Velo City: Bicycle Culture and City Life

Rook And Roll: Corvid Sojourner

Rook And Roll: Corvid Sojourner

It’s a short correlation between riding and flying, and it’s one that Colorado’s Chad Corbin also makes a personal connection to. A finalist in the 2019 NAHBS New Builder category, he’s named his framebuilding enterprise after the Corvidae family of birds.

Rook And Roll: Corvid Sojourner

Chad didn’t just win on a one-off bike that he built after completing a course, he started building lugged and fillet brazed frames as a hobby — 15 years ago. A few years ago, he took the titanium frame building class at the United Bicycle Institute.

Rook And Roll: Corvid Sojourner

Upon graduating, he went to work for DEAN where he was lead builder and production manager for the DEAN and Merlin brands. He left about a year ago to start his own brand, Corvid Cycles.

Rook And Roll: Corvid Sojourner

Chad’s last name, Corbin, can be traced back to mean raven and is a short leap to Corvidae, the family of birds that includes Crows, Ravens, Rooks, and Jays — known for their adaptability, ingenuity, and intelligence.

They’re all attributes Chad wanted the brand to encapsulate, also hinting at his long term plan to design adaptive bikes. “The imagery of flight and freedom speak to me personally,” Chad tells us, “both as the feeling one gets riding a bike, and as the feeling I had leaving my engineering profession to go on my own and do something I love.

He continues: “The red, yellow and blue color bands on my frames represent Colorado, my adopted home for the last 17 years, and coincidentally, the colors of the country of Chad, which also happens to be my nickname.

Rook And Roll: Corvid Sojourner

His Sojourner frame is designed to be a backroads/trail touring/bikepacking bike, but thanks to the modern geometry, it’s also a fun ride unloaded. Chad fabricated the titanium rack and handlebars as well.

Rook And Roll: Corvid Sojourner

A Pinion gearbox and Gates belt combination result in a reliable and clean drivetrain — and a bike I’d love to take for a ramble through the Colorado ranges. Head to the Corvid Cycles website to see his other frames.

Corvid Cycles Website | Instagram

Rook And Roll: Corvid Sojourner