Corsa Concepts Journal

Kesho Cross Racer

Greg — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:19:46 +0000

John McCaffrey of Kesho Bicycles came to us deep in the heart of winter (no, not this morning) looking for some wheels for a cross bike he was building for himself. Always willing to do custom work, we were all in.

We quickly settled on a set of 1.9T wheels, built with CX Ray spokes and brass nipples, the easy part. John has a keen sense of detail, so we went back and forth on the design for weeks. Generally builders have a very specific idea in mind, which always make it a fun challenge.

In the end John decided that less was more, which also happened to be one of the first ideas we started with. Here are a few of the ideas that went back-and-forth during the process and then the final product.

If you have a something in mind for your bike let us know, we’d love to work with you on it.

Mudslinger Race Report

Greg — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 22:03:39 +0000

By Bob Stephens

After being away from bike racing for just over 13 years I was bitten by the bug to go back and race again, so I started training last October for the 2012 mountain bike season. On April 1^st of 2012 my teammate Brian Gerow and I lined up at the 24^th Annual Mudslinger, the longest running mountain bike race in Oregon. It was a chilly 39 degrees and raining as we rolled out from the finish area to the starting area half a mile away. Brian was starting ahead of me in cat 1 19-34, he got off to a bad start with a mechanical, but he did have a great time and came home in 7^th place. I race cat 2 35-44.

My race was an adventure in not going out to hard. Right after the start I watched my heart rate take off to what seemed like the moon, but was actually 170 bpm. I backed off a bit and let the group ride away knowing that I would have many miles to catch back up to those that went out too hard from the start. As the race unfolded I was feeling great and having a blast. Even with the cold and wet weather, I had to make a quick stop at the water station to refill on water. In the end I had a great race coming in 26^thplace, which isn’t bad with being away for so many years. Looking forward to the Bear Springs, the next race, on April 29^th.

Brian Gerow

Bob Stephens

Time for an update.

Greg — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:41:49 +0000

It’s been really quiet from us on the social media front the last couple months. What better way to restart, but by showing a small selection of the wheels we’ve put out in the world recently. We love when customers send us pictures of their new wheels on their bike. We know the feeling, like when as kids we got a new pair of shoes or toy. You have to show them off to all your friends, as well they quite often ended up either next to the bed or in the bed the first few nights or until the shoes were too dirty. We won’t hold it against anyone who sleeps with their new wheels in their bed.

This Hampsten you’ll find riding around the wilds of the Canada or in and around Vancouver B.C., most likely with its owner David piloting.

Joshua, the owner of this spanking new Masi crosser, wanted his wheels to look similar to the shiny ones we did for Steven Hunter, but without being shiny…Like it!

This Salsa lives in Raleigh, NC, with its master Eric. Eric is going to be all decked out with Portland gear this fall
when he starts racing his new Cielo cross bike and his 2.3T/1.9T combo set.

Portland Monthly Article

Greg — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:13:05 +0000

We knew Shannon Skerritt was asked to pose for an article to feature Portland riders heading to Masters Worlds in Kentucky next month. What we didn’t know is that our friend, Shoshanna Cohen, was writing the article. It just came out so I went to pick it up at Whole Foods. I’m not going to lie, it was pretty cool to be standing in line at my local grocery store reading an article about a friend, written by a friend in a Portland magazine.

Pick up a copy for yourself or check it out on the Portland Monthly site.

Ed’s Custom JVA Wheelset

Greg — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:23:04 +0000

Our pal Ed Rogers, who works at King Cycling Group, came to us wanting to do some, race-worthy, Portland summer wheels with custom decals to match his team Jens Voigt’s Army. Being a friend we decided to give him the real bro-deal and hook him up with a pair of prototype carbon clinchers. Aside from saying that they’re 50mm, we’ll stick with showing you the custom graphics and details on the build we came up with. The wheels are laced together with Sapim CX Ray spokes and black alloy spoke nipples, front and rear 2-cross (24/28 spoke holes). Ed supplied a set of Chris King R45′s in black, with their new ceramic bearings.

We can’t wait to see them all mounted up on his new Giant rig, enjoy!

Cross Racing in Texas

Greg — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:00:08 +0000

Our man Bryan Voytilla, who moved down to Texas last year, is killing-it in the singlespeed category. This weekend will wrap-up their cross season where he’ll be racing for a 6-pack of PBR and the Texas State Championship (we’ll send him a 6-pack of Deschutes either way).

Good luck Bryan!

Photo by Big Ring Photography

Castelli SanRemo ‘Cross Suit

Greg — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:26:44 +0000

A few weeks ago I got a call from Castelli asking to have someone on the team do some product testing. At first I thought maybe it would be more 2XL testing work for myself, but fortunately for all it wasn’t. They wanted Michael Gallagher test the new SanRemo ‘Cross Suit. This piece is really nice, with a fleece upper, aero fabric pit for breath ability and the perfectly formed bottom and leg bands, as usual. Learn more about it on Castelli’s site at SanRemo ‘Cross Suit.

Below is a video Castelli produced as well as a few of the photos they took.

Photo Contest Winner

Greg — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:21:35 +0000

It’s taken weeks to tabulate and the winner is…

Well first, we had a tie for several photos, so here’s what we did: First, we did a drawing for each of the photos that were tied for the win. Secondly, we did a drawing between the voters of the winning photo.

The winner is Erin Lolich! Full disclosure, she’s the girlfriend of Josh Liberles pictured in the winning photo. The runner-up was Caroline Paquette of Little Package who made the Corsa Concepts custom caps. It will be nice for Erin to have a cool picture of Josh and a sweet cap to keep her head warm this winter.

Thanks to all those that participated and to Nick at Shift Focus for the great photography!

2012 Sponsorship Application

Greg — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 12:54:11 +0000

It’s that time of year again, we’re taking applications for Road, XC MTB and Track, for both teams and individual riders.

Please check out and complete our sponsorship application. We will review them as they come in and contact you soon after.

Cross Crusade PIR #2

Greg — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:54:46 +0000

The team had a great weekend to cap off the Cross Crusade series. Aaron Tuckerman won his 5th Cross Crusade race of the season to wrap-up the series overall win. Shannon Skerritt finished right behind Aaron and Michael Gallagher was 9th. Megan Chinburg finished 3rd in the womens elite race.

We caught a few photos of our own, before the camera’s battery died. The low light and poor flash created some pretty cool effects, we think, check them out below.

We’ll see you in Eugene at the State Cyclocross Championship on Saturday and Kruger’s Farm on Sunday.