Singular Gryphon Mk3 Review: The Mythical All-Rounder

There are probably a few things I need to admit right away in order to effectively review the Gryphon Mk 3 from Singular Cycles. My first admission is that I didn't know a lot about Singular Cycles or Sam Alison before meeting him at his new clubhouse office in Hemel Hempstead, a short train ride northwest of London. My ignorance became quickly obvious to Sam in the first few minutes of our meeting, as I asked some very “questionable” questions right off the bat. But let me rewind a bit.

I was looking for a gravel bike to ride during my time in London, as I wanted to prepare for our forthcoming London Gravel Guide. I reached out to a few friends who were connected to bike brands and builders in the UK. One of those people was Sam Rice, who in turn introduced me to Sam Alison, founder of Singular Cycles. Sam was gracious enough to loan me a steel Gryphon. I was relieved that I would have something to ride other than my heavy Krampus, which I had toted to the UK for my trip to Wales.

And that leads to admission number two: I knew even less about the bike that he was willing to loan me. I did know that a few friends owned Gryphons and love theirs, but again, I never did any deep diving into the bike or, frankly, took a good look at any photos before I arrived at Singular. Dumb, I know.

In fact, when I picked up the Gryphon, I daresay I was a touch disappointed. Sam had 3” tires on the loaner model, and the bike looked more suited for a bikepacking trip than the urban gravel I was planning. Looking around Sam's shop, I was hoping for something more like the Singular Peregrine—something that looked fast on rolling dirt tracks, not as much designed to carry loads up mountains.

Naivety has been a constant companion my whole life. I tend to rush into things without much thought and learn on the fly. A lot of people give me grief for operating as such, but this behavior tends to lead to surprise and enjoyment more than disappointment and regret. And this is the case with the Singular Gryphon. My experience ranged the full spectrum from total ignorance to disappointment to elation. But I don't want to give it all away just yet.

Soaking It In

At first glance, the Gryphon has obviously been designed as a capable bikepacking bike. Sam was nice enough to set the bike up more as a gravel machine for me. As I lurked around his space, finding interesting stuff to shoot and asking oddball questions, I also took his other bikes for quick spins around the property.

The loaner I had was a light brown cappuccino color that looked absolutely stunning with tan wall 700 x 55 Rene Herse Fleecer Ridge tires. The Gryphon had a killer build on it, and my mind was captivated by the details. Some of the nicest pieces of kit were from Sam's own collection of components, like the Laing Ti stem. The stem raised the bars a little high for trying to pound fast gravel, but the craftsmanship and overall feel of the stem were class-act all the way. The beautiful titanium with the minimally branded Singular logo was easy on the eyes.

The Gryphon also had the Singular Ti seatpost to match. These parts are not cheap, about $200 apiece, but they tie the whole bike together to look and feel of hyper-quality. These parts are obviously not stock, but if you're ordering a Gryphon, you might as well go for the full kit. All that paired up with a Brooks Cambium C17 and some nice flared drop bars.

In The Tracks

On my first day with the Gryphon, I went to Epping Forest in northeast London. At first, I didn't really get the bike, and maybe it didn't get me. It took us the entire morning to bond. But with some small adjustments to the seat position and bar angle, the Gryphon got meaner and meaner. Somehow, the bike became the opposite of what I had expected. It went from the sturdy workhorse I had in my mind to a light and zippy gravel grinder. Over the course of the day, I came to realize the Gryphon is easily one of the most diversely capable bikes I have ever been on. No matter what sort of terrain I hit, the bike seemed more capable and ready than I was.

The whole thing felt stable and balanced, and my confidence on it grew fast. The handling was off the charts. I thought having the Singular stem and higher bar height would be a hindrance to cornering at speed, but it simply wasn't. I was cornering as fast as I would on my pure-play gravel bike at home. I was flying through the trails and having a total blast. Epping Forest has some really fun rollers in it—fast descents followed by quick and punchy climbs. And this is where the bike really made me smile.

I expected the Gryphon to be similar to my Surly Krampus, meaning I would need to throw it in high gear and climb slowly and steadily like a goat. But I actually found myself out of the saddle and over the bars, tackling climbs with ease. The Gryphon is balanced in a way none of my bikes at home are. It's at ease on flat dirt, bombing downhill, and moving at pace uphill.

I actually couldn't find any terrain that the Gryphon couldn't handle. On my second day with the bike, I went out on a route designed by the guys at North London Dirt. The route, simply called NLD5, was a total mixed bag of terrain and surfaces. Again, I was on the flat, fast gravel, but I also had the bike at full throttle in some technical singletrack throughout the day. And again, the agility and balance of the bike were staggering. I could ride any technical patch with ease, comfort, and confidence.

I was so surprised at its versatility that I was texting my friends who own Gryphons to ask if they had felt what I was feeling. Was I nuts thinking this bikepacking bike was as agile and nimble as it was? They both laughed and agreed with me that it was.

For Bikepacking

And now it's time for my last couple of admissions. I didn't actually take the Gryphon bikepacking unless you want to count day-tripping with a couple of bags as bikepacking. However, I did spend an afternoon transferring most of my bikepacking setup from the Krampus to the Gryphon to see how that would go. Unsurprisingly, it was as good as my Krampus in terms of real estate for bags and all the needed mounts.

The Gryphon has everything it needs to be a serious bikepacking rig, including clearance for any plus-sized tire, an eccentric bottom bracket and has mounts pretty much everywhere you'd expect—including the forks, inner triangle, bottom of the down tube, and bosses for any rack you need to run. It however does not sport top tube bosses if that is a thing you are into. I took the bike for a small spin fully bagged around the area of London I was staying in and can attest to the fact that the Gryphon was still responsive and agile with the added weight.

To be fair to Sam, he had offered me the Gryphon to take on my trip to Wales the week before, which I did not take him up on as I thought I wanted my Krampus for the trip. However, looking back on the situation now, I can safely say that having the Gryphon on my trip could have changed the outcome of it, as it is as capable as the Krampus in a much lighter and more nimble package. Oh well... we live, we learn.

Wrap Up

If you somehow didn't know, a Gryphon is a mythical creature combining an eagle and a lion, and I don't think there could have been a better symbol for this bike. I have spent my fair share of time on bikes that sell the idea of being versatile, but my experience has been that most bikes usually excel at one aspect of off-road cycling. Maybe they are good at bikepacking the Pyrenees but not so amazing for a day in the gravel.

The Gryphon is not one of those bikes. Like the lion and the eagle, you feel sturdy on the ground but can still soar with the best of them. This was a total surprise from my initial look at the Gryphon in the Singular clubhouse, but all of this makes total sense. Afterall, Sam has been designing steel bikes with wide tires way before “gravel” or even before drop bars in the dirt. In fact, Sam mentions on the site that the Gryphon was the first-ever MTB frame corrected for drop bars and was the precursor to bikes like the Salsa Fargo—if you don't believe him, take a look at this ad of his from 2009. That's a lot of time to correct, perfect, and optimize things. And that's what the Gryphon is—the culmination of Sam's expertise in designing stable, agile machines for over 15 years.

I had way more fun on the Gryphon than I expected, and I also learned that maybe I should do a little research into things before I get into them. A huge thanks to Sam for letting me ride this wonderful machine.