Rune Rufus Stone - Singular Peregrine divergence build...and other bikes I own

When Sam launched the Mk3 Peregrine a few years ago I put a pre-order in in Xmas day to make sure I snagged one, C19 then got in the way of supply chains and they took aaaaggggggeeeeessssss to arrive on UK shores but eventually they did!

I've got a couple of other Singulars as well, a 700c 28mm tyre'd Osprey and a 650B 38mm tyre'd Osprey both with rim brakes which I love and have carried me on thousands of miles around Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, but my plan for the Peregrine was to build a 650B 48-50mm tyre'd multi-surface bike with discs for when I couldn't be arsed to drag the MTB out but wanted to play offroad more than the 38mm Osprey would allow (basically I wanted a Singular to replace my AWOL)

When the Peregrine arrived I built it up pretty sharpish and then ended up riding it almost exclusively for a couple of months while I got it dialled in and gave it a proper test both on and off road. I absolutely love this thing, it's far more capable offroad than it has any right to be, and it's a blast on road too, it's a bit heavier than my more road oriented bikes so plods up hill a bit but everywhere else it's a hoot and I've ridden it on several club runs with no bother.

Fast forward a couple of years, many miles around the counties on roads, lanes, and all over Dartmoor, Exmoor a bit of the Quantocks as well as local woods and commons and I've been starting to feel like I actually want to split the Peregrine in two and have an offroad biased build and a road biased one so I tentatively started looking for another MK3 frame second hand, a couple had popped up but I'd always been too late so was resigned to the fact that I might have to buy another one brand new. It was either that of try and get a Crust of some sort shipped over.

But then...

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An email dropped into my mailbox from The Woods Cyclery bringing the Rune Rufus Stone to my attention.

I didn't know anything about the brand, so did a bit of reading, no previous frames or bikes produced so this was going to be their first offering, but the blurb seemed solid, the pics were good, I trusted the Woods not to push a bad product and the geometry is very very close to the Peregrine (both in Medium size) and the small differences would actually work in my favour and...AND it has a 1 inch steerer and quill stem!

For me this was the deal breaker, the one thing I always missed on the Peregrine was a quill, call me old fashioned if you must but I like the aesthetic and I also like the extra flex of the quill and 25.4/26.0 bars.

So I ordered one, with a plan rapidly forming to steal all the bits from peregrine and do a frame swap to use the Rufus Stone as my new slightly more road biased but still multi surface option, and then go for a full on knobblies and offroad biased rebuild of the Peregrine.

Life got in the way a bit and it was a very annoying 2 months between the Rufus Stone arriving on my doorstep and me actually finding the time to build it, but that gave me time to start accumulating parts too so by the time I built it the only thing I ended up snaffling from the Peregrine was the mudguards!

So here it is as built this week, only done about 20 miles on it so far as a shakedown, but will be off on 40-50 miler club run through the lanes tomorrow for a bit more pedal time.

I prep for the Singular rebuild I also fitted some big knobbly Terravail rubber to some spare wheels, these will be going on the Singular but I couldn't help but try them on the Rufus Stone to see if the fit, they did ;-)

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Once I get my ducks in a row I'll be rebuilding the Singular with the big knobblies and either swapping to 1x11 or possibly just staying 2x for a bit but with a bigger cassette, will post some shots on here as and when.

(I've also got an itch to scratch to build it with some swept back flat bars at some point to see how it rides thattaway)

What a great collection!!!

Thank you!

I have a bit of a habit (others say problem but screw them) for rescuing and rebuilding vintage steel too so there's a couple of dozen other bikes in the extended collection/storage/ride rotation ranging from the 1940s to mid 90's as well, but that's probably content for other threads.

Along with the MTB's as well...maybe it is a bit of a problem...

Very cool.

Do the singular and the Rune use the same forks?

not quite...

The crown appears to be the same, but 1 1/8th on the Singular and 1 inch steerer on the Rune.
The legs too appear to be very similar in profile but the A2C of the Rune fork is shorter (dedicated 650B not 29er/650B like the Singular) so the legs are a bit shorter.
Dropouts appear to be almost identical, as is the axle.
The fittings are different though. The Singular fork has two mid-blade mounts both of them 'all the way through' type, where as the Rune has a set of lowrider bosses of the same type, and then a pair of braze-ons further up attached to the front of the blades for mounting a mini-rack.

FWIW the seat lug cluster is also almost identical, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find they've used the same part there.

Instant sub. Give us some more shots! Also, you can't beat the fat tires/skinny tubes combo

Man I love the look of those Runes, I tried to get the geo a while ago, but they didn’t get back to me.
But this is going to be good! Subbed.

Geo is on their website, and on Bikeinsights. Nothing outrageous, very sensible numbers for intended use by normal shaped people.

Still cursed by 74degree seat angles in Medium and small but I can just about make that work with a big layback post

Cool beans, that’s been added since I last looked… As I expected I’d be a MedLarge…

I think I read somewhere that the Rune person uses the same factories as crust, and there was some animosity between them because crust gave them a load of info that they then used without declaring that were going to do so.

Or something. Might be miles off and it was other brands not Rune.

I think they look cool. Not as cool as your superb collection of Singulars.

I think I'll eventually replace my AWOL with a peregrine too some day.

Yes, there was some beef on Instagram etc. I found it all a bit blown up and exaggerated tbh.
There are soooo many steel frames coming from those factories in Taiwan.
Brother, Fairlight, Crust, Soma all QBP (All-city, Surly etc...) most likely the Peregrine too and now also people who used to make all their frames by hand like Sklar. It's all the same and for a reason. Those factories actually churn out really good frames.

In my opinion, Crust acted very much like they invented big tyred rando / gravel bikes with a classic touch. I feel like that's a very US centric perspective. They forget, that the US is not the sole inventor of gravel/offroad riding and that before there were any of these Instagram cult bikes or figures there were french randonneurs, english touring bikes (Raleigh!) and things like the Rough Stuff Fellowship. Before there was a Fabs Chest there was a Carradice waxed canvas saddle bag etc...
It's all been done before and inspired by each other. I assume Rune and Crust also don't necessarily overlap too much in market share. It's ridiculously expensive to import a crust to the EU / UK and the other way around.

A much more appropriate criticism of "that Rune Person" was/is that he supported some discriminating policies against trans people in the cycling world. This almost did cost him agreements with dealers in the UK. He has since apologised for his statements.

Think that's a pretty good summary. Didn't know the last bit 😕

Crust acted very much like they invented big tyred rando / gravel bikes with a classic touch.

I mean Singular have literally been making the same bikes as Crust do for 15yrs now haven't they? Quick Google says Crust started in 2014, so what about 5yrs after the Singular Peregrine came out?

And not to be too harsh, but the Evasion basically looks like a tarted up LHT with reasonable sizing geometry.

Put about 100 miles on the Rune since built now, really liking it, it's basically very very similar to how my Peregrine rides with this kind of build spec, which is what I wanted. Slightly less trail and flop on the front end so feels a little nicer on the road, and now leaves me free to go more offroady with the Peregrine, the more I think about i the more I'm inclined to put some swept back bars on it and try that out.

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Looks great!
What are the tyres on it? They don't quite look like RH...

They are Herse Switchback Hill EL's the logo is on the other side. they are literally brand new out of the pack so the sidewalls haven't weathered yet so they look a bit light.

Couldn't have summarised it better. More bike manufacturers offering options, variety and diversity to the world is definitely A Good Thing.

The transphobia thing was interesting - I (and a few of my friends) reached out and spoke to the owner when he liked something transphobic online, during which he went full circle with doubling down, arguing against, denying and then finally accepting the discriminatory nature of his actions. It's a nice affirmation that being a nasty person online can have almost instantaneous consequences, anyway.

It's also a good example of how discussion and discourse can open eyes and allow people to reflect on their own opinions and grow from it too, it's how the world moves forward.

Mine's the cynical take, but yeah I couldn't agree more. Credit where it's due to Rune as it's never easy to accept your mistakes and even harder to accept learning, especially as an adult with shaped opinions and views.

He apologised nearly a year ago so let's talk about the bike instead

That is fucking awesome.
@NotDotMatt you have done a cracking job.

For a moment I thought you’d managed to debadge Rene Herses and was going to ask the secret!

Nice thread and bikes.
I have a peregrine and an osprey. Similar to you, I went for 2x on my peregrine. It has never shifted well so I was thinking about getting a 1x group on it.

Re Rune thing, isn't it a company set up by the people who run the woods, who sell both singulars and crusts? I am sure Singular Sam helped out a bit (though just conjecturing) as woods have been selling singulars for years

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