£2,456.00
Wake up Sheeple! Free your mind. Escape the herd, ditch the shifter, join the Beady Brood.
The V3 Beady Little Eye is the freakiest, fastest, weirdest beast in the Starling brood. Zero gears, tiny travel, steel frame, a shed load of lo-fi lightning.
It’s the choice of a special community of freaks and geeks. Ultra-distancers, bike-packers, XC-racers, dirt-jumpers, park-ratters, grown up-BMX’ers. The enlightened few that know the more you subtract, the more you add.
The Beady is a full-suspension, single-speed mountain bike. But think of it as a hardtail with more grip and less chatter.
The special sauce is that the swing arm rotates around the BB. That means zero chain growth and a simple, single-speed setup.
The chain line is offset from the pivot, meaning you run zero sag to stop pedal bob. That means hardtail geo, a super low BB, on-rails cornering.
The beady cranks like a hardtail, with the explosive punch of a single speed. Throw in a big hit, drop or compression and the suspension comes to life, working when you need it to. Just enough movement for silly, scary speed. Just enough for a raw, rowdy, lo-fi, pedal-all-day, one-of-a-kind ride.
It’s a weird bike for weird riders. Riders that don’t give a damn about gears. Riders that love the feel of steel and a bike that’s brutally simple, zero maintenance and absolutely flies.
The Beady is part of our RARE collection, meaning it’s small batch and LTD edition. Orders are now OPEN for a limited period only. Frames shipping late October 2025.
Review
Review
Review
Our bikes eliminate complexity.
They are the counter-argument to mountain biking’s obsession with ‘more’.
With more pivots and more space-age materials. More acronyms and more marketing bullshit. The misconception that more tech means more fun.
We make unapologetically simple bikes. We include only what’s necessary, nothing more. Zero marketing gimmicks and next-best-thing shithousery.
We’ve stripped away the bullshit and left tough, long-lasting, beautiful and hassle-free mountain bikes. Bikes made to ride, not polish and preen. Simple to ride and bags of fun.
But simple doesn’t mean basic, and it certainly isn’t easy. It takes a whole heap of experience, expertise, testing, refinement and raw passion to make bikes this good, and this simple.
The Beady Little Eye is made using high-end, recycled steel. The V3 Beady has a whole heap of improvements to make it the toughest, simplest and funnest full-suspension, single-speed mountain bike ever.
The frame has an updated BB solution for a stiffer main pivot, less bearing drag, improved wear and the ability to run 24mm cranks instead of custom Middleburn/Profiles on previous versions. Bearings can be easily replaced, a stainless BB is supplied and servicing is done with a standard Shimano BB tool. The Beady also features an updated, straight seat tube for longer dropper insertion and an aluminium shim to stop stuck posts. As a final touch, we’ve added the current-gen, swooped head tube gussets.
And to give you the confidence you need, our frames are covered by our 7-year warranty and crash replacement service. They can be repaired, refurbished, repainted and often upgraded to keep them charging hard for years to come.
Starling Cycles are made by real flesh-and-blood humans. The perfect blend of precision and passion.
Our frames are hand-crafted with quality, lightweight steel for an unmistakable feel and undeniable speed.
Our single-pivot suspension design eliminates complexity. A blast to ride and a breeze to maintain.
| Frame Size | Medium | Large | XL | Medium | Large | XL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front Wheel | 27.5″ | 27.5″ | 27.5″ | 29″ | 29″ | 29″ | |
| Rear Wheel | 27.5″ | 27.5″ | 27.5″ | 29″ | 29″ | 29″ | |
| Shock | 210×55 | 210×55 | 210×55 | 210×55 | 210×55 | 210×55 | |
| Rear Travel | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 90 | |
| Max Rear Tyre | 2.6″ | 2.6″ | 2.6″ | 2.6″ | 2.6″ | 2.6″ | |
| Fork Length | 130mm | 130mm | 130mm | 130mm | 130mm | 130mm | |
| Rider Size Range | 5’6″ – 5’10” | 5’9″ – 6’1″ | 6’0 – 6’4″ | 5’6″ – 5’10” | 5’9″ – 6’1″ | 6’0 – 6’4″ | |
| 167cm – 177cm | 175cm – 185cm | 183cm – 193cm | 167cm – 177cm | 175cm – 185cm | 183cm – 193cm | ||
| Reach | 440 | 475 | 505 | 440 | 475 | 505 | |
| Stack | 611 | 611 | 621 | 632 | 632 | 641 | |
| Head Angle | 65° | 65° | 65° | 65° | 65° | 65° | |
| Seat Tube Length | 410 | 440 | 480 | 410 | 440 | 480 | |
| Head Tube Length | 120 | 120 | 130 | 110 | 110 | 120 | |
| Chainstay | 428 | 428 | 428 | 440 | 440 | 440 | |
| Recommended Gear Ratio | 32:17 | 32:17 | 32:17 | 32:18 | 32:18 | 32:18 | |
| Wheelbase | 1137 | 1171 | 1248 | 1151 | 1186 | 1220 | |
| BB drop (relative to front wheel axle) | 35 | 35 | 35 | 50 | 50 | 50 | |
| Eff. Seat Angle | 77° | 77° | 77° | 77° | 77° | 77° | |
| Eff. Top Tube * | 581 | 616 | 648 | 585 | 621 | 653 | |
| Max Post Insertion | 280 | 310 | 350 | 280 | 310 | 350 |
| Travel | 90mm |
| Shock | 210x55mm metric |
| Headset Top | ZS44/28.6 |
| Headset Bottom | EC44/40 |
| Seat Tube | 31.6mm |
| BB | Unique Starling stainless (supplied). Easily serviced MR2437LLB bearings. Uses standard Shimano tool. |
| Seat Clamp | 34.9mm |
| Chain Device | None |
| Cranks | Requires 24mm axle cranks, e.g. Shimano or Middleburn for 73mm BB. |
| Bash Mount | None |
| Rear Axle | 12mm bolt through UDH |
| Max Tyre | 2.6″ |
| Brake Mount | IS |
| Max Disc | 203mm |
| Front Shock Hardware | 30x8mm |
| Rear Shock Hardware | 35x8mm |
| Main Pivot Bearings |
6807LLB |
| Derailleur Hanger | None |
Wow. What a fun, fun bike! All of the stiff, snappy response of a hardtail but with enough rear compliance to soak up the worst of rooty, rocky crud. Running minimal sag encourages proactive riding, pushing into compressions forcefully and popping hard off crests to engage the rear suspension. Flicking the damping from fast (downhill) to slow (climbing) seems to be the cheat code for having your cake and eat it: descending fun and climbing efficiency. I'm sure that the lightweight rear end, devoid of cassette and derailleur help the back tyre track the ground more effectively than a heavy geared bike.
This bike makes me feel like the hardtail hero that I'm not! It addresses the limitations of a hardtail with very little compromise.
Thanks Joe, James and all at Starling for making such a game-changing design and the top customer service.
Such a confidence inspiring ride, it wants to go fast. (We won't mention my 2nd ride crash where I've fractured some ribs due to a speed vs skill ratio that wasn't in my favour!). Looking forward to a summer on this thing once I'm healed up!
"When a person's got a Starling in their pocket, they begin to appreciate peace."
After selling my Light-Eebs and getting a CX powered EBike I got tired of riding and missed the feeling of gratification. I felt as if there was no fidelity left with all that high-tech, like listening to your favorite tune through a tin-can turned up to 11.
This bike turned all this around. It's exactly as advertised: LoFi bike for HiFi fun - as long as you don't mind the bit of extra pain for a lack of gears.
After 10 rides I can confirm it really is the forever bike - floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee if need be.
Single speeds are my favourite type of bikes and that little bit of give that you get over a hardtail is just enough to let you really push it and leave you with a little bit of wiggle room on the drops and jumps or when things get steep and rooty. It was definitely worth the wait!