Wow, it's been a long time since the last post on this blog, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been a lot happening. It's been a busy 'summer' of riding, designing and (I'm glad to say) selling bikes.

Firstly some news on the design side. The last post here was regarding the Gryphon prototypes. We've been testing those a lot and really enjoying the ride. The Ti fork I had made up is perhaps a little on the flexy side, hard braking and turning don't go well together. Have recently been riding it with a Pace carbon fork which is much more inspiring. Getting a nice steel fork together for these frames needs to happen before we go into production.

The main thing I've been working on though is the Peregrine and we now have the final drawings all ready to go. Finally worked out a good way to enable derailleur gears, hub gears, or SS while looking fairly neat in any configuration. Also have got a different fork together with a nice lugged crown. The first run of those along with more Swift SS frames should get here early in the new year.

Have also been working on a few other little projects, stay tuned for further details very shortly.
As I said, lots of frames going out the door lately, here are some pics of a few customers' builds.

Mike in Sweden

Mick in Yorkshire

Lynten in Singapore

Karsten in Germany

Erik in The Netherlands

Eric in France

Alex in Bristol

That's about it, all sorts of people from all over the globe - nice to see so many different builds out there, everyone giving their Singular their own flavour!

Sam

Finally got the Gryphon proto together today. Our move has been delayed by a week which gave me a chance to get into the shed and catch up on a few things. One of which was getting this drop barred rigid specific beast together, another to fit a recently acquired Maverick SC32 to a demo bike - both came together very nicely. Yes, I know there are a few little corners I missed when polishing, but I got impatient and wanted to see it built! Silver Gryphon headbadge still to come.

Pertinent details: 853 frame polished to a sheen (will be clearcoated), Black Sheep Ti fork 440mm w 48mm rake, Stans wheels and other nice bits and bobs, don't know the total weight but it's pretty light, guessing around 22lb. Production of these framesets is still very much up in the air. Whether there is a market for a 'mass' produced drop bar specific, rigid specific 29er I'm not sure - if you like the idea let me know.

Tour Fever has hit London and who should I see wandering the streets near Victoria station but El Diablo himself Didi Senft! I managed to break into some extremely broken German to interrupt his perusal of free magazines and ask him for a photo - he happily obliged.

The Singular distribution network is slowly growing - with Square Wheels in Strathpeffer, Northern Scotland, the latest to join the fold. Steve has had a demo bike up there for a while which he's been very happy with, so they will now be carrying stock of Singular Swift framesets in both geared and singlespeed versions.

The Gryphon prototypes we had come in are now being painted up in a nice new colour scheme, getting really excited about these ones. Build ought to happen next week and pics will follow shortly thereafter.

We also have a new road frame in the works using a classic Italian road geometry with some lovely lugs including a fully lugged fork. It won't be so touring oriented as the Peregrine, nor will it be an out and out race bike - really just a lovely road bike for every day folk with clearance for decent sized tyres and fenders. Keep an eye on here for more news on the Osprey over the coming weeks.

Wow - what a fun weekend away! Weather couldn't have been better, trails were great, people even better - good times indeed. We made it over to the Bristol Bikefest over last weekend, and this year being combined with the UK Singlespeed Championships promised an even greater level of festivity than normal.

Singular had a fair fleet of bikes in attendance, with a few built up Swifts in geared and SS configuration, a complete Peregrine, and a few framesets including the just landed and still unpainted Gryphon prototype in 853.



There was a lot of interest in the bikes despite our somewhat out of the way location in the corner of the field. We didn't arrive until late Friday night, and couldn't secure a pitch in the trade area where we were also able to camp - so just set up our somewhat makeshift stand in the camp area and away we went.

Saturday was a 12 hour enduro in which we had a four man team. For some deluded reason which now escapes me we registered in the competitive teams division for a 9am start after some fairly heavy post-drive refreshments the previous evening. It's fair to say we all had a fairly painful first lap, but we managed to turn in laps of around 35 mins all day and finished on 20 laps. 25th in our class was not a bad result - we were certainly never in it to win it.

The more highly anticipated event, at least amongst our team, was SSUK itself. Due to kick off at the ungodly hour of 9am, some team-members managed to restrain themselves somewhat on Saturday night and managed to arise reasonably bright and chipper on Sunday morning. While we didn't set the world on fire - we did represent pretty well. Somehow I was 3rd out of the start area (learnt from the mayhem of Saturday...) which only meant a lot of people would go past me during the race... Ah well, these SS events are not about when you finish, it's all about how you get there - and we did it in style.

Thanks to all involved for a great weekend!

Sam

Finally the Peregrine prototypes are here!

After a number of setbacks and unexpected delays, we took delivery of four frames and forks yesterday. There are a few things which already I can say will need changing for the production framesets, but overall I'm extremely pleased with how they've come together.

I built this one up quickly with a few bits I had getting around, and initial impressions are excellent. Quick and light feeling to the ride, but reassuringly stable. These will be extensively tested over the summer by a few eager volunteers in a number of guises- geared road tourer, doublespeed rambler, we might even try a Shimano Alfine group -more reports to come...

The beautiful solid silver Peregrine headbadge with thanks to Jen Green at headbadges.com (silver Swift headbaadges are also now available).

We've had a number of pics come in of some customers' bikes over the past couple of weeks. All singlespeeds, but some quite different set-ups.

This is Moose enjoying his new build at McMoab in Kirroughtree, Scotland.

This is from Frank in the Netherlands - a very familar setup!

I really like this build from Lars in Sweden, though I fear I may like his whiskey collection even more ;-)

Singular Dominates First Dutch Singlespeed Cup Race

Hubert finished building his Singular Swift SS just the night before the first round of the Dutch Singlespeed Cup. The lack of opportunity to get used to his new steed didn't seem to hamper his efforts whatsoever as Hubert put five minutes into his nearest rival over the course of an hour and a half. Congratulations to Hubert - keep up the good work. Thanks must go also to Jelle at singlespeedcentral.nl who distributes Singular framesets in the Netherlands and stocks a fine range of 29" and singlespeed parts.

Sam

Well, it's been a while between updates but it's been a busy time. A few Swifts out and about now some pics above and below from Singapore and the Netherlands - prizes for guessing which is which ;)

There have been a couple of little setbacks on the prototype Peregrines but they ought to be here not long after easter. They're looking very promising and I'm quite excited to get one together for myself.

Currently pulling together a bit of a schedule of events over the course of the summer which I'd like to get to. I'm proud and excited to say we are sponsoring the Singlespeed World Championships in Scotland this summer, which has the makings of a fantastic weekend. Also will definitely be at the SSUK weekend in conjunction with the Bristol Bike Fest Enduro. We'll have a team in the enduro Saturday and of course in the main event Sunday. Would love to get down to the foot of Ventoux for the European singlespeeds, but time may get the better of us...

Chipps at Singletrack magazine is trying out a frameset of ours at the moment. I gather he likes it thus far though there ought to be a more detailed report coming.

Things are moving along quite nicely over our first few weeks since frames arriving. So far we've had frames shipped out to Sweden, the Netherlands, Scotland, Germany and Canada - more framesets sold overseas so far than here in the UK!

Jelle at singlespeed.nl is selling our framesets in the Netherlands, he's able to supply all the bits you might need to put together a complete build as well if you're not keen on doing that yourself. He carries lots of nice 29" and singlespeed stuff so if you're in the Netherlands check him out.

We sent a frame up to the good people at Singletrack (my favourite mountain bike magazine) last week so theywill be putting it through its paces over the coming months - expect to see some updates on their website and possibly a writeup in the mag if we're lucky :) See Chipps' first thoughts here.

I had a great ride in the North Downs on the weekend, caught up with Biff of The Outcast fame and a few others. Unfortunately the french wench (my beleaguered '92 Renault van) was in a bad mood on the way down and after overheating didn't want to start again, so I was late getting there... However we got started not too far behind the rest of the bunch and caught them after a while. Joe was our guide for the day and knows those woods like the back of his hand, so I saw lots of bits I'd not before - wasn't too boggy either which was nice...

Jase with his new steed (French Wench at left)

I was trying a new tyre combo of Maxxis Ignitor front and Bonty XR 1.8 in the rear - fast? yes - traction? surprisingly not bad - flat protection in rock gardens? woeful.... This was the second ride on this setup and I've punctured both times. I think I need to run a bit more rubber, pressure or both until riding some smoother trails...

Sam

So the first framesets have been shipping out over the past couple of weeks and people seem to be happy with them. We've got bikes being tested with a couple of the mags as well, so keep an eye out for some write ups.

The above pic is from Johan in Ontario, Canada. He's had one of our prototypes for a while now and a bunch of guys over there have been giving it a try. Here's a comment from Jeff who gave it a spin..

"Just got back from a mtn ride on your Singular. Took it off road for a few hours and dude, I f**king loved it! I'm totally game for one, I dig it. I can't get over how fun it was and how challenging it was to ride off-road. Wished I had a few more gears but meh, I'd ride one anyday. Total riot. F**k the HiFi, 29ers climb like a dream and roll over s**t real well."

Apologies for the profanity, Jeff gets a little excitable :-)

Singular's first big win!

Rik Allsop plugged his way through the mud of the Strathpuffer 24 hour race to take the win in the pairs category together with Alec Laughlin. Rik's rigid singlespeed set up meant very little to go wrong, and those big 29" wheels just kept on trucking through the mud - of course he has a big engine as well.

A huge congratulations to Rik and Alec.

Well it's all been happening. Frames arrived on our fair shores this Thursday. I'm glad to say it all came through with no problems and no damage.

I'm really pleased with how the finished product has come together - they look fantastic.

There have been a few updates to the website with more coming.

We're now ready to take orders and get frames shipped - so what are you waiting for?! ;)

Sam