Singular Hummingbird

[Andy R]

Well, as it was a beautiful day on Saturday (and Karen was out wedding dress shopping with our daughter anyway :roll: ) I decided to give the 'bird its first flight (so to speak).

A 30km loop from home, which starts with a 3km warm-up along some old railway track and then climbs (cheekily ) through farmland, forestry and moorland to about 375metres. A few kms of slogging along sheep tracks through the heather and then (another) cheeky descent down a water authority track to about 30 metres.

Then, of course, another slog back up through forestry and moorland to the 400 metre mark before the best part of the day - the descent into "The Port" (or Glion Dhoo). At times ultra straight-down-the-fall line steep, rocky, boggy, technical but always fun at the end of a ride.

Probably the easiest I've ever ridden it too, although there was ice in places and it was ultra wet. All credit to the bike of course - I felt slightly off form as I haven't been out properly for a month following my rib/kidney bruising incident.

A few bike pics anyway - nothing exotic as you can see. Apologies for the mismatched wheels and the (very tidy) Taiwanese welding and anything else that might offend :roll: .
The Rampages (both 2.35") are run ghetto tubeless, by the way.

 

[Andy R]

A couple more pictures - the steerer tube is over length at the minute, but I'll trim it down once I decide on bar height/stem.

I originally bought a frame (c/w King headset) from a (very nice) guy on the STW forum, but when he was packing it to send to me he dropped it on his toolbox and dented the top tube . However, knowing Sam Alison at Singular he arranged for him to replace it with a shop-soiled one,
It duly arrived and was immaculate apart from a 2mm paint chip caused during frame prep, but it unfortunately was a large and not the medium that Sam thought it was (it had been sitting around boxed up for a while, hence the mistake).

So, it has been replaced by this this one (a medium and brand new to boot).

So, to both Grant and Sam - my sincere thanks for going far beyond what you really had to do, and to anyone else considering buying a new frame - have a look at Singular. Very, very nice frames and Sam is one cool guy.

 

[Average Mark]

V nice, just brought a swift myself and just waiting on wheels for it. How did you find the forks? had rigid carbon jobbies before and they where a bit ouchy.

 

[jonnyboy666]

not my style of bike but i like that alot

 

[Andy R]

V nice, just brought a swift myself and just waiting on wheels for it. How did you find the forks? had rigid carbon jobbies before and they where a bit ouchy.

Well, I'm sort of used to riding with (and like) steel rigid forks (TB Project 2's, Salsa Cromotos, stuff like that) so the Singular forks were pretty much how I expected them to be - nice and absorbent. The 29" wheel takes a bit of the sting out of rocky going and so does a large-ish ( 2.35") volume tyre run at around 25psi.
But in slow speed pick-your-way type of going where you might have to stop, maybe hop the back or front around a bit to get lined up for a log crossing or rock drop-off I don't think that you can beat rigid forks anyway.

What wheelset are you using on the Swift ? I haven't decided yet what I'm going to build for the Hummingbird when I get around to it......

 

[Average Mark]

Using my set of hope Pro 2's on Mavic TN719 rims. The rims on 29er's seem to be either really expensive (Salsa or Stans) or hybrid. The 719's are decent rims at a good price. Kenda Nevegals in 2.2" also ghetto tubeless. Got them for £30 from wiggle so the price was right, also used them on my Orange and they where quite good.

 

[Andy R]

Using my set of hope Pro 2's on Mavic TN719 rims. The rims on 29er's seem to be either really expensive (Salsa or Stans) or hybrid. The 719's are decent rims at a good price. Kenda Nevegals in 2.2" also ghetto tubeless. Got them for £30 from wiggle so the price was right, also used them on my Orange and they where quite good.

Good choice with the TN719's, I reckon.

I'll probably go for Sun Ringle EQ27 and Hope Pro 2.

 

[Neil G]

Looks great, colour spot on..Sounds like Singular are a good company to deal with

 

[messiah]

Really liking that... must stop looking at it.

 

[Andy R]

Really liking that... must stop looking at it.

Rides as good (better?) than it looks too. Not as light as that blue Explosif of mine but the frame is probably getting on for 3/4lb heavier.
In a way it rides much the same, but one thing that really did impress me was how well it steers, especially in deep, narrow ruts (like the sort sheep make over time as they climb down into gullies and also like you get on "doubletrack" Land Rover type tracks). It tracks easily without any tendency to want to "climb out" of the rut.

I think I'll enjoy it anyway