The bike to take over the world

Clamp on Down Tube bar end shifters

Ftfy

I’m standing with the DTs. They are on the list for my Sequoia.

This sounds like it could get expensive quite quickly.

You may want to explore getting a bike fit first, especially if you plan to keep hold of the Singular for a long time. That way, you can mess about with flats and drops during the fit, and come away better informed of what works best for you and your body. You'll also be given a data sheet specifing what size of components you need (e.g. stem length etc.) to replicate that fit, which removes guesswork.

Just a thought, but have you looked at the Ritchey Beacons or even Beacons XL? Bikepacking.com loved them enough to actually write a whole piece on them: https://bikepacking.com/gear/ritchey-beacon-xl-review/

Could be worth investigating?

This is great advice - of course I haven't settled on one build for any of the three bikes currently in rotation.
I've swapped bars on my dad bike two times over the last couple of weeks and the "road bike" was recently converted from ritchey kyote to drops.

Thanks all! will mull it over across the weekend and come up with a plan of action

Right. With a big weekend of deliberation coming to a close, I think I've made some progress.

Decided (rightly or wrongly) that i'm going to run it with flared drops.

Which means I've got some new challenges ahead:

For the gearing, I think I'm going to go for two set ups which I'll switch around - one for loaded touring (30t chainring - for 19 inch granny gear) and one for gravel riding (36t chainring). Facilitated by wolftooth camo chainrings - would do people think of these?

I want to run 1x12 11-52 cassette and, given its drops, will need a mullet drivetrain. Best option I've seen seems to be the ratio 1x12 upgrade kit. I wondered if anyone had any experience with this and could let me know what they think (positive or negative) or if anyone does it a different way that works well/ they recommend?

I would recommend a double crankset, so you don't have to change chainrings every time and you don't have to get such an enormous cassette.

alt bike media is heavily invested in the “2 x is the new 1 x”. That said - setting up front derailures is worse than fitting mudguards imo. Lovely frame - Ritchey beacons would be sick on that

Agreed, double crankset would make sense but frame is only compatible with single chainring so think using the wolf tooth camo is the next best option as not too much hassle swapping out different sizes for different uses.

Ritchey beacons getting ordered this week!

You also have to consider that the wide range 1x groupsets work well with a limited range of different chain lenghts.

This means that, if you plan on putting on two different chainrings with a 6 teeth jump between them, you will also have to keep two different chains to swap accordingly.

Wolf Tooth is high quality stuff, pick the steel rings if they come in the size/setup you want.