We love getting our bikes featured on The Radavist… but how about when two get featured at once in a double-trouble, two-in-one feature? Now that’s something extra special!

The Starling Cycles Swoop is our super-versatile, steel mountain bike frame with 27.5″ wheels. It can be run in ‘Trail’ mode with 130mm travel or ‘Enduro’ mode with 160mm.

Switch the rear shock, adjust the shock mounts and you can jump back and forth between short-travel shredder and big-hitting, hard charger.

Partners Alex and Nikki both have Swoops of their own, one setup in Enduro and the other in Trail. With the unique situation of two riders on the same bikes in two different setups and both sharing the same adventures, The Radavist saw an opportunity for a double review.

No arguments here!

Nikki “wants a bike that rides well, looks good, and tunes out all the jargon” whilst Alex is a self-confessed “giant bike nerd”.

Despite their differences, both riders were attracted to our bikes because they were tired of mainstream bikes ageing quickly and becoming outdated in just a couple of years. They wanted bikes that looked good, descended well and would last for ages – no quickly out-of-date standards or dated looks.

Their builds are pretty interesting – both set their bikes up for rough, rocky and technical US riding but also to be capable of big rides and some bike-packing adventures. There’s nothing obscenely featherweight, but, both opted to keep the weight down and the rolling speeds up – with John’s Swooping coming in around 32lbs, whilst still running a Fox 34 and 2.4″ tyres.

On the trail, Alex reckons they’re having a blast on their Swoops. His bike is setup with big travel 160/170mm and says:

“Fast downhills are a breeze. The bike goes where you want it to with ease and feels confident. Mine eats up chunk better than hers of course, but they still take it all in stride. They soak up all the chunky and rough corners and love flying into supportive berms and ruts and bouncing right back out”

Nikki is a little more matter-of-fact in her review and Alex reports that:

“Nikki said that going uphill the bike rides “normal” and it “goes up rocks well.” Downhill is “not sketchy.” I have to agree”

Of course, we don’t want to spoil the review by copying and pasting the whole thing here so, we’ll let you read it for yourself right here on The Radavist.

Photos by John Watson / John Weinberg