Rare birds: Swallow Griffon

[doctor-bond]

Been thinking about the next MTB project, and taking the view that it should be UK built and something that I had a connection with BITD, it's time to firm up my hunt for a Swallow Griffon.

At the same time I bought my Stumpy, a friend got hold of a Griffon, and I always had a soft spot for it. Light and lively with lush forks and a good climber too.

Checking out Wu's magazine scan on here brought back the memories.

But I've never seen one since.

So - anyone here ever met one, or know anything about what happened to the frame builder? Google is strangely silent: lots of hits on birdlife & saddles of course.

Was swallow the same company that did tandems and got bought out?

any clues gratefully received

[& cash waiting if anyone captures one in the flesh]


cheers

 

[Crayons]

Fairly sure you're right about them being made by the same Swallow that made tandems – the fave bike name thread reminded me of the Ptarmigan (also a swallow from the late 80s) and I did a bit of digging in my old books, just found a listing for the Ptarmigan Exage in The Mountain Biking Handbook by Barry Ricketts (published in 198

It shows the Ptarmigan as being a fillet-brased 531 frame with Exage Mountain parts – mavic Oxygen rims for £580

Not sure how the Griffon compared, though I suspect it was primarily component spec differences rather than frame

 

[messiah]

A local climbing shop stocked Swallows in the early MTB years and I looked at them wistfully many a time.

The only ones I have slung a leg over or looked at buying have been very short to very very short with long headtubes as well, so not your standard MTB type geometry as we now know it.

It would be good to see some again.