Dealer news

Following on from a hugely successful Cycle '08 at Earl's Court we have a few new dealers on board.

Ahoj češi! Rebel Bike in Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic are now stocking Singulars. I'm extremely happy about this as I have strong ties to the Czech Republic myself, having lived there for a few years before moving to the UK, and my partner being Czech. They are a great little shop with a big online presence, drop in and say hi to Zdeněk and the guys and check out some of our bikes. They have a couple of demos built up they'll be happy to let you take for a spin as well.

Up until now we've not had any UK dealers between London and Dumfires, having Longstaff Cycles in Stoke on Trent on board changes that. They are an extremely well regarded shop and frame builder with a wealth of experience and knowledge. We're delighted to have them as part of the Singular family. Located right next to the Peak District they'll be a great location for taking a test bike out as well.

The Netherlands has been one of the great success markets for Singular to date, thanks to Jelle at singlespeed.nl who's been doing a great job via his online store. However one of my main goals in building the dealer network is to put my bikes in a retail space so that people can see, feel and try before they buy. Therefore I'm very pleased to say that Bike 2 Build, the premier cycle retailer in the country, is now carrying Singulars. They have two retail stores, one in Vlaardingen, and the other in Ermelo.

Cheers, met vriendlijke groet, and na shledanou!

Sam

Smaller Gryphons prototypes in!

I had the first Gryphon built over a year ago really just as something I wanted to ride myself. Basically just took the Swift and gave it a few tweaks to make it rigid specific and drop specific. I loved riding it and people kept saying they liked it as well so finally I had a few more prototypes made up in smaller sizes. A couple of folk around the traps are riding them, Dom left me in his dust (or rather mud spray) on Saturday aboard one and seemed to be liking it, Stu's been liking it so much he left it in a tree... Anyhow, as I'm about to order a batch of new stock I'll get some of these in as well - should be here Feb-March.

A little while between posts as things have been rather busy getting new prototypes in and sorting out everything for my stand at the London Cycle Show which was held last weekend. The show itself went very well with many people making favourable comments on the bikes. A few sales have come from the show directly and we also picked up a couple of new distributors, more on that shortly. We had a nice little spot, possibly one of the smallest stands at the show but located right alongside the BMX display. So whenever that happened we'd be swamped by a horde of people shortly thereafter.

The Peregrines certainly attracted the most attention over the course of the show, though there was also a suspicious patch of drool left in front of the Ti Pegasus sample as below.


A huge thanks to Adam for helping out on the stand, giving up a weekend on which we saw possibly the last sunny weather of the year. Also to Steve for bringing to reality my very vague conception of what the stand would look like. Can't forget Andy either, who pulled together some lovely looking product sheets at the final hour.

Just in the nick of time the final prototypes of the Gryphon arrived in some smaller sizes. They're looking really fantastic and judging from the reception both they and the 26/69 Hummingbird received both will be going in to production shortly.

Thanks to singletrackworld.com for the pics, none of the ones I took turned out to well...

SSWC '08 - The Report

Smooth dustiness at Anadel - Santa Rosa. Photo Deano T

The trans-global sideshow that is the singlespeed worlds this year headed to Napa, California for the first stop back on US soil for three years. Where the social element is nearly as important as the riding, singlespeed events tend to have a more relaxed atomosphere than those which allow our geared brethren. That was under threat this year before the event even got underway. Being held in a populous area of the heart of mountain biking, there were always going to be more people who wanted to attend than there were slots available for. Some controversy surrounded the entry process, but in the end there was a great crowd of people there who were very much in the spirit of the event.

Evening BBQ at the Wine Valley Lodge. Photo Simon D Barnes

I managed to get some riding in pretty much every day I was there, which after all was the purpose of the trip. Skeggs, Tamarancho, Anadel, Napa Skyline, Mt Tam, it was just an incredible treat to be riding such iconic trails in hot sunny weather in great company. Most of the UK contingent arrived at the Wine Valley Lodge on the Friday before race weekend. Having travelled over myself, it was really quite bizzare to see so many familiar faces. There were probably about 30 UK folk staying at the same place, along with a few Aussies, Canadians, and even some Americans thrown in. The hotel was one of those classic US style motels with ground level rooms ringing a pool and bbq area in the middle. It felt like being on a movie set, in fact I had that feeling for much of the trip. I guess my sole impressions of the US being formed via film and television that's to be expected.

Dust lines Photo Deano T

So to the race itself. I hadn't pre-ridden the course, there being too many other options to spend two days riding in the same place. Some had though, and returned with tales of 2 hour laps in 50 degree heat. I was a little worried. What seemed an uncivilised 10am start was in the end a sensible decision as the temperatures rose. We began with an opening half-lap loop, then it was to be three laps of the course proper. The course itself was excellent, the many (for me) pushing sections punctuated by some sublime smooth flowing sections, along with a few more testing rocky ledgy bits.

Team GB readying for the off. Photo Simon D Barnes

There was quite a bit of this

Thankfully broken up by a fair bit of this

I was somewhere around the middle I guess when I decided to call it a day after two laps. At the time it seemed like a good idea given the heat and the attractiveness of the paddling pool full of ice and beer, though in hindsight I regret not having forced myself out for another. Nevermind, there's always next year in Durango!

Peregrine in Touring Trim

I posted some shots previously of the Peregrine in singlespeed monstercross mode, so here are a few showing a different side of its personality, set up for touring/commuting duty. We've had quite a few of these go out already within just a couple of weeks of their arrival, and people seem quite pleased so far.

Here are a few more shots of the Pegasus as it was built and ridden over in California for SSWC and a bit of riding either side. I'm really enjoying riding it so far, very light and climbs like a rocket. Quite stiff but retaining that nice springy Ti feeling.

Lots of new stuff happening lately here at Singular, production Peregrines just need to clear customs and they will be with us in the next few days. Last week saw the arrival of the Hummingbird samples, and today I just built up the first of our Pegasus titanium samples. Below are a couple of pics and a little more info.

Singular Pegasus

I've wanted to do a Ti frame for quite some time. For me, it's the ultimate frame material; light, strong, won't corrode, and has a wonderful ride. As we also know, it's also expensive, and it hadn't been a high priority when getting the company started. However I spoke to a few different manufacturers who worked in Ti, and finally arrived on one to produce a few samples. They took some time to reach production, though I have to say the wait seems well worth it. The finished product is beautiful, construction and weld quality very high.

Geometry is essentially the same as the Swift, though clearly with tubing profiles appropriate to the material. We'll do some testing of these, and all being good will put together a small production run before the end of the year. Weight of this large size frame is 1530g, the medium is 1440g.

Singular Hummingbird

Since we first released the Swift 18 months ago, people were immediately asking "will you do a 26" wheeled version"? I'm a great believer in the benefits of 29" wheels, though for those shorter in stature maneuverability may be reduced, and steering geometry must be compromised to work with available suspension forks without toe overlap. The Hummingbird is intended for people under about 5'8" who begin to run into some of these issues on a pure 29" wheeled frame. The twist here is that although the frame is designed for use with 26" wheels and a 100-120mm suspension fork, it can also be used with a 29" front wheel and dedicated rigid fork with a lot of offset. This gives many of the benefits of a 29" bike, but brings back maneuverability for shorter people thanks to shorter chainstays and wheelbase. The intention is to produce these in a 22.5" and 23.3" ETT.

SSWC 2008

The Singlespeed World Championships is drawing near, only a couple of weeks until one gear enthusiasts from all over the world descend on Napa Valley, California. I've very glad that again Singular Cycles are sponsoring the event, so one lucky person will be taking a Singular Swift SS frameset home with them. I'm also glad I'll be getting over there in person, not for as long as I might have liked, but I hope long enough for some California sunshine...

Finally, the Peregrines are here! Well at least some of them.... When I got news from our manufacturer last week that they were all finished painting and ready to ship I threw caution and cash to the wind to get a few air-freighted over in advance of the main shipment. All I can say is that at least from my perspective the wait has been well worth it - they look simply beautiful, and the ride is all I'd hoped for. Getting this frameset to production has been a huge amount of work, a lot of revisions and adaptations along the way. I just noted that out initial prototypes were received over a year ago, so this really has taken a while to get off the ground. Production frames are now due to be here in the last week of July, so all of those who have pre-orders in don't have too much longer to wait. I will continue to offer the pre-order special of 10% off with £100 down for the next couple of weeks, see the bikes page for details. The tyre clearance has also worked out well for the production frames, as per the pics below, a Python 2.0 will fit in the rear, and a Racing Ralph 2.25 in the front - proper 29er tyres. Clearance is certainly not huge with these tyres in though - summer only... However with slightly narrower tyres clearance is more than adequate, and 38mm touring tyres and mudguards will not be a problem.

Last weekend saw a fairly impromptu, short notice Singular pairs team head over to the Bristol Bikefest. Much fretting over what had been a fairly dismal weather forecast over the preceeding days turned out to be for nought and bright sunny weather covered perfectly tacky trails. 12 hours over a quite rooty, rutted course was always going to take its toll when aboard a rigid bike, though we'd hoped to make a slightly better fist of it than we did. As it was, we rode in earnest for about 7 hours, took a break for about 2.5 hours, then each came back for another couple of laps. The weather was just too nice to be punishing oneself around a race course, it may be the only nice weekend of the summer as it was last year...

Next weekend brings the big one, the Mountain Mayhem 24 hour race, in which we have a team of four competing. It's bound to be a lot of fun, with a bit of internecine rivalry thrown into the mix. We'll have a number of bikes there so if you fancy giving something a try just come by and see us - we'll have a red marquee with the logo on it.

Sam

A couple of pics from Bristol

A couple of recent customers who've taken advantage of the discounted price we've had on the Swift frames have sent in some pics. Two very different builds for sure, but both looking good.

Al's gone for a drop bar and gears - first time I've seen that on one of the geared frames actually - looks great though.





Same frame, but a very different build for Chew - Mary bars and singlespeed.

It's been a busy time for us lately, thus not having had any update for some time. However there are a few things to update on.

Firstly and most importanty, the status of the Peregrines and replacement Swift SS frames. The Swifts are on the boat and should be with us shortly, so we ought to have full stock of all sizes by the end of the month. Peregrines have now all been built and are just waiting to head off to paint. Because these are having an especially nice and intricate paint job they will take a good four weeks to paint, and then another month to ship - so unfortunately they won't be here until late July really. Here they are in their naked form.

SSUK '08

A few weeks ago the UK Singlespeed Championship was held at Drumlanrig, Scotland. Somehow I got cajoled into pitching to organise this year's event while possibly under the influence last year at the SSWC. So Kenny, Julie, Rik, Tom and myself ended up with the responsibility of pulling SSUK '08 together. I think it's fair to say it was all a bit more than we'd bargained for, but people's kind words of thanks and enjoyment of a fantastic weekend made it well worth it. Here are a few pics to give you a flavour of it.

A jumble of Singulars to add to the confusion of the Le Mans start Of course I had to have number 1... The new marquee was very welcome given the weather we got

Me

And a few shots of some Singular riders

Mick

Mike

Fran

Brian

Swiss 29"er shootout


Then two weeks after SSUK I was off to Switzerland for the 2nd Swiss 29er Shootout. Essentially a gathering of some German speaking 29er enthusiasts to get a bunch of bikes together and to try loads of different 29ers. I took a couple of bikes over with me, which people seemed to like. This was also a great chance for me to try first hand what a lot of other manufacturers are doing with big wheels; there was a good selection of bikes from Salsa, Redline, Surly, Ventana, Gary Fisher, and others. To be able to compare and contrast such a range of bikes back to back really highlights the differences, and the similarities.

The swiss cows liked the Gryphon

On the GF Superfly - I like the G2 geometry

I was really impressed by the Ventana. I've not had a good
long ride on an FS 29er and the El Patron was a revelation.

Other News

Our Ti sample frames are in production and are due to be here early June, so I'm quite excited about getting them built up and see how they go. I'm currently gathering bits to try to get mine well under 20lbs.

The Osprey road frames have been getting a lot of positive feedback, so we are looking more closely into whether they ought to go into production at some point.

The 26" wheeled bike (working name the Hummingbird) which turns into a nice rigid 69er currently also has samples in production, and they should be here by July also.

It's summer (at least that's what the calendar says) and that means there are a lot of events on all around the place. We will be at the Bristol Bikefest in a couple of weeks' time, Mountain Mayhem a fortnight after that, then the other definites on the calendar are SSWC in Napa, California and the London Cycles Show in October. I hope to squeeze a few other things in as well - open to suggestions if you have a good event on!

Best regards,

Sam

As referenced on the front page, we have quite a few things we are testing at the moment, the new Peregrine forks, some new road frames, more Gryphon prototypes (pics below). We've also got some more interesting things in the pipeline with some Ti Swift frames and, shock horror, 26" wheeled frames for the little people on the way for testing. If all goes according to plan we'll be releasing all of these things before the year is out.

I aim to get to a number of events over the coming months, including SSUK, Mountain Mayhem, Bristol Bikefest, 24/12 and the London Cycle Show. I will post a full list shortly.

Well, it’s been a long time in development but I’ve been taking pains to ensure that the Singular Peregrine will be everything I want it to be. Finally our production order is in. A lot of you have provided feedback at some point and some of these suggestions have been taken on board, many thanks for your interest. So the final configuration will look like this.

• Three sizes – 59cm TT, 56.5cm TT, and 54 cm TT. Head tubes, seat tubes and tubing tweaked as appropriate for each size. I would have liked to do a wider range, but given the size of our business at present I’m focussing on those likely to fit most needs.


• Eccentric Bottom Bracket shell and insert. There were a couple of calls for sliding dropouts, or regular horizontals, but I am sticking to my guns on the EBB as I think it’s the best way to offer singlespeed or internal hub gear capability with disc brakes both in terms of function and aesthetics.


• Disc only – some people wanted cantis (one even a caliper!) but for the sort of multi purpose all-season use for which this bike is intended, I still felt discs were the way to go, and the majority of opinion was with me.


• Fork – from the unicrown of the first protos I’ve finally gone with a nice lugged traditional crown. I think it fits the overall feel of the bike better and has the added bonus of giving extra tyre clearance without increasing fork length.


• Braze-ons will be guides for both derailleur and brakes. This will maintain a (relatively) clean look for the single-gear crowd, while still giving an all-weather set-up for derailleur gears, or the capacity for a Rohloff hub if desired.


• Paint will be slightly different from what we’ve had on the samples. The colour will be the same deep red with cream head-tube panel, but we’ll have a seat-tube rather than a down-tube panel. There will still be a green Singular down-tube decal and green lug lining.


• We will maintain the original goal of clearance for up to 48mm tyres or 42mm with mudguards.

So to the final and critical questions – time and money! Time is a fairly confident but not quite definite March 2008. Price is slightly dependent on what the final costs of the lug-sets will be to me, though overall frame and fork price ought to be in the region £450 GBP. When these firm up I will be ready to take any pre-orders as this first run is quite limited. Here are a couple of pics to keep you interested in the mean time.