Most of my time is split between Gloucestershire where most of the XC near me is fairly hilly but tame, and Sheffield, which is very hilly and very rocky in most places.
I have an old Orange Alpine for everything at the moment, but it’s fairly overkill for any XC in Glos and most of the stuff in the Peaks too. Had a Five and don’t want to downsize back to a trail bike, because the Alpine is fairly new to me and I ride a lot of downhill.

Planning to build up an XC bike in the Summer so I can get out and ride more XC and I will probably end up using it in the Peak; the Alpine isn’t a huge amount of fun up hills. I may dabble in a bit of racing; Mountain Mayhem, stuff like that.

Would an FF29 or Singular Swift be more sensible? Really not to clued up on shorter travel 29ers.

Both will be set up with suspension forks and 1×10.

Haven’t tried the Kinesis but I do own a Swift which I think is a brill bike. Run it Singlespeed as the EBB works perfectly and is very neat and tidy, nice clean frame and the geometry works for me on a large at 6 ft 1″ I’ve just put a set of forks on it as running rigid was stinging the wrists a bit… Have a chat to Sam at Singular I think he has demo bikes available.

Thanks for the input!
Ah right, yeah I’ve only heard positive things about them!
Do you run it rigid and where / what kind of stuff do you ride?

Never ridden SS, would it not be a lot of unnecessary hard work in the Peak District?

I have a swift too. It’s always been geared which has been spot on. Until recently I had a 100mm Reba on it but it’s now rigid for winter. It’s a great bike and I’ve found it great for everything from trail centres to towpath rides.

Rigid works in the Chilterns really well, most of the SS guys run eye ball rattlers… Forks are a bit of luxury and I like going as fast as I can on 32/16 😀
If you choose your gearing well then there is no reason why you couldn’t ride it in the Peaks, you can always walk if the wheel spins out or your eye balls are about to pop out.. 😉 Plenty of Singletrack regulars ride single speed pop a post on to see what gearing they use in the Peaks.

FWIW, I hate riding ss in places like the Peaks…

Yeah it wouldn’t be my first choice TBH

Anybody ridden 100mm regularly in the Peaks? Too little travel?

To give some balance – I haven’t ridden a Swift, but I do own a ff29 and run it 2 x 10 with a SID 120mm fork. I find it flatteringly fast and very forgiving for an aluminium frame – it feels almost as compliant as most of the steel frames I’ve owned.
I’d have thought that if you’re going to race it the ff29 would be more suitable, whereas if you wanted a sometime singlespeed, sometime rigid mtb then the Singular would be the one.

Have fun choosing.

Kinesis will be lighter

Had a swift in the past and it’s a very compliant frame but I found it a bit uninteresting, more of a pootle along enjoying the ride kind of bike. I now have an Ff29 which I think is more versatile. It encourages you to go fast both up and down and is actually a lot more fun than I anticipated with a 120mm fork on it. Despite what some people say I don’t think it is harsh at all. You could race xc on either and you’ll dictate how well you do rather than the bike but if I was plumping for one it would be the ff29 every time.

If you’re a large I think there is one in the classifieds at the moment.

As this is stw if you can get a yelli screamy that would fit your requirement for doing the odd bit of xc racing and is a lot better for general messing around on. Brilliant frames.

Speaking for the Swift. Fantastic frame. Another Chilterns rider. Rigid is excellent. geared 2 x10 at the mo. and just awesome.

I recently picked up a Reba (cheap from france) so that will be fitted this summer too so I can ride some rocks in Wales, Lakes.

I have an Alpine 160 and a Swift.
The Swift will happily manage a day in the Dark Peak with rigid forks and single speed. It was good fun when I last took it, but I would usually take the Alpine.

After many years of being singlespeed the swift has a 1×10 set up as I broke myself last year. It works well as 1×10. I have to say it feels like I’m cheating and it’ll go back to 32/16 as soon as I can manage it.