Big Tires, Big Adventures: Corvus Crow Pass Ti Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Corvus Cycles, based in Anchorage, Alaska, is mostly known for its fat bike line up. Despite what you might think, it's not always snowy up there and there are thousands of miles of dirt roads, double track, and wilderness to explore by bike. And that's where the Crow Pass Ti comes from. A bike designed for drop or flat bars, plus tires or even regular old 29ers, it's a versatile bike designed for riding when you don't really know what's in store along the way. I've been riding the Crow Pass for a couple of months and in this video, I talk about what I think of it.
Corvus Crow Pass Ti - corvuscycles.c...
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Thanks for the review, I like the versatility of a design like that and it could be a good compliment to my full suspension MTB for a two bike setup. I currently have my Karate Monkey set up as a drop bar for forest roads, single track, exploring, and bikepacking, and a Giant Revolt for road/gravel and some single track at times. Both can handle almost everything I take them on, but neither feel ideal for all those things if I wanted to just keep one of them. I'm less into paved roads, so something like the Crow Pass might be a good choice.
I think the Crow Pass with a wheelset for each application (one for road/gravel/light singletrack, one for the unmaintained/exploring side of things) would be a great option.
Great looking bike! Personnaly I’d take a flatbar or an alt bar. Thanks for the review!
its a great bike and your review is spot on thanks for the hard work man
I'm from Alaska. Up until a couple of years ago I had lived in Anchorage for a dozen years. I had no idea there was a bike company based there though. Also, Crow Pass is a beautiful place. It's a 26 mile hike between Eagle River, a suburb of Anchorage, and Girdwood through the mountains. Definitely get up to Alaska when you get the chance.
They mention the pass it's named after and it sounds like it's beautiful. I'll make it up there at some point haha
Thanks for putting some time in on the Crow Pass. Casey.
I feel like a wild gravel adventure in Alaska would be terrifying
That’s half the fun!
I like this application and feel like this is the direction of the adventure gravel frames. What I don’t understand is the unnecessary Boost spacing. I feel like this would be fine with 142x12 and 100x12 or 100x15 fork. Boost spacing would make sense for a mountain biker who wants to build up this bike with spare parts but that’s only Mountain Bikers that don’t have older bike parts that came before American bikes switched to Boost.
I think one of the reasons (I'm sure there's more than one) for going with boost is that the bike is designed around mountain bike tires which work better with the wider rims of mountain bike wheels. It's a lot easier to find wide (i25-i35) mountain bike wheelsets in boost spacing than standard/gravel spaced ones.
@@RideYearRound but most newer gravel wheels are i25 and older mountain bike wheels are i26. I have a set of Velocity Blunt SS rims on my gravel bike now it’s i26.6mm and pairs perfectly with with 29x2.1” tires.
Another thing I would consider is Gravel Groups,,such as Shimano GRX are not Boosted. The cassettes are also HG and not the Boost Micro Spline.
I just see an issue with forcing changing standards just because we are told Boost is needed for wider tires when it helps but not mandatory.
I think you're confusing two things: axle standard and freehub standard. Axle standard is just the axle type (TA or QR) and the width between the drop outs and isn't related to freehub standard (Microspline, HG, XD). Boost, non-boost, or gravel boost also don't matter for the derailleur itself. If you're wanting to adjust your chainline, that's done up on your cranks typically via the chainring offset.
It's obviously not a NEED to go with boost for wider tires, but it does strengthen up the wheel which is helpful and has been by far the most popular/common axle standard on mountain bikes for probably 5 years now. Rim width is another story though and if you're running the 27.5x2.6" like what came on this bike, you're going to want 30mm minimum with 35mm being the ideal width. That's just not as easy to find off the shelf with standard/gravel spacing.
@@RideYearRound I know XD and Micro free hub is not aligned with axle spacing. My point is that those newer free hubs are not as common with gravel wheels/cassettes, neither are the gravel crank spindle widths.
I completely agree about wider flange hubs/in relation to wider axles(Boost hubs) definitely do make a difference. Thats why I have SS specific hubs for my SS Mtn bikes. I also agree with wider rims for wider tires.
Anyway thanks for engaging me in this chat and for your great videos. I would buy that frame it it wasn’t boost spaced just because I have the parts to build it up
FWIW most gravel bikes are at 400-415mm a-c(sus corrected ones are 415-420mm). This looks to be more like the Strayer OG or Stigmata with a higher A-C fork. Did you prefer it as a 29er or 27.5 for traditional gravel and all-road rides?
Great point! I had a few things I was going to say about that, but had a lot to say about the fork already and ended up leaving it out. I probably should've at least mentioned the 435 a to cis closer to a gravel fork than a mountain fork, but still quite a bit taller.
I preferred it as a 29er for traditional gravel, but that's probably more from the tire width/tread pattern than the handling of the two. I did really like how nimble the 27.5 felt though for more technical stuff.
@@RideYearRound Maybe you can do a whole video on the fork and geo? I'd watch that. Take a look at some of the Stooge and Surly rigid atb style bikes they offer. Those have a 450mm a-c. Was it 27.5+ you tried or something smaller like a 2.6?
oh yeah one downside to 27.5 is all the fast mtb-xc tires coming out, like the Aspen ST, are usually only offered on a 29er size and up to 2.35. So not 27.5x2.35 and certainly no 27.5x2.6 option, which makes the most sense for rough gravel. Only a little taller than a 700x50mm(29x2) tire, but at the same time being wider with more cushin.
What’s the most relaxed gravel bike you’ve ridden?
Not exactly “gravel” bikes, but the Fargo or Jones are extremely upright and relaxed body positions. The Journeyman/er is another pretty relaxed one too.
Reminds me of the surly ghost grappler
Those have such an interesting geometry…I feel like I’d love flat bars on it but can’t figure out if I’d like it with drop bars. I’d love to get one in for review.
When we launched this bike at Covid Sea Otter in Fall of 2021, the folks at Surly spent a lot of time in our booth looking at this model and even took it for a ride. Since we both manufacture Fat Bikes and Adventure Bikes, we have a lot in common. It was great to see them dip into this category further when they launched the Ghost Grappler the following year. I think for a lot of folks, that model is a great opportunity to dip into the adventure bike category at a lower cost. The Crow Pass Ti weighs about 10 lbs less than the Grappler, but for reliable long offroad missions it's another cool option that highlights the versatility the Surly brand has always been known for.