One Year With Two Birds: Singular Peregrine Mk4

I received the first Peregrine September 13th, 2025.

 The Tale of Two Birds:

The Singular Peregrine Mk4 is my newest bike in the stable. I have written a lot about this bike over the past year. Well.....actually it has been about two bikes. Both Peregrine Mk4's. 

I'm not going to delve deep into the weeds on this post, because if you've been following along here you know most of the story already. For those of you who may have found this post in a search, or are new to this blog, see my review of the second Peregrine HERE and you will be able to catch up with the backstory. 

Now, I wanted to hit a few points here upon the anniversary of getting the size Large Peregrine Mk4. First and foremost which is germane to this discussion is how the Peregrine Mk4 fit works. The size Large Peregrine I first received, on paper, looked to be the correct fit for me. However, in practice, it was a bit off.

Now this is my opinion, and Sam Alison of Singular may disagree here, but the Peregrine fits like an 'old school' road bike would fit. A really old school road bike. Most of you dear readers may not understand what this means. I do not blame you. Road bikes haven't been fitted in this manner since the 1990's.Maybe the early 2000's. 

The size Large Peregrine as it appeared in January of 2026.

 It used to be said that if you had more seat post sticking out than what could be covered by a fist, you had too small a bike. Standover clearances weren't observed as being all that important for decades. It was all about how the bicycle fit you when you were riding it, that mattered most. Certainly tradition and early engineering dictated that a top tube be level. A "double-diamond" frame geometry was considered to be strongest. Materials technology - or the lack thereof - also comes into play here. 

Sam Alison is heavily influenced by classical road bike aesthetics. Part of this is the level top tube, double-diamond frame look. Lugged construction and box crown/plate crown fork designs also are a part of his stylistic choices. So, it maybe should not be a surprise here that the Singular Peregrine leans more toward that old way of fitting a cyclist than the new ways we do things in 2026. Take, for instance, seat tube lengths. 

The size Large Peregrine Mk4 seat tube length on the geometry chart for this bike is listed at 57cm, center to center. That is 1cm shorter than my classic size. (typically), but in today's sloping top-tube world, those old measurements do not add up. As an example, my Black Mountain Cycles MCD has a 53cm seat tube. But with this design, as with most modern bicycles, a lot of seat tube showing is generally expected.  Standover is almost not a thing anymore. Although, it can come into play with big tires.  We generally are looking at "Reach" and "Stack" now because modern geometry doesn't fit the old ways of sizing a bicycle. 

The current Peregrine Mk4, dubbed the "XLBird" by my friend Ari. 

The size XL Peregrine Mk4 has a seat tube of 58.5cm. A half a centimeter longer than what I would deem "right" for myself. This made the top tube come to a 59.8cm length, 1.8cm longer than "right" for me. The size Large top tube was 57.2cm, .8cm shorter than I'd typically go for. 

Again, in practice all this means something more than the raw numbers show. I never felt quite "right" on the Large Peregrine. The XL? It feels far better to me. Even if it has less standover clearance, which again, doesn't matter when you are riding. If anything, I may go with a slightly shorter stem on the XLBird as the stem swapped over from the Large Peregrine was retained for this version of the Peregrine. 

Actually, if Redshift Sports would make a silver ShockStop Stem, I'd put that on here. I just cannot bring myself to go with a black anodized stem. Not on this build. 

But all that aside, I am very happy on this XLBird and it should satisfy my cravings for a classically inspired bicycle which can take on big gravel tires.  

Country Views: 4th of July 2026

Escape Route: Waterloo alleys

I had been looking forward to the 4th of July this year. Not because it was a big date in history, America's 250th, but because I needed to get out into the country. The 4th was a date I had circled since coming back from the BRAN experience. 

BRAN caused damage. I had some nasty saddle sores I needed to allow to heal. And, of course, I needed a bit of time to recover from the week. I saw progress in both areas over the last half of June, but it was slow. Then it got beastly HOT. 

So, June was slipping away and the 4th of July weekend allotted me some space to make a plan to get on a bike and grind some gravel. Then it rained all day Thursday, on Friday morning, and again early Saturday morning. Was I going to be able to squeeze in a ride? The weather looked clear between about 9:00am and maybe 2:00pm or so. I decided to take off and do a run South and East of Waterloo. 

Day lilies lined the ditches along Ansborough for several miles.

A lot of people were into the spirit of celebrating the USA's 250th. 

Getting out of town now to the South has been made a bit more complicated due to construction and a bridge out on the Sergeant Road Trail. So, I backtracked a route I typically use getting into town. Going backward on a route may as well be a new, unforeseen route. Everything looks and feels different! I ended up getting dumped out on Ansborough Avenue not far from Highway 20. Not at all where I wanted to be. Oh well! I made it work. 

 

It has been a while since I took Ansborough Avenue out of town to the South. This was the first road I used as a regular gravel riding route back in the mid-2000's. I'd ride Ansborough to Tama County and back home. About a 35 mile ride round trip. 

Today I was going to head South until I reached Quarry and turn East. Maybe I'd get in around 30 miles. At least I wouldn't have to come back through Waterloo's convoluted street layout! 

Tall corn provides excellent privacy for a "nature break". 

 

Annual check of corn growth on the 4th. 

I rode the XLBird on its first out of town gravel ride. Things went smoothly, and I'll have a specific write-up on the bike this week. But yes, I like it. I also liked the roads. The recent heavy rains have smoothed out the loose gravel and vehicles have accelerated the transfer of gravel from all across the roadway to the typical three clear lines. 

Corn is looking great. No wonder with all the rain and humidity of late. It's perhaps not as exceedingly tall as it can be at this time of the year, but it is still "man high on the 4th of July!" 

 

You can see some chicory alongside the road on the right here. 

Quarry Road had obviously been maintained recently as the gravel was thick. The rain helped it not be so loose, but it was a chore to find a good line. One positive out of the weather situation was that there was zero dust. A very unusual situation! 

Quarry Road was also lined with various wild flowers. I love seeing the flowers dancing and bobbing in the breezes. My favorite flower to see is the Chicory. I love their color. I think they are a bit early this year, but I'll take it!

 

Fellow gravel grinders Robert and Cary Fry. 

I stopped on the bridge over Miller Creek to take a quick break. I ate an Epic pemmican bar, drank some water, and listened to the swollen creek as it gurgled on its way to the Cedar River not too many miles away. 

Suddenly I heard voices and I looked back West up Quarry Road and spied two riders coming my way. It turned out to be Robert and Cary Fry out for a gravel ride. What a surprise! They were on their way to LaPorte City, so I rode about a mile with them before I turned North up Foulk Road. I told Robert he and Cary were maybe the third, maybe fourth occurrence ever of me meeting another gravel rider out around Waterloo in 20 years of grinding gravel.  

I call these lonely four cottonwood trees on the East side of Foulk Road "The Four Sisters". 

 

Evidence of our recent heavy rains. Many have stated they received between 4" to 6" in the area just on Thursday!

Foulk Road is FLAT. Lots of pedaling on Foulk Road. If you are bucking a headwind, or bashing through thick, fresh gravel - or heaven forbid, BOTH - it is a real mental slog to ride this section. Fortunately only the gravel was mildly troublesome on this particular ride. 

There is a pair of aggressive Labradors now on a place just North off the corner of Schrock Road and Foulk Road on the West side of Foulk. One is a yellow lab and the other is black. They both came out on the road and had me stopped until their foul-mouthed owner came out to call them off. Just a head's up in case you go by there..... 

Waterloo displayed 1,776 flags around the Veteran's Memorial complex in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 

I made it back home with a little over 28 miles in. Not anything to write home about, although I just wrote an entire post about it! But it is what it is. A start back to regular riding, I hope, and perhaps this stupid weather will cooperate for a while. We will see! 

The "XLBird" Passes Testing

 I was text messaging with Ari Andonopoulos last week concerning a rear brake issue with my XL Singular Peregrine Mk4. The mount had gotten painted and it needed facing and we were discussing options to get that done without spending hundreds on a disc brake facing tool. During the conversation Ari referred to the bike as the "XLBird". 

That stuck with me. 

So going forward the XLBird name will be attached to this Peregrine Mk4. I don't make the rules folks. When someone gives you a nick-name, that's it. 

Oh....so about that brake, I ended up doing some very careful, tedious hand filing with a steel file I have and it solved the problem. No more rear brake drag. That and a loose headset were the only two gremlins I had to battle after the initial build of the bike. I did my traditional grave yard test and then a wider ranged neighborhood test ride before these adjustments. 

 Once the initial short range test rides were done, and the rear brake was figured out, I decided I could range out a bit further afield and I did an hour long ride out to the Harold Getty Lake paths. I took alleys back home too. The bike was excellent. No mechanical issues at all. 

 The post previous to this concerning this bike had a comment saying that this bike looked long. It is definitely longer than the size Large Peregrine. You can feel it when you are riding as well. The frame and fork feel like a giant spring at times. The Large Peregrine was much stiffer in this regard. 

Handling was very stable, I thought. Right after a fast downhill I hit some rutted up dirt. The bike pitched sideways but due to the stability of the front end I was easily able to catch the bike, keep it going straight, and out of the rut. Steering around tighter corners was good. Not that this bike will see a lot of single track, but it is nice to understand the bike will carve a corner if I need to do this. 

No rattles, no misshifts, brakes worked, and everything felt good. Now I may have to dig up a silver post and maybe a saddle. Then this bike is good to go. I'm very happy with the outcome of the switch to the XL frame.