Posted on Leave a comment

Workshop Chatter: We’re Now Building Wheels In House

You know that we supply wheelsets with Starling Cycles custom builds, right?

It’s pretty straightforward – you choose a bike, you use the bike builder, you select your wheelset and they get added to your order. Easy.

Well – on that note – we’ve just made a bit of a change here at Starling Cycles, and we’re now building our wheelsets in-house. This might not seem like big news, but, we like to tell a story over here and it does have some benefits for you lot.

So why’s this happening? Until now, our friends at RyanBuildsWheels and Strongheart Wheelworks have built our wheels. Both are awesome custom, handbuilt wheel builders but we wanted to have a little more control over production and timescales.

Enter Starling employee James.

James is our man of many talents. He assembles bikes, orders components, handles customer service, does some brazing, does some mitring, rides a Swoop. All sorts.

Now, James is a handy bike mechanic but he wanted to up his skills even more. He spent some time with Bristol’s wheel-building-Yoda-himself RyanBuildsWheels and upped his skills to become a fully-trained builder in his own right.

This new skills upgrade means that he’s now able to handle all of our wheel builds, right here at Starling.

So why’s that good? First – we’re proud to be hand-building another bespoke product right here at Starling Cycles. James will make wheelsets that are handpicked to be the perfect match our frames and can guarantee they’re made to a high standard.

Also, by taking wheel building in-house, we’re able to manage timescales better. We’re not waiting on another business’s build queue and we can move wheels through production more quickly. That means fewer delays and you get your frame more quickly. Winner.

You can check out Starling Cycles’ range of handbuilt and steel full-suspension mountain bikes here.

Posted on Leave a comment

LoamWolf Review The Starling Cycles Roost Hardtail

Another week, another great review for the Starling Cycles Roost – our stainless steel, handmade hardtail mountain bike frame. This time, it’s The Loam Wolf.

You’re almost certainly up to speed already, but if you’re wondering “what is the Starling Cycles Roost?” let’s get you filled in.

The Starling Cycles Roost is a handmade, stainless steel hardtail mountain bike frame. It’s designed and tested here at Starling Cycles and made by our partners at ORA Manufacturing in Taiwan who are masters in building stainless frames.

The frame is designed to be versatile, capable of taking anything from a 120mm to a 160mm fork and being built up as a light-and-whippy XC ripper to a more hardcore, gravity-focused smasher. It has mixed (or mullet) wheels and fits boost and non-boost wheelsets alike. You can learn more about it here on our website.

With the latest batch of Roost frames in stock, we invited LoamWolf’s roving reporter Rob Johnson down to Starling for a visit.

Rob spent some time learning how Starling’s full suspension frames are manufactured (don’t miss his article and video all about that), we took him for a ride at our favourite trails and then sent him on his way with a complete Starling Roost to test on his trails.

And what did the LoamWolf’s Starling Cycles Roost review come up with..?

Aside from a few grumbles about his knees (not much we can do about those, Rob!) it was a glowing review.

Rob started out by exploring the reasons behind why the Roost is how it is:

“Starling wanted to put out an offering that would stand the test of time and satisfy the needs of riders who want to add a hardtail to their stable to compliment a full suspension bike”

… and then looked at the fine details of material, manufacturing and geometry:

“numbers on the Roost were selected to offer what they consider to be the ideal blend of snappy fun and confident stability, avoiding any pointed numbers that would make it a handful for riding on the opposite end of the spectrum“.

And then, it was on to the trails, exploring the comparison with a full suspension and the difference great geo and steel compliance can make:

“The Roost corners very well. The low BB really comes into its own, and it feels fairly well-balanced between the wheels. Where some hardtails have left me struggling a touch with the timing and balance of the bike in turns, the Roost was intuitive and had me feeling confident to push hard in smoother turns from the get-go”.

“A competent climbing, commendable cornering and lush-looking frame, the Starling Roost is a great example of an all-rounder hardtail that’ll look great for a long time. If you’re in the market for a fun-loving hardtail and are on board with the premium price in order to get that stunning raw finish for the long haul, it’s a stellar option”.

You can read the full Loam Wolf Starling Cycles Roost review here.
You can learn more about the Starling Cycles Roost here.

Posted on Leave a comment

Roost Frame + Rear Wheel Option Now Available

Starling Cycles Roost Frame with Joe kneeling alongside

Roost Frames Now Supplied With Hope Fortus Rear Wheel

Starling Cycles Roost hardtail frames are now in stock and – bonus – we’ve introduced a new way to buy one of your own.

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)

Learn more about the Starling Cycles Roost here.

Posted on Leave a comment

Roost Frames Are Back In Stock

Big news! Our stainless steel hardtail, the Starling Cycles Roost, is now back in stock.

We have 40 Starling Roost frames here at Starling HQ in Bristol right now, all ready to rock and ready to ship to customers around the world.

What is the Starling Cycles Roost?

The Starling Roost is our handbuilt, stainless-steel hardtail. It’s absolutely beautiful, super shiny and built to our spec by the experts at ORA engineering.

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

Starling Cycles Roost Frame on a wall with red ivy in the background

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.

Order your Starling Cycles Roost frameset here.

Frame + Rear Wheel

Starling Roost Frame and rear wheel with Joe McEwan holding frame

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.

Order your Starling Cycles Roost frameset with back wheel here.

Starling Cycles Roost Hope Edition

starling cycles roost in tunnel with flowers in foreground

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.

Order your Starling Cycles Roost Hope Edition Complete Bike here.

And Full Custom

starling cycles roost on wooden steps

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.

Order your Custom Starling Cycles Roost here.

How To Order Your Starling Roost?

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.

And that’s it – any questions, get in touch with us here.

Posted on Leave a comment

Starling Cycles Roost – Hardtail Party First Look

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.

You can learn more about the Starling Cycles Roost right here.

Posted on Leave a comment

DreamBuilds – Starling Cycles Roost (win this bike)

Great news! Our latest batch of Starling Cycles Roost frames just landed at the workshop.

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.

And you can learn more about the Starling Cycles Roost right here.

Posted on Leave a comment

NSMB’s Starling Cycles Twist V3 Review.

When you dive into Mike Ferrentino’s review of the Starling Cycles Twist V3 over on NSMB, you might, for a moment wonder if there is in fact, a review in there somewhere. And we mean no criticism when we say that – around the review is a beautifully written piece that’s packed with personal experiences, punk rock references and a touch of philosophising.

It’s safe to say that Mike has been bitten by the handmade mountain bike frame bug and opted to wax lyrical about the mullet-wheel mountain bike, the Starling Cycles Twist, that we sent him a month or two back.

Mike opted to run the Twist in is 135mm configuration but went all out in the damper department with an EXT Storia Coil unit.

The old saying goes that you can only make a first impression once, and it would appear the Twist made the right one with Mike: “Speaking of caning, holy shit! This bike is fun!”

Beyond the simple joys of the riding experience, Mike continues, saying: “As far as the alchemy of frame geometry and chassis feel is concerned, Joe has hit a sweet spot with this bike. It is easy to get up to speed on, and a whole mess of fun to ride.”

Hidden within this beautifully-written review, far removed from the usual dry, numbers-heavy reviews are the nuggets that help you really grasp what Mike has experienced. “This bike corners like a fiend.”

Then he gets onto maintenance and the pros and cons of single pivot versus a multi link trail bike from a turquoise-friendly brand: “You don’t need to spooge grease into your little Kashima dealiebobs every 20 hours on the Twist, because it doesn’t have any of that sh*t.”

“The fact that it is made by people who you can argue with via email, out of a material that is repairable and recyclable, in a place that isn’t China, that matters to me.” You may find your match with Joe, Mike… You have been warned.

“The Twist is a very simple but well thought out tool that does its job deceptively well. It is an absolute blast to get loose with; I honestly haven’t had this much fun on a bike in a long while. It handles far better than I expected, and is absolutely worthy of consideration as mid-travel trail ripper. It “feels” really good. The fact that it is made by people who you can argue with via email, out of a material that is repairable and recyclable, in a place that isn’t China, that matters to me. I hate internally routed cables , I am growing tired of bikes that make funny noises that get amplified by carvernous frame sections, and I am a sucker for filet brazing. This’ll do just fine.”

Read Mike Ferrentino’s Starling Cycles Twist V3 review on the NSMB website here.

Find out more about the Starling Cycles Twist V3 here.

Posted on Leave a comment

How It’s Made: Starling Cycles handmade steel mountain bike frames with The Loam Wolf.

Robert Johnston, The Loam Wolf’s European Editor paid us a visit in Bristol to find out how we go about producing our Starling Cycles handmade steel mountain bike frames and the difference between them and a mass-produced frame.

How handmade steel mountain bike frames are made, I hear you ask? Well, look no further.

“We recently paid Starling Cycles a visit in their new Bristol, UK headquarters. While we were there, we thought we would take the opportunity to experience first-hand how a frame goes from the raw materials through to the finished product, and figured we would share that with you as we don’t imagine that many people are aware of all the little intricate steps involved in the process, and we think it’s pretty damn interesting.

So, without further ado, let’s learn how to build a Starling front triangle.”

Check out the full feature over on The Loam Wolf here.

Find out more about Starling Cycles frames here.

Posted on Leave a comment

Off-Road.cc’s Starling Cycles MegaMurmur Review.

Liam Mercer at Off-Road.cc has just published his Starling Cycles MegaMurmur review and there’s plenty of praise for our longest long-travel 29″ mountain bike.

There’s been plenty of talk of how confidence-inspiring our bikes feel and that’s no different in Liam’s case, saying:

Once a climb is summited and the bike is rolled into a descent, that’s when the bike absolutely comes into its own. To put it short, it’s a monster that’ll very quickly take you to the finest edge of control.

With a longer chainstay on the MegaMurmur to suit taller riders, the extra plus is overall stability, something that wasn’t lost on Liam either he found that:

High-speed rock gardens were met with nothing but composure to the point where I was travelling at speeds way out of my comfort zone but rather than clinging on for dear life, my confidence was simply extended to match the ability of the bike.

Wrapping up his review, Liam said this about our latest hand made mountain bike frame.

“If you’re looking for a beautiful hand-crafted, steel mountain bike that’s built for nothing but absolutely unshakable comfort and performance at speed, Starling’s Mega Murmur is one fast machine and a total hoot at that.”

You can read the full review on Off-Road.cc here.

Read more about the Starling Cycles MegaMurmur here.

Posted on Leave a comment

The Radavist’s Starling Cycles Murmur V3 Review.

On the far side of the pond, John Watson at The Radavist has written his Starling Cycles Murmur V3 review.

John makes no secret of the fact that he loves steel mountain bikes, and in particular, the previous-gen Starling Murmur that he rode and review for a long old while. Whilst he was fully sold on the Murmur V2, Joe managed to convince him that the V3 would be the better option.

After a few months on one of our handmade mountain bike frames, John offered this insight:

“My favorite thing to do on the Murmur is a left-hand jump on a local trail that lands you into a sharp, left-hook turn. Hitting the jump just right snaps you into a spring-loading position just before you fire out of the landing in the corner like a catapult.”

It’s not all about the descending either. John’s a big fan of his hardtail for maximum efficiency on the chunky uphills

“however, with the V3’s geometry tweaks, mainly the 1º steeper seat tube and slightly higher BB, climbing got a bit easier. Now, when I hit a steep section of trail, I’ll scooch forward even more on the saddle, and dig in deeper. The bike practically walks itself up steep switchbacks and tight turns.”

“This new Murmur just proves that with the right kinetic engineering, proper geometry, and tube selection, a steel full suspension bike can offer the same, if not better, performance and ride quality as a carbon bike.”

Music to our ears John.

You can read the full review over on The Radavist website here.

To check out the Starling Cycles Murmur V3, head here.