drofluf
@OCB How does the Gryphon compare with the Peregrine in terms of handling and ride?
Actually, thinking about this question, it’s really quite hard to give a useful reply, but we’ll see how it goes.
It goes without saying that they are both great frames, and the handling is very secure / comfortable feeling on both bikes – ignoring an obvious degree of cross over common to almost all bikes, I think the difference is from the ride of the Gryphon being probably more like a ‘traditional’ mountain-bike, I’ve not looked at the geometry since buying them, but it feels a little slacker than the Peregrine, plus the greater stand-over is useful if you fancy pushing it further. The Gryphon, as far as I’m aware, shares it’s back-end with the Swift. I’d need to look, but I’d think the Peregrine may be a little longer, to better handle ‘touring’ loads. With suitable tyres, they’ll both climb whatever you have the legs to get them up – I’ve been astounded at the crappy surfaces I’ve got the Peregrine up.
The Peregrine is such a versatile bike that it’ll seemingly take on anything, but there comes a point where it’s tellng you that it’d be safer to walk it down this bit, than it is to ride it down (bearing in mind I’m a mincer anyway). A capable rider would get it down more stuff than I can – I guess a more [positively] angled stem might help if I did a lot of that kinda thing – I run mine quite low at the front, as it does a lot of back-country lanes / bridleway stuff, where it feels more like a day-tourer.
The problem with these bikes (and it’s a great problem to have 😀 ), is that they are perfectly happy being set up in about a million different ways, so making a meaningful / direct comparison is complicated by that. My Gryphon has flirted with skinny CX tyres in the past, and whilst it looked a bit odd, it flew on the road, but I didn’t like the loss of volume on rocky descents. The Peregrine has had 2.1’s on, and that added volume made it feel more like a traditional mountain bike (which is to say it was a bit draggy on the back-country lanes, but a bit more cushy on rough ground)…
Yeah, I was right – that is no real use as replies go. I’m probably not ever really saying that the intended use dictates the frame that much, given they both seem quite happy doing most things.
I guess if I had to come down to one bike – and purely based on the mix of riding I do, it’d be the Peregrine, but I don’t really do much overly-technical riding (unless I’m specifically riding tracks / backwoods somewhere, in which case I’ll leave the Singulars at home and take my 4X / play-bike – but then in turn, that is all that bike good for).