Corsair Ducat - Distilledmag.com

Corsair DucatThe market has been flooded with dirt/street/parkbikes lately. Cheap and relatively easy to produce,steel-framed hardtails are everywhere, but whatabout the rider who wants something with a littlemore thought put into it? Corsair’s Ducat is a veryspecial little bike, with the kind of thought andattention to detail put into it that you’d expectto find on a Ducati, rather than a bike destinedfor the streets of New York, the local dirt jumps ora day of punishment at the skate park. Riding agrungy, beat-up steel hardtail may be your thing,and that’s ok, but if you’re looking for somethingmore, read on....All photos: David Tufino. Test Rider: David Holzer.Distilled Mountainbike Magazine

Local NYC ripper David Holzer at the Brooklyn Banks.Way back in issue 3 of Distilled we interviewedthe main guy behind the awesome range ofCorsair bikes, Doug Stuart. Back then, Doug wasgiving us the lowdown on the upcoming Corsairmodels, and from what we could gather theylooked great, were well-designed and hadobviously had an incredible amount of thoughtput into them, not least by talented designer,downhiller and Whistler native Pablo Tofoya.Usually a new brand takes a while to achievethe sort of slick, polished finish and refinementthat comes through years of trial and error, butCorsair seemed to have this right off the bat,looking every bit as good if not more so thanestablished boutique brands like Turner, Intenseor Santa Cruz, as well as some of the corporategiants with their enormous operating budgetsand teams of designers.So it was with much anticipation that I unboxedthe shinynew, fullybuilt-upDucat thatthe Corsairguyswere kindenough tosend overthis winter.The framewas thefirst thingI noticed:largediameteraluminumtubingwith neatwelds anda seriouslyexpensivelookingpaintjob. At the back was a replaceabledropout accommodating a 12mm Maxle,but there is also the option of having horizontaldropouts or a 10mm QR. This should keep mostvarieties of hardtail riders out there happy. Atthe front, an optional headset allows the headtubeto be slackened or steepened to 68 and70 degrees from the stock 69, helping to keepthe geometry right when using different travelforks. The parts spec seemed pretty good at firstglance also: some very nice in-house componentslike the low-profile pedals, Corsair’s ownwheelset and embossed seat; Funn cranks,brakes, seatpost and stem; SRAM x.9 shifter,mech and cassette; and Kenda rubber roundingout the package. Corsair got the test-biketo us in a rush and so a few of these parts arenot what a customer would receive, notablythe seatpost (normally Syncros), the cranks(RaceFace) and the brakes (Avid Juicy 7’s).Swinging a leg over the Ducat for the first time,it was one of those bikes that felt just right,straight off the bat. Blasting down the sidewalkon it, the acceleration was extremely snappy.Aluminum definitely gives a snappier feel thansteel and the 15.9” chainstays were spot on forputting the power down. The gear changeswere snappy via the SRAM x.9 components andI imagined that with a few minor tweaks, thebike could be put to good use on some of thesmoother4X/slalomcourses,especiallythe longertop-tubemodelthat Corsairalsooffer.The Funnbrakeswerecompletelylackingin power,however,somethingIput downto themnot havingbeenbedded in yet. A few miles of hard stops later(literally) and there was a little more powercoming through the back brake but the frontwas close to non-existent. Perhaps there wasa problem with this particular pair, but I wouldsteer way clear of these brakes, as they are abig disappointment in the otherwise excellentFunn range. Thankfully, the production Ducatsare specc’ed with Juicy 7’s, which, as we allknow, are more than enough for a downhillbike let alone a 32.6lb street bike. Set up withDistilled Mountainbike Magazine