Month: March 2018

We’re celebrating as we move on up to a new workshop.

Starling was born in the shed at the bottom of my garden. That’s no exaggeration, it was an actual shed. It was very nice and sunny, spacious and had power but nonetheless it was a garden shed. It even had a little pond outside with a bridge you had to cross to get into it. You can see a few photos of it here over on Dirt (opens in new tab).

With the big Murmur Factory project and the amazing response to our bikes, we’ve had to upgrade the shed.

So, I’m no longer working at the bottom of the garden and I’ve moved into a proper unit in Bristol.

The new Workshop is amazing and is exactly what I was looking for.

It isn’t massive but has plenty of space for everything we need. It’s light and sunny, has room for customers to pop in and has plenty of space for fabrication and bike building.

There’s a little office, there’s parking and there’s even a brewery next door… totally by coincidence of course.

When I first moved in the new workshop was just a big empty room. I started out getting the wiring and power sorted, then moved on to build some insulated partition walls for the office. With that done I moved on to built a long, L-shaped wooden work bench for frame-building.

It was great fun getting that just-right and having lots of space to lay everything out exactly as I want it. The final job was the fine-details and I clad some of the walls with wooden panels and go some of my original frames up on display.

There’s loads still to be done but… there’s plenty of time.

If you fancy a visit, just drop me a line and the kettle will be on!

Cheers, Joe.

The new Starling Cycles Murmur Factory Edition is the latest hand built 29” mountain bike frame from Starling Cycles.

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The frame is built in Reynolds 853 steel with modern angles to be fast, aggressive and beautifully simple.

 

Designed in the UK, Built by ORA

The new ‘Factory’ frame has been designed in the UK by Starling owner Joe McEwan and hand built in Taiwan by ORA, one of the World’s very best steel mountain bike frame manufacturing facilities.

The collaboration between British-born Starling Cycles and Taiwan’s expert frame builders means that Starling can meet the high demand for their frames whilst maintaining the awesome ride and build quality that has claimed praise from riders and press alike.

Customers will also see a price reduction when compared to all British-made Starling frames.

Why Taiwan?

The move to Taiwan was a considered one. As a frame builder, aerospace engineer and designer, Joe made the decision after visiting the factory and seeing first-hand the high quality of manufacturing, work ethics and working conditions.

ORA’s factory is the perfect setup for hand-crafting the new frames with expert engineers, boasting years of experience in building top-quality mountain bikes.

Fast, simple, silent

The Starling Murmur Factory Edition is built around 29” wheels with 140mm rear travel with room for disc rotors up to 200mm and 2.5” tyre clearance. The frames will fit metric rear shocks and 148 x 12mm Boost rear hub spacings.

Frames will be available in two sizes and with a choice of rear shocks from Rock Shox, DVO or Fox. They can be supplied as a frame-only package or build kits with components from Rockshox, DVO, Fox, SRAM, Hope, Middleburn and Maxxis. Frames will be available in Primer Grey with black graphics as standard or in a choice of custom colours for an extra cost.

The Murmur Factory will be available in two sizes:

Still want a custom Murmur, built in the UK?

Riders that want a custom geometry, British-built Starling frame won’t be disappointed.

Starling will continue to hand-build frames in the UK and customers can simply choose whether to commission a one-off UK built frame or order one from the ‘Factory’.

Available to order now

Starling Cycles are taking pre-orders now with delivery expected in Autumn 2018.

Frames will be £1850 with a Rockshox Deluxe shock and all pre-orders will receive a Hope headset and seat clamp. Orders paid in full at pre-order will also receive a Burgtec control kit.

You can learn more about the Starling Murmur Factory here on our website.

Our good friend Jacob Gibbins just made this great short documentary all about Starling Cycles.

If you want to learn a little more about Starling Cycles, this is a great way to do it. It shows Joe’s journey from a full time aerospace engineer to a full time bike designer and builder.

Cheers Jacob!