Grease Is The Word
before you go anywhere on that Singlecross take all the moving parts apart and whack a load of decent grease in there, the sealing in the hubs/headset/BB is really rather rubbish
i had one last year and the rear hub packed up after four rides, i did take it off-road though and treated it bad, things should last better if you’re using it mainly for grubby road pootlage
it’s a great bike let down by cheapo components, but for £200 it’s quite bargainlicous