Singular Swift or Genesis Fortitude. I have a Gryphon so like Singulars but the Fortitude seems to be a slightly more up to date take on the rigid specific set up. Any thoughts?

Swift as it has sus-corrected geo if you ever change your mind?

No contest. Swift, far better looking. And you can go to sus forks and gears if you want to at some point. Sam’s geometry is spot on too.

I’d ride both if you can. Swift has a very good reputation, but if you want a rigid only bike in my experience (not ridden the Fortitude but have ridden the Ragley TD1 and currently a Jones) rigid specific designs with shorter fork blades have less brake flutter and are more comfortable.

Swift is good but I haven’t ridden the Genesis.

As above, the win for the Swift is versatility: rigid/suss’d, SS/geared.

I don’t know how much the Genesis is customised to be specifically rigid (ie how much difference that makes), that would be worth checking intom especially if you are sure you’ll only ever want to run rigid.

I have a medium Swift SS rigid in Surrey if you want a try.

Either’s a good decision IMO.

The new Charge Cooker or Cannondale look interesting at around 600 quid. Both are rigid specific 29ers

Good spot on the new Cooker – hadn’t noticed they had changed the geo.

My concern about the full builds coming in at the 600-700 quid mark would be compromising on the wheel weight to hit the price point. I think a 29er, especially in this config, benefits from light wheels. And I’m also thinking this kind of build might be where a bit of weight-weenieism gives a big payback.

OP if you have the budget I’d also look at carbon, on my radar at the mo are Niner Air 9 Carbon, On One Lurcher, Intense Hard Eddie. There are probably more.

Facing the same decision earlier this year (and curiously enough, also already owning a Gryphon) … I went with a Swift in the end, (partly to keep it in the family), but mostly to do with fork / transmission options.

(My specific reason won’t help your decision, but mine is set up with a 135mm front end, in a set of Enablers. At 470mm A-C they work perfectly with the Swift, but would have goosed the Fortitude’s handling somewhat…).

I’ve got a Genesis Latitude, which is a really nice frameset, and I’ve seen plenty of Genesis road bikes, so I’d have no doubt that the Fortitude is similarly well thought out / put together.

If you really want rigid specific then a Jones is the ultimate ride (IMO). A steel diamond with standard fork is reasonable, but you have to factor in extra cost of specific front hub.

My LBS has a 17.5″ Fortitude in their sale for £699.99 (to small for me tho!) .

Cheers
TVM

What about a SIR.9
This is mine. Rides beautifully. I honestly don’t miss suspension for the riding I love.

IMAG0420 by pten2106, on Flickr

If you really want rigid specific then a Jones is the ultimate ride (IMO)

+ lots, the most funnest bike ever and certainly more capable than any rigid bike is supposed to be.

Ta for all the feed back – the Niner Jones etc would be above my price point sadly. I’ll stick with Singular I think as, as pointed out, it gives the option of front sus if needed.

I went for the genesis fortitudevadventure and built it up single speed and rigid. For the price, it is an excellent frame and with a layback gives similar geo to a jones. I am really pleased with it and its versatility is a huge bonus. Really worth a look!!!! Nothing to stop you sticking forks on there, I know they say rigid only, but I run 120mm suspension adjusted rigid forks and it rides as well as the short forks I got with it.

I have the Fortitude SS and really like it, that said I have an FS to for all day/trail centre stuff. Worth considering if you’re sure you’ll only ever want rigid but would agree with comments above that the Swift would be much more versatile. Not ridden a Swift so can’t say how the ride compares.

@ takisawa2 – wouldn’t fancy those block 8s in this weather 😀

I tried out a rigid Swift before buying mine which has front sus. I’ve ridden a lot of rigid forks over the years but I reckon that the Swift ones are the best I’ve used – noticeably more comfortable over bumps without flutter or twist. I’d definitely be getting a set if I wanted to go rigid.