Crumpton Cycles is now offering the Corsa Team, a stock frame based on their race-oriented, full custom Corsa M.
Much like fellow handmade builder Parlee has their full custom Z1 and stock-only Z4, Nick Crumpton wanted to make his ideal of a road bike available in a stock offering that could deliver more quickly than a full custom bike.
“I lose a lot of sales to people that don’t want to wait. There are plenty of customers that are willing to wait six, nine or 12 months for a custom, handmade frame. But for cylists that want still desire something unique but want to be riding by the weekend, I wanted to find a high quality frame that we could offer that could be delivered immediately.”
Crumpton researched builders to find someone capable of making a tube-to-tube frame to his specifications. He wanted to go to Italy, and looked at four different companies.
“Asia wasn’t an option,” he said, “So where else could you go? I found a company I liked, ordered some prototypes and put a bunch of friends on them. Plus, my family’s from there -I’m a dual United States/Italian citizen- so it was easy for me to work them.”
They ordered a couple of frames with a very specific tubeset, which they liked right off the bat, but geometries were played with over several versions. They also had them rework the finish a few times, too, to get the frame where Crumpton was happy with it.
It has the same Dedacciai rear triangle as on his custom Corsa M bikes, and the carbon tubes have a similar diameter and shape.
It uses a standard, straight 1-1/8″ fork because all of the tapered forks available have the same rake. Crumpton wanted to be able to fine tune the ride and geometry like he does with his custom bikes, so he stuck with the straight steerer to have more rake options to match the frame sizes and head angles.
The frame uses a BB30 bottom bracket, which allows for a wide range of cranksets to be used either directly or with adapters.
Pricing is $3,900 plus shipping for the frame, fork, BB30 SRAM bottom bracket bearings, Ritchey WCS integrated headset and Thomson seat clamp. Seven sizes, 49 – 61 in odd sizes, are available. Frame weight is a claimed 1050g on the 55. As of this posting, there are just 25 frames in inventory. Crumpton says he hopes to move between 50 and 100 frames per year. With those numbers, chances are you’ll still have something unique on the local club ride even if it’s not full custom. We’re lining one up for review soon.
There are six graphic color options. The frames ship from Italy with a matte clear coat on them, then they apply a top mount decal (similar to what’s done on titanium frames) before shipping. Crumpton says they bond very well with the clear coat, yet can be removed and changed in the future.
Want custom instead?
Where the Corsa M and Corsa SL step up the game is that they use tuned carbon tubes made by ENVE Composites in the USA. Tubesets are selected individually for the rider’s weight, build, style and frame size, letting Crumpton completely customize the ride for the type of riding they do. The Corsa M and SL upgrade to a PressFit 30 bottom bracket. They both start at $5,300 for frame, fork, headset and BB. The SL uses a Crumpton-designed mono-stay rear end made by ENVE rather than the Dedacciai rear triangle. A Corsa M and SL typically weigh in at about 950g for a 55.
Side note: the SL has a longer history at Crumpton and started life with CNC’d dropouts, which at the time was much lighter than competing frames. The Corsa M is a more modern offering with full carbon dropouts, which is why the “SL” isn’t actually any lighter. Put two and two together and you can guess where things might be headed on the custom side…
