Singular Swift.

http://vimeo.com/102522718

If asked to sketch a bike, you’d more than likely draw something with two triangles and a fork between two wheels. Being wilfully reductionist, you’ve drawn a Singular Swift. Butted 4130 chromoly steel tubes welded together, with a fork to match: Mr Singular, Sam Alison, has applied this same formula across almost the entire Singular range. The challenge he faces is this: if you strip everything back to basics, the basics had better be good. Ride quality is everything, and judging by feedback on the original Swift, it is something that Mr Singular has excelled at. The old Swift was a versatile beast – easily run as singlespeed or geared, rigid or with a 100mm suspension fork. The new version represents an evolution of the classic. It’s a sign of how ‘right’ the old frame was when a new colour is the most obvious change; duck egg blue becomes clotted cream, er, cream. Understated in a world of brash. Other changes are subtle: geometry tweaks and clever tube-work grant bigger clearance front and rear. In fact, clearance is large enough that you can take advantage of a new generation of super-wide rims and huge volume tyres.

Our test build came with Velocity Dually 45mm rims, laced to very shiny Phil Wood hubs (mmm, shiny Phil Wood hubs). They were tubeless-ly shod with a 3in, ‘29+’ Surly Knard on the front, and a 2.4in ‘just plain big’ Ardent on the rear (you won’t be able to get a 29+ in the back but if you want the full half-fat experience, the Singular Rooster is well worth considering). Elsewhere, a 27.2mm seatpost feels almost retro, but is the correct choice in my opinion. A hardtail benefits from the extra flex that a narrow post offers. There are now genuine options for 27.2mm droppers too, though I can’t help but feel that one would be incongruous on this frame. Cable routing is tidy, with removable mounts should you wish to ditch the gears, and the EBB was notable in its anonymity – not even a peep, let alone a creak, out of it during the test period.

Trail Notes.

The chunky wheelset took a bit of getting used to. With all that rubber out front, there was a temptation to batter into rock gardens, mentally picturing monster trucks driving over cars, until the bike quickly got overwhelmed and spat itself off into the undergrowth at an unexpected angle, or the jarring sound of rim against rock rang out. This is not a six-inch trail bike: it still has the soul of a cross-country machine at its heart. Finesse is still required, but when it’s applied, the Swift pays back in spades. A deft lift of the front wheel is rewarded with momentum and poise through technical sections. The frame tracked beautifully, inspiring confidence, rewarding speed and paying back with good old-fashioned thrills. Twisty singletrack was an utter joy. While the Swift only comes in a frame and fork package from Singular, it is worth commenting on the wheels – if only because they have such an impact on the character of the ride. The extra volume and lower pressures add another element of comfort to what is already a compliant ride. The Knard is very much a conditions-dependent tyre, and those conditions are dry. On the sunbaked trails of early July, there was something incredibly satisfying about leaning the Knard as far as possible into corners, feeling it deforming and then conforming to minor imperfections on the trail. In anything else, however, it was at times frighteningly unpredictable. I didn’t notice extra traction at the rear until I realised that I was climbing loose ascents in a style more akin to the way I would on a road bike, aggressively stamping out of the saddle, without any of the usual scrabbling for grip. Traction also translates to drag, and when combined with a ‘not light’ 2.3kg frame weight, it does require more effort to gain speed; but once there, for the most part, I think it is a price worth paying.

The beauty of the Swift is that it is executed in a way that lets you make it into what you want it to be. It does the simple things so fantastically well, then leaves it up to you to decide what you want to hang off it. I’d love to spend some more time with it, experimenting with it in different guises. A lightweight singlespeed build would be top of the list, closely followed by something for big mountain bikepacking adventures – and so on and so forth. The Swift itself remains classic in the best possible way – by simply being very, very good.