I have been riding my Singular Gryphon a lot the past two months, I have well over 250 singletrack miles on it and close to another 150 on pavement. I have ridden it on everything I can find from fast on semi technical terrain ( well as technical as there is in Northern Indiana)to a lazy Charity road ride. The bike continues to impress me.I knew the frame and the way I was specking it out would be a solid build. I also knew the bike was going to be a good all-rounder, But the way it shines in singletrack has made me a huge fan. The handling is very crisp,I can handle tight switch backs with ease. It also handles jumps and drops equally well. I have owned several 29ers, 69er and a 650b (not to mention a slew of 26" bikes back in the day).
The Gryphon out performs them all. One of my past favorite bikes was my Karate Monkey, the two complaints I had with the KM were 1. I felt like I was always trying to get the bike to turn in the twisties and 2.the old style KM fork was harsh. One the Gryphon I don't have to wrestle the bike in the twisty stuff I just lean and we go! and the front fork is much more compliant. Part of the key to the magic is having a frame and fork engineered to go together, by not making the Gryphon geometry suspension corrected, it allowed them to really dial in the handling.
After my time on a KM and a Gary Fisher Rig I acquired a Trek 69er. I loved the way the 69er carved the twisties, but missed the smoothness of having a big wheel behind me. Once again the Gryphon carves like the 69er but the back wheel eats up and absorbs all the bumps.
Something else I have discovered on my saddle time, is that Drop bars are very off road friendly! I really feel that Being in the drops is very if not more stable than when riding a wide straight bar. On my past single speeds I have run the everything from the the wide Salsa ProMoto's, Jones H-Bars and a Mary Bar. I am currently running an Origin8 Gary Bar and I may or may not eventually try a Salsa Woodchipper.
I am not a lightweight (200lbs) but there is not a lot of flex when I hammer and I feel more like I am sitting in the bike rather than on top of it(which is common for most 29ers) I would highly recommend a Singular to anyone. The attention to detail on the frame is top notch, the welds are clean, the paint and logos are flawless and Customer service is top notch! I posted a pic on mtbreview.com and Sam (who owns Singular) saw in the pic that I hadn't received a Headbadge with my frame. He posted that I should contact him to get one. I sent Sam an email and within ten days I had a beautiful pewter Gryphon Headbadge to install on my frame! To me that is awesome after the sale service, I have never seen or heard of John Burke (Trek) or Mike Sinyard (Specialized) cruiser the boards to see if their customers where satisfied.
I haven't posted the complete build specs yet so here it is:
Frame/Fork : Singular Gryphon
Headset : Chris King
Stem : Ringle Evolution
Bars : Origin8 Gary
Tape : Salsa
Crankset : RaceFace Evolve SS
Chainring : Salsa 32 tooth
Pedals : Eggbeaters Stainless
Chain : Sram pc 970
Rear Cog : Surly 18tooth
Wheelset : Hope Pro Evo Hubs laced to Stans Arch EX Rims
Tires : Bontrager 29.3EXP (setup tubeless w/ Stans)
Brakes : Avid BB7
Levers : Cane Creek
Seat Post : Thomson Elite lay back
Post Clamp : Salsa
Saddle : WTB Shadow
Kind of an old post, but I wanted to thank you for this good review of your Gryphon. I eventually got one of my own after reading this review (and finally finding a used XL). At first, I was kind of underwhelmed by it, but I've recently rebuilt it with On One Mary bars, and I'm really starting to enjoy it that way (see, for instance, here: http://bikingtoplay.blogspot.com/2013/10/singular-gryphon-rises-again.html)
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