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