Exciting New Development

In my last post I refered to "an exciting new development", well here it is:

When Cadel Evans announced he was leaving Lotto to persue new challenges, the rumor was he was going to attempt the most highly saught after cycling prize; the SSWC and it's much coveted tattoo. Obviously he'd be riding for Singular in a show of Aussie solidarity with Singular's founder, and head honcho Sam. That'll show those damn Kiwi's!

Well that didn't quite pan out.

As a consolation Singular gets ME!

Their people talked to my people, who talked to their people who talked to my people,who talked to some other people and a deal was struck.

I first became aware of Singular on the Velonews bike talk message board. I thought they were beautiful, but singlespeed? 29'er? Disc only? Never work for a guy like me.

Fast-forward 4 years and I wouldn't consider riding or racing anything else (SS, disc brakes, 29'er, etc). Live and learn.

The first thing that struck me about Singulars was the color. So reminicent of one of my childhood loves; the Bugatti type 35.

But beauty is more than skin deep. Sam's attention to detail and careful consideration of the engineering are what really count. He has a belief on what works best for any given cycling application and sticks to his convictions. For instance, I'm on the very edge size-wise that Sam feels a 29'er is a benefit to. Any smaller and the Hummingbird 26" (or 69'er) would be a better fit in his opinion. That's why his smallest size 29'er is a medium. Also, the fork is designed with a long 485 mm axle to crown length and 48 mm of rake; seems like all the bigger players are jumping on forks with greater offset these days; hmm....

So without further ado, I present the Singular Swift, my race bike for 2010.

Derailleur hanger in case I succumb to using gears.
Phil Wood EBB
It even came with all these cool housing / brake hose clips so you don't have to use zip-ties.
Not only that, but it comes treated w/ Frame Saver, head-tube and disc brake mounts faced, threads chased, and thread lock applied to the water bottle bolts.