Independent Fabrication (IF) has built itself an impressive reputation in a few short years for its beautifully handcrafted steel and titanium framesets. There's been carbon too, with the stunningly realised XS a beautiful fusion of carbon and titanium. With the Corvid the company has produced its first full-carbon frameset, and just as we would expect, it's far from the norm.
Wondering where the name comes from? It's actually the scientific classification of birds in the Corvidae family, containing ravens, crows and magpies, and which happen to be mostly black.
Frame
This is not any carbon fibre frame. What IF has created is something a little special, and in a world of carbon clones the Corvid manages to be truly unique and stand out. Two objectives were kept in mind when penning the design for the frame: "no compromises in our full custom philosophy and make it distinctive, both visually and technically."
So, where to start? Perhaps the most interesting thing about the frame has to be the lugs. Tube and lug construction approaches are common with high-end carbon fibre frames such as those from Parlee, Milani etc, but the Corvid doths its cap towards lug design of yesteryear. Lugs of intricate design used to be a standard feature when steel ruled the road, with them almost being an opportunity for frame builders to show-off their craftsmanship and skills, a signature if you like for a frame builder. Until the Corvid nobody had attempted the same feat with carbon though. The results are stunning. The lugs have been shaped to resemble the IF crown logo, and hold the Edge-manufactured tubes in place.
The frame is built using a proprietary bladder moulding technology and each frame is built to a rider's exact measurements and requirements, with tubes bonded to the lugs in a specially designed jig. There's subtle profiling to the main tubes, but the side profile reveals a classically styled frame. The headset is of the integrated variety and keeps the stack height low.
Details abound with carbon fibre cable stops, meaty 6/4 titanium dropouts, a carbon front mech mount and a BB30 bottom bracket. The fork is an Edge designed fork and balances perfectly with the frame. The black finish hides a glittery finish, these photos don't do it justice but in the low sun it glistens immaculately. There's a choice paint finishes and decals but we think the simple white decals on the black finish provides the bike with an elegant stance. The finishing touch is the requisite sterling silver headbadge mounted to the head tube. Each frame comes with a lifetime warranty.
Components
As Independent Fabrication are only available as framesets, it's down to the customer to build the Corvid up to their requirements through either Mosquito Cycles or Bespoke Cycling in London.
Our test Corvid came direct from the Eurobike cycle show and had a collection of Shimano Dura Ace 7900 STIs, front and rear derailleurs and brake calipers, Edge Composite bars, stem and seatpost. The remaining bits were changed due to personal tastes. So off came the stock Cannondale chainset and a quick phonecall to Windwave has an FSA SLK Light 50/39 chainset slipped on. Off too came the Edge tubular rims, a decision to use clincher wheels heralded a pair of Dura Ace 7700 wheels fitted with Michelin Pro 3 Light tyres, and a new Ultegra 6700 11-29 cassette - well, I wasn't going to take any chances in the mountains was I...
There were no problems with any of the components. Dura Ace continued to shift flawlessly throughout, requiring no maintenance or even tweakage of the gear cables, just the frequent oiling of the chain. The serious amount of descending did highlight the ineffectiveness of the brakes though.
This was a first ride with Edge's new bars and stem and I was seriously impressed. The handlebars are the stiffest carbon bars I've ever ridden with and felt more like an aluminium bar in use. A full review of those bits soon.
Ride
A bike as special as the Corvid requires a special test. None of the usual run of the mill stuff. So the bike was packed into a bike box and it flown out to France as my choice of steed for the inaugural Cent Cols Challenge. Where better to find out how the Corvid performs than a challenging 10-day sportive around France with more climbing than is sensible?
It was a good choice. The event threw up a mixture of road surfaces, conditions and challenges that would otherwise take months under normal circumstances. 2000km were clocked up and over 40,000m of climbing which proved ample time to get to grips with the new IF.
It must be remembered that buying an IF is to buy a fully custom frame, much like buying a bespoke suit. Your sizing and specification is taken into consideration so that each IF frame coming out of the Somerville factory is perfectly suited to each customer. For the purposes of this test we were fortunate to be given an Edge employees 56cm Corvid (with the instruction to treat it very nice...), so while we do miss out on knowing what a custom frame would feel like, I was able to get a very good impression of the Corvid.
The Corvid grew on me very quickly. It is just so unbelievably smooth, supple, slick and refined, that the bike almost goes unnoticed underneath you and you can concentrate on the simple pleasure of pedalling. Its incredible ability to flatten out even the most rugged of road surfaces, and there were plenty during the ride, made the long days in the Alps pass by without even the mildest hint of discomfort. For covering long distances the Corvid is stupendously good, it just eats up the miles.
And it's not comfort at the sacrifice of stiffness either. The oversized and profiled tubeset, the BB30 bottom bracket, the beefy chainstay assembly and the solid one-piece titanium dropouts makes for a frame that just won't twist, squirm or flex even under the most powerful exertions. How direct the frame tracked was especially noticeable during out of the saddle climbing, there's no loss of power with every watt going to the rear wheel.
Handling proved very just a tad on the slow side of neutral. I did take some time to become comfortable on the Corvid, most particularly during the tighter hairpin corners of the many Alpine descents the Cent Cols threw up daily. I wanted the front wheel to turn in a little more precisely and more quickly and I found myself having to adapt my riding style a little to get the best out of it. If I was able to order a custom Corvid such a factor could easily be tailored. While I wasn't enamoured with hard cornering, in all other situations the neutrality of the handling made the Corvid a dream to ride. It's rock solid stable when cruising along, isn't thrown off line easily and was very easy to live with for 10 days of intensive riding.
I find it hard to draw conclusion on the Corvid. It's undoubtedly an impressively engineered and lovingly crafted frame with some beautiful details and would make anyone who can afford the extremely high price very happy. I was at odds with the handling of the bike but it must be remembered, and considered, that this frame wasn't custom built for me, and that all customers able to specify every measurement of their Corvid will probably come away happier than I did.
The Corvid is an immensely impressive foray into carbon for Independent Fabrication.
Verdict
An impressively accomplished full carbon bike from IF
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