious about the weight of the complete bike.
BTW good pics. Looks nice, but a little heavy for my purposes.

As noted, roughly 34#. I easily have an extra two pounds in tires and Gravity Dropper seatpost over other options. As well, the Roco R shock is stupid heavy for an air shock - near as heavy as may as well run a coil. The other shock I plan to try, and slightly lighter meats will drop a pound, easily. Thru-axle rear end. Very comfortable, but slightly porky seat. Stinger lower chainguide. There are some things I'm not willing to get rid of, just for the sake of weight loss. I'll take the penalty for performance. The stock headset is a bit chunky. I've got a much lighter upper cup coming that will shed some, and not alter the head tube angle, but will allow me to drop the bar height down another half inch. :)

Really though, the weight is fine for a lot of where this bike will be ridden. I'd rather carry a little extra chunk on the bike if it means I can beat the crap out of it and not have worries in the back of my head.

That said, without compromising my preferences in ride and equipment feel, getting her down to 32# should be easy. 31# may be a stretch. Any less and it'll compromise on things I'm unwilling to.

nice wheels! what year is this bike? is that a new design? i am not very familiar with this brand

nice wheels! what year is this bike? is that a new design? i am not very familiar with this brand

http://www.corsairbikes.com/fly.aspx?layout=bike&taxid=61

New. Only been out officially less than a year, though "proto" stuff has been floating around and popping up on message boards a while longer.