PRESS RELEASE: Starling CyclesThe Starling Sturn is a steel, single-speed downhill bike with 29" wheels and 180mm travel.
It was made by hand in Bristol, UK at Starling Cycles HQ.
It has room for up to 2.7" tyres, adjustable geometry and can be built with custom geometry to suit a rider.
It's made for riders that want no hassle from broken mechs or bashed up gears. It won’t skip a beat through the winter or through a season of gnarly riding. It’s a bike for a big summer in the mountains and is surprisingly good on the race track. It's single-speed in order to be tough and simple - meaning absolutely no hassle on or off the trails.
The wild-looking cogs and chains make up what's called a 'Jack Drive' and are inspired by the classic Brooklyn Machine Works designs. The 'Drive allows you to run the suspension and the drive train through the same pivot which cuts out chain growth and allows the bike to be single-speed.
We'd had a downhill bike on the drawing board since day 1 and we'd always liked the idea simplicity of single-speed. When we visited Brett Wheeler at Wheeler's MTB Holidays we go chatting, he was stoked on the idea and it was the excuse we needed. I got to work and made the first prototype of the bike, which appears in the video.
The first prototype of the bike was built earlier in the year and sent out to Lousa, Portugal for Brett to ride.
Since he received the bike, Brett has won the Masters categories at the Portuguese Nationals and the European Downhill Championships and placed 4th (with a puncture) at Masters World Champs. Brett and friends made this little RAW video to show off some of the fun he's been having on the bike out in Lousa on his home trails.
You can learn more about Starling Cycles at
https://www.starlingcycles.comAnd you can learn more about Brett at
http://wheelersmountainbikeholidays.com
Starling- Did you say two chains?
As for riding testing. I have over 150 customer bikes out being ridden. As they are all custom bikes, I have a an ongoing relationship and feedback from a good majority of them. On top of this I have always had a race team, including a National champion and many national level wins. These riders are also geographically close and give me lots of feedback.
I think this is one of Starling strengths, the fact I can build prototypes with quick turnaround and get feedback. Very different to companies designing bikes by CAD then having a six months cycle between design and samples.
Hopefully your foreign made bikes will cure the poor appearance
I was an applications engineer at Ansys in Sheffield, BTW so what your an Aerospace blah blah balaaaah being an aerospace engineer didn't stop you learning everything about shed bike building on this very forum for the past few years in the home made bike section who would think a mighty aerospace engineer having to ask humble bike builders , if you have proof you have iso testing from an accredited test house then I'm all ears just dont insinuate other people don't have it either. WHICHEVER wether its test riders or product testing a libellous comment is still a libellous comment.
Other people put a lot of work in to their brands YOU need to realize posting that every bike that isn't yours has a flaw or isnt as beautiful as your starling (and yes you have seriously written that before to try and demean others efforts in various forums on the www) makes you unlikeble and start and be more humble. You were the one casting aspertions with no proof another company does no testing not me so dont get all stroppy when someone challenges you.
Pretty sure I ran though many an untested village bike in my life. Don't care, no regrets. They are the fun ones.
Also bike looks sick. 10 of 10 would romp.
@MontyCreates: I'm quite happy to let Sick send out untested bikes, I'm going to make sure it's right first!
Make him look a right c*nt..
www.mtb-news.de/news/2015/12/03/bike-der-woche-eigenbau-von-ibc-user-mr-t
Profile cranks too. I love it.
I'd mount 27,5 wheels and go with a suitable 200mm fork. Is there anything that speaks against this idea? super low bb wouldnt bother me...
Great video btw.
Jack shaft drive trains preceded BMW, good to see they're still alive.
Digging those chunky asf brazes...reminds me of a gangster rapper with a gold grill. Our a fat girls lumpy ass...just wanna bury my face innit!
And bonus points for the “throw the gears in the parts bin” shot!
First try THEN judge
Because i've been ridding for a long time (more or less 8 years) with a speedhub, mounted on a Mountain Cycle SIN.
All i can say is that the hub's weight is NOT something you notice! (and if you do, you can always re-tune your rear shock settings)
So, practically there's no setback with the weight of the Rohloff...
WHERE IS MY MAYTAY, DAMNED!!
Not many races you’ll roll down in the wrong gear and win.
So since you won’t be winning you better be hella stylish but I can pretty much guarantee you won’t be cuz of those big dumb wheels.
Oh and nice job shitting on sick bicycles btw there bub.
You figure you’ve got a leg up on them? Looks like your bike got made in a shed.
www.rootsandrain.com/race6485/2018-may-27-portugal-cup-5-porto-de-mos/results/filters/overall
Are you my daddy?
I see the validity of a steel hardtail, even a single speed steel hardtail but this is just silly!!
I'm afraid you are just being brainwashed by the big companies who use stiffness as a metric; X% stiffer therefore X% better. Simplistic bullshit I'm afraid.
This bike is winning races, and will continue to.
And....building a steel mainframe stiff enough not to laterally load a rear shock is inefficient, heavy and (when using higher grade, heat treated steel alloys) pretty expensive. I get the compliance of steel in an unsuspended frame-I grew up on steel hardtails (and road bikes), and they rode notably better than the aluminum frames I had.
Sure, big companies tout various metrics to hype their products, but they also have the biggest R&D budgets, engineers and lowest recall/warranty rates. And their bikes ride really well.
The strenght is fine with rougher braze fillets, but most people do a pass with the torch again to even out before sanding down.
I didn't say Starling has nicer brazing than Curtis, i mean Starling is still in the startup, he has made frames for a couple of years. Curtis has been making bikes for ages, must be 20 years plus judging by some bikes i've seen.
You know this bike is a prototype right?
He will deliver as nice fillets as he did on the beady little eye.