Taxonomy upgrade extras
Seattle, Washington
So exactly how did a road bike guy end up in charge of one of the hottest new mountain bike companies in the industry? Doug Stuart, former president of Full Speed Ahead, sometimes has to flex his bike history to convince people he’s not just secretly hiding spandex and shaved legs under his baggy shorts. ““There are occasions when I will encounter some young guy and they might be skeptical about my mountain bike bone fides. I tell them the story about how I built my first mountain bike around 1979, when a mountain bike was a bunch of cobbled together Schwinn parts.” The truth is, his roadie rep is really only a small piece of his long career in the bike business. “I also tell them about the time the shop I was working at received its first Ritchey Timberline. Filet brazed, bull-moose bars, Huret, Mafac, Magura, etc.” In the end, they usually end up laughing at each other. “A lot of these kids weren’t even a glimmer in their parents’ eyes back in the late seventies and I think the kids laugh at me because, well, I’m not of the current generation.”
Seattle-based Corsair Bikes was founded back in January 2007 with a blank piece of paper and a focused vision. That vision was to create a high-end, high performance mountain bike brand to serve hardcore riders. Even though Stuart had spent an accumulated 17 years at big bike companies Specialized and Marin, the goal for Corsair was to be small and focused. A fair amount of discussion was put into the decision as to whether to purchase an existing brand or to start the company from scratch. In the end, they chose to start from the ground up, based on the idea that it was easier to present something new and exciting versus the challenge of reintroducing a brand that may have a bad history or reputation to overcome.
While building a company from the ground up is one thing, building a consumer brand from a blank piece of paper is an even greater challenge. From his experience, Stuart knew that the long-term success strategy was to establish a high-end position in the market and then allow the company to grow by allowing its brand and technology to trickle down. Stuart also knew that climbing the steep hill of acceptance from a budget brand to a high-end brand was nearly impossible. “From a market position standpoint, I am very happy with the initial rollout of the brand,” he says. “We always hope that when riders are considering purchasing a bike from one of the leading high-end brands, that they will also consider a Corsair bike. I think this is happening and rider awareness is quickly building.”
While Doug is the ‘daily driver’ at Corsair, it is the diverse set of friends and industry people that make Corsair Bikes tick. In particular, Pablo Tafoya has been the man behind the technology and product design. For a new company, Corsair has done something quite amazing. They have introduced three unique suspension designs. When one looks at the market and understands exactly which companies actually design their own suspension systems, many people are surprised to learn that the list of companies that actually design their own suspension is quite short. Instead, the vast majority of bicycle brands have either purchased or licensed a suspension design, or use an open source suspension design like Faux bar or single pivot.
The advantage of being able to develop three separate suspension designs is that Corsair is able to use the best technology possible for each type of riding that a bike is designed for. Put simply, a suspension design that may work well for a 4-inch cross-country bike is unlikely to be optimal for an 8-10 inch downhill race bike. While many competitors are forced to market their suspension designs as being the best for every type of riding, Corsair is able to present each of its designs in a technical manner and explain exactly why each of the three designs was chosen for a particular type of riding.
Corsair’s technology package reads like a dream list of the ultimate suspension bike. All Corsair bikes feature an adjustable headtube angle, use the same replaceable dropouts throughout the product line, and all frames have the same shock mounting hardware. Some may say these are small items, but when you start a brand with a blank piece of paper, these are the kinds of details that many overlook. The end result is a better ownership experience. When it comes to suspension—the and soul of any squishy bike—Corsair has used low leverage ratios (between 2:1 and 2.5:1) for superior suspension performance and reliability. Corsair has used a rearward axle-path on its bikes as well, which results in superior square edge suspension.
While a bike’s suspension performance is critical, its pedaling efficiency is equally as important. While many brands have chosen to use pedal platform rear shocks to improve their pedaling efficiency, Corsair has developed a design that allows for super efficient pedaling while maintaining full rear suspension sensitivity. Utilized on its DH, FR, and AM bikes, Corsair’s idler pulley technology represents several innovative ideas. First, Corsair is the first company to offer an idler pulley that allows for either a double or triple front crankset. Corsair also is the first company to mount an idler pulley to the rear swingarm. The results of these innovations are significant in that while the idler pulley virtually eliminates all chain pull (or chain growth), it also results in pedaling that is exactly the same in either chainring. No more pedaling squares in the small chainring. The list goes on: low center of gravity, low stand-over height, linear rate shock actuation, dialed geometry, custom shock mounting hardware and serviceability.
In the end, with its first model introduction, Corsair has put all of the key elements together better than most. Technology, styling, visual appeal, and performance all integrate to make for a world-class machine. It appears that all the hard work is paying off. Corsair is now available through a growing list of international distributors around the world as well as through its authorized dealer network in the United States and Canada. See more at www.corsairbikes.com.
