After our build report and initial review of Singular’s Swift frameset was published last month, US distributor The Prairie Peddler was in touch to share details about the company’s newest offering. Built of titanium in Italy by the craftsmen at Nevi, the Firebird is a Singular road bike designed for long road rides at tempo. Not strictly racing-oriented (though Singular would hardly be offended if one were used in this way), the Firebird is designed to offer a smooth, yet lively ride.
Like the titanium Pegasus (a Ti version of the Swift), the Firebird is plain beautiful. The matte logos are classy and the details really do bear close inspection. Though Firebird geometry is stock, frames are built to order and the buyer has the opportunity to choose any of several head tubes as well as a couple of bottom bracket choices: Read on for more photos and Singular’s sensible take on headsets and BBs:
Headtube ‘standards’ are all over the place at the moment; external, internal, integrated, semi-integrated, zero-stack – it’s a minefield of sizes and variants. We have narrowed that field to three possibilities. First is the simplest; good ‘old’ 1 1/8″ external ‘aheadset’. Then we have a 1 1/8″ semi-integrated ZeroStack® option. This gives very clean lines in the transition from fork to headtube, yet still uses low-profile cups which are pressed into the frame rather than a bearing seated directly in the frame. The other benefit of this type of headset is it employs a larger diameter headtube, meaning the top and down tubes can be of a larger diameter without needing excessive manipulation when joining the headtube. The final option is also a ZeroStack® semi-integrated, though this time using the tapered standard, meaning the steerer is 1 1/8″ at the top, and 1.5″ at the bottom.
Bottom bracket shells are also in a state of flux at the moment. Just when you thought they’d finally made it simple by phasing out Swiss, French and Italian threading, now there is a surfeit of press-fit standards. We’ll keep this reasonably simple by offering a choice of a 68mm British threaded shell as standard, or the option of a BB30 standard press fit.
The Firebird can be ordered through Sam at Singular for $2,600, with a BB30 bottom bracket or tapered head tube adding $80 and $160. Unfortunately, orders for the first run must be in by tomorrow (February 28) for April delivery- but there will be more orders going foward, for each the Pegasus and the Firebird.
