Alongside Hope-spec full builds, frame only and custom-builds we now offer a helpful added option for a no-hassle mullet setup.
A lot of you told us that you’d love a mullet Starling Cycles frame – but – you don’t want to buy a brand-new wheelset. Your existing wheels are matching sizes and it feels expensive to fork out for a new pair.
Sound familiar?
Frame + Rear Wheel Anyone..?
So, to help you out, we’ve introduced the Starling Cycles Roost frame and rear wheel option.
That means, you guessed it, you can buy a frame and rear wheel. All shipped direct from Starling and ready to build up at home.
And, even better, we’re supplying the whole lot for £1,440, saving you nearly £100 over buying the wheel separately.
Choose this option and you’ll receive:
Roost frame
Hope headset in your chosen colour – free of charge
Hope seatclamp in your chosen colour – free of charge
Rear Axle
Rear Wheel – Hope Fortus 30SC rim with Hope Pro5 hub (RRP £310 – our price £220)
The Starling Cycles Roost is our stainless steel, do-it-all hardtail mountain bike frame. Mullet wheels, stainless steel frame, boost and non-boost compatible, room for 2.8″ tyres and compatibility with 120mm to 160mm forks. And, of course, it’s beautiful and shiny.
The Starling Roost does however have a unique feature that you won’t find on any other hardtail mountain bike. A unique, Starling-designed, proprietary chainstay yoke.
Here’s Joe’s explanation of what that chainstay yoke is and why we’ve made it.
The bottom bracket/chainstay/chainring region of any hardtail mountain bike is always a tricky region to design a solution for.
Large tyres, chainring position and the desire for a short chainstay length mean that the clearance available for the chainstays to fit is small. There are a multitude of different solutions used by hardtail mountain bike companies: from simple sheet metal plates to complex machining.
(Image above – the chainstay yoke design on the Starling Cycles Roost)
In designing the Starling Cycles Roost I spent a long time looking at existing solutions and none seemed elegant to me. They all seemed to be fitting something that was either too thin or overly complex.
Our steel full-suspension mountain bikes use a simple tubular yoke that joins the chainstays. In the case of the full-suspension Starling Cycles bikes, the yoke is then joined to the machined main pivot parts.
(Image above – the chainstay yoke design on our V3 full suspension frames)
But for the hardtail it’s just as easy to use two small machined parts that joint to the bottom bracket. And since the yoke doesn’t need to move, we can add further strength and rigidity by mitring and welding to the seat tube.
What we end up with on the Starling Roost is a strong, stiff, elegant solution. It might be different to everything else out there but it works and works well.
And, I think that making something unique is good. Why just look like every other hardtail mountain bike?
It also has the added benefit of keeping some visual similarity to the Starling full-suspension mountain bikes. I actually really like the aesthetics of the slightly raised chainstays and heaps of people who see it in person agree.
The design does result in a slightly higher chainstay than other configurations. But this has never been a problem with the full-suspension bikes, so no issue here! You can even run a 28t chainring.
“But what about chainslap?!” you all shout.
Well again, its been no issue on the full-sus bikes, which are silent on the trails. In my mind, having the chain closer to the chainstay means there’s less energy in the chain when it makes an impact, so less noise. But, this is a moot point as with some good quality chainstay protection (3M 2228 tape, or VHS tape work well), it’s just not an issue.
So that’s what’s up with the Starling Cycles Roost chainstay yoke.
It’s not like everyone else’s design, and it works and works well.
We designed the Roost to be a genuine all-rounder. It’s not a super-slack, boat-bike. Neither is it a steep and twitchy, XC-style whipper. It’s a go-anywhere, do-anything, all-day shredder that’s designed for a 140mm fork, but will work with anything from 120mm to 160mm.
It also has mullet wheels (29″ up front and 27.5″ on the rear) which makes for a super fun, stable and easy to ride hardtail mountain bike. It’s available in two sizes, medium and large. It has a unique tubular chainstay yoke that’s inspired by our full suspension frames. It has raised bottle bosses so cable routing and bottle-cage fitting is easy. It’ll take 2.8″ tyres, 200mm rotors, boost and non-boost back wheels.
This is our second-ever batch of Roost frames – the first were received super well by customers and the media and have long-since sold out. You can see a whole heap of Starling Cycles Roost reviews here.
The first batch proved the bike rocked, customers loved it and we couldn’t see an reason to change that. We’ve kept the frame exactly the same as that first drop. To date, we’re proud to have had zero frame failures, returns or warranty replacements.
Stainless Steel
And why build a hardtail mountain bike out of stainless steel? Simply, cos it’s absolutely beautiful. We wanted the Roost to be something really special and to answer those constant calls for raw or titanium frames.
Stainless has that lovely, forgiving twang of steel and rides easily as nicely as titanium, but without the huge added cost. It also stays in great condition and will keep sparkling through wet winters and plenty of abuse. Just give it a buff and it’s good to go.
Roost Options
There are now more ways than ever to buy a Starling Cycles Roost. Frames are in stock now at Starling Cycles and lead-times vary depend on the option you choose.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch and we can help you decide what’s best for you.
Frame Only
You can just buy a frame, easy. It comes with a free Hope headset and seat clamp. We’ll even install your headset for you.
You can buy frame and a rear wheel. This is a new option we’ve introduced to help folks that don’t have a mixed-wheel wheelset. Many of you have, for example, a 29″ wheelset at home and this allows you to order a rear-wheel with your new frame at a great price to save you some hassle.
We’ll supply you with an awesome Hope Fortus wheel, with Hope Pro 5 hub. And you’ll get that free Hope headset and seat clamp.
You can also choose one of our super special Starling Cycles Roost Hope Edition complete bikes. We’ve teamed up with Hope to offer a proper superbike version of the Roost – Fortus wheels with Pro 5 hubs, headsets, BB’s, seat clamps, Hope E4 brakes. The full works. The RRP of this mega-build would be £4600, but we’re able to save you over £800, offering it for £3777.
And, last but not least, go full custom build on your Starling Cycles Roost. Simply dive into our bike builder and piece together a truly unique Roost with components from Hope, Funn, Ohlins, CaneCreek, Funn, Magura, BikeYoke and more. You can even choose your own colours.
There’s a few options to order your Starling Cycles Roost.
You can order direct from Starling, via our website. We’ll ship frames and components unassembled. Hope Editions will be shipped assembled to UK-customers, and unassembled to rest of the world. Order direct from Starling Cycles here.
For customers in the USA, you can order direct from TrailLabs, Starling Cycles USA importer and distributor. TrailLabs are based in Springfield, Missouri and hold stock of Starling Cycles frames in the USA. Visit TrailLabs online here.
For customers in mainland Europe and the EU, you can order direct from BikeTheWorld. Based in Zurich, Switzerland they’re holding stock of Starling Cycles frames and can help avoid hassle with import, duty and customs. Visit BikeTheWorld online here.
Steve at HardtailParty just built up his Starling Cycles Roost and gave it a proper, in-depth first look.
As one of our favourite Youtube channels, we were stoked to send HardtailParty a Starling Cycles Roost to build, ride and review. He’s a real expert in hardtail mountain bikes so we knew that our do-it-all, stainless steel shredder would be in safe hands.
The Starling Cycles Roost is our stainless steel, hardtail mountain bike all-rounder. It’s built to take anything from 120mm to 160mm forks, designed for mullet wheels and with go-anywhere, ride-anything geometry.
And to celebrate, we’ve teamed up with Gee Milner to create a super-chill workshop ASMR dream build AND give you all a chance to win a Roost of your own.
On the off-chance you don’t know what Dream Builds is, they’re a long-running series of youtube videos where Gee and his team custom build some of the world’s most beautiful bikes. They’re easy to watch, super chilled and the perfect way to relax and nerd-out on some pushbikes.
This latest episode sees the team get stuck into a custom Starling Cycles Roost, our stainless steel hardtail mountain bike frame. It’s built up with a handpicked collection of components from Marzocchi, Raceface, Sun, TRP and more.
The Starling Cycles Roost is our only hardtail mountain bike and is designed to be super versatile. It’s for XC, trail riding, hardtail enduro, big days in the mountains, shreddy laps of the pump track. With super-balanced geometry and room for 120-160mm forks, it’ll do the lot.
You can enter the raffle to win the frame over on Gee’s Raffal page. Entries are worldwide, shipping is free and you’ll get your choice of size. Enter here.
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