Introducing the brand new 2016 Corsair Revo.
Good news. Corsair Bikes have a new distributor in the UK via Resurrection Cycles, Swansea.
Corsair are making a return to UK shores via Scott at South Wales’ Resurrection Cycles. We caught up with Resurrection’s Scott Burris at the Moelfre British Downhill Series and took a good look at the new 2016 Corsair Revo.
Who are Resurrection? A new(ish) company from South Wales that is owned by one time Sram Tech Center guy Scott Burris. Scott left the Tech Center in 2014 to do his own thing and wants Resurrection to (as the name unsubtly says!) help rejuvenate brands that have disappeared from the UK. Corsair and Atomlab are the first of those.
The Revo: what you need to know
The Revo is a 160mm enduro machine that is just making its way through the final stages of prototyping and will be on sale in August/September 2015 direct from Resurrection.
The frame is a single pivot design with a “slightly high and slightly fore-positioned main pivot” according to Scott. The leverage ratio is somewhere around 2.2:1 which “gives it a nice sensitive feel underneath you”.
The Revo is designed to be fast and fun to ride. It has fairly short 435mm seat stays (great for popping out of corners and manuals) and a 69.2d seat tube angle to keep your weight central on the bike. The top tube is “fairly long” Scott says and is suited to a short stem between 35-50mm. The head angle is a slackish 66d and an angleset will give you +/- 1.5d.  We’re told that the bike is designed around a 160mm fork with a 550-557 axle to crown length – like a Pike or a Marzocchi 350.
The bike you see here is a pre-production prototype. The final version will come fitted with a RockShox Monarch Plus RC3 Debonair shock and a frameset will cost you £1699.99.
Looking back to go forward
Chatting to Scott at the BDS I was keen to learn a little bit about Corsair’s history.
“Back in 2007 it was started by Doug Stuart (of FSA/Specialized/SRSuntour fame) and Pablo Tafoya. In 2010 Doug and Pablo sold the company to Froggy Khu, who grew up on the East Coast USA.” Scott explains. “Froggy was already on board with Atomlab. At that point the company HQ was in Seattle. Costs were high and production volume was low. The bikes were great but the cost of running the company in the States was prohibitive to a company making small numbers of gravity bikes.”
Back in the UK
At that point AtomLab and Corsair were at a sink or swim position and needed to adapt to survive. “Froggy moved Corsair and AtomLab HQ out to Taiwan where he has family. This meant costs could come down and production could be monitored more carefully to ensure quality control was kept high.” That wasn’t an easy move though, Scott explains, and led to Corsair’s absence from the UK for the last couple of years whilst they got everything sorted out. And yep, it looks like that’s done and Corsair are back on sale in the UK and (most importantly) with strong customer support.
Online but face to face
And so – give it a month or so and you’ll be able to buy a Corsair Revo, or any of their 2016 bikes direct from Resurrection cycles in the UK. Owners of older bikes will also be able to get spares, which should be a big boost.
Scott’s previous job saw him working for the SRAM Tech Center and spending a lot of his time on the road. He’s keen to use that experience to get his bikes in front of riders and on trails. “We understand that you’re not going to hand over a fist full of cash for a new frame or set of wheels unless you have seen them first! As riders, we certainly wouldn’t, so how can we expect our customers to do it?”. Sounds good to us. It’s good to see them selling online whilst still keeping a close relationship with the riders and helping out the existing owners.
And the ride?
Of course, none of this means a thing if the bike rides like crap. We’ve got a Corsair Konig and a Revo heading our way in the next couple of weeks and we’re going to be riding the hell out of it and letting you know what we think. First stop – the bike is going down to Triscombe for Joel to thrash around the Great Wood. He’ll be throwing the bike down a thousand fast, rooty, muddy DH runs and over the same number of big, filthy jumps!
For more from Corsair you can check out their global home page or the Resurrection Cycles page here.
