NBD

I may have acquired a new bike. Well, new to me anyway, it’s probably at least ten years old but in remarkable condition. It’s also bloody awesome. Like, really bloody awesome. It’s a steel framed, rim braked cross bike, it has limited tyre clearance and short (compared to today’s bikes) chain stays, leading to snappy handling, the wheels aren’t tubeless and the only real nod to modernity is the 1×11 drivetrain. I’ve been after this particular bike for years and when it came up local to me I jumped at the chance.

My new (to me) Singular Kite

It’s a mark 1 Singular Kite and has added to the collection of Singulars that I slowly seem to be building up. I’ll be honest I kind of feel guilty acquiring all these bikes second hand and not putting the money into Sam from Singulars hand when they were new and shiny. In my defence, when Singular were first around my taste in bikes was more towards the fancy and carbon and being single and living in Brighton most of my disposable income disappeared over the course of the first few nights after pay day. Fast forward to today and I’m now the owner of four Singulars – a Swift, a Peregrine an Osprey and now a Kite.

The Swift was my first purchase, picked up whilst living in Shoreham as a frame and fork only. Over the years I’ve had it it’s been through many, many different variations, but the one I always go back to is a flat barred single speed. It’s great in this guise perfect for riding on the downs. By modern standards it’s hopelessly obsolete, but slack, long and low is not really what I’m after from a mountain bike. I want it short and twitchy, able to change line with just the turn of my head.

The only green Swift?

The next to arrive was the Peregrine, Sam’s years ahead of it time do everything bike. Despite not being in my care for as long as the Swift, it’s been through nearly as many variations. It’s heavy, there’s no getting away from that, but for sheer versatility it’s pretty unbeatable. I’ve had it setup for long road rides wearing full guards and a carradice, as fat tyred, do pretty much all the riding I would do on the Swift faux mountain bike and everything in between. It’s current set up is probably the ideal one for me though. Decent size, fast rolling gravel tyres, 1 x 11, a half decent wheelset, hydraulic brakes all make it reasonably competent at most things. And it is pretty.

The OG gravel bike?

After the Peregrine, came the Osprey. The Peregrine wasn’t half bad in road mode, but kind of felt wasted given its mixed terrain potential, so when I rather battered frame and fork came up on eBay it was impossible to resist. Luckily I had most the parts for this sitting in the shed so it was quite a straight forward build. Designed to be primarily used as the commuter, full length guards and low gearing join a pretty much permanently attached Carradice. It rides lovely though and has rather tuned me back round to enjoying road riding.

The Osprey, looking handsome

Finally, this brings me back round to my newest acquisition. The previous owner was actually known to me via Instagram and was built up as tastefully as one would expect. There were some surprisingly nice bits hung on it (SRAM Force and some rather Gucci carbon Mavic’s) and so far all I’ve done is swap the headset out for a less wibbly one, the saddle for one my backside gets on with and the brakes for my favoured Ultimate Shorty’s. There’s a few decisions I need to make long term regarding what I’m going to do with it, but current thinking is keep the Mavic’s for razzing about on the road and use the tubeless Primes I’ve got in the shed for clattering about off road. I may even single speed it.