Starling Cycles Announces Made-In-Taiwan Murmur
PRESS RELEASE: Starling Cycles
The new Starling Murmur Factory Edition is our latest handbuilt 29” mountain bike. The frame is built in Reynolds 853 steel with modern angles to be fast, aggressive and beautifully simple.
Details:
• Built with Reynolds 853 steel and heat treated high strength steel
• 145mm rear travel
• Built for 29″ wheels
• 2.5″ tyre clearance
• Up to 200mm rotors
• Integrated chain guide
• Integrated ISCG05 bashguard mounts
• Available in 2 sizes
• Grey with black graphics or custom-colours for +£125
• Choose no shock or a rear shock from Rock Shox, DVO or Fox.
• Choose frame only or build-kit with kit from Burgtec, SRAM, Hope, Middleburn and Maxxis.
• £1850 w/ RS Debonair shock
Designed in the UK, built by ORA. The new ‘Factory’ frame has been designed in the UK by Starling owner Joe McEwan and handbuilt in Taiwan by ORA, which we believe to be one of the world’s very best steel mountain bike frame manufacturing facilities.
The collaboration between our British-born brand and Taiwan’s expert frame builders means that we can meet the high demand for our frames while maintaining the awesome ride and build quality that has claimed praise from riders and press alike.
Customers will also see a price reduction when compared to all British-made Starling frames. The Factory Murmur frame is supplied with a rear shock for £1850, while British-made, custom geometry frames are £2040 without shock.
The move to Taiwan was a considered one. As a frame builder, aerospace engineer and designer, we made the decision after visiting the factory and seeing first-hand the high quality of manufacturing, work ethics, and working conditions. We think ORA’s factory is the perfect setup for hand-crafting the new frames, with expert engineers boasting years of experience in building top-quality mountain bikes.
Fast, simple, silent. The Starling Murmur Factory Edition is built around 29” wheels with 140mm rear travel with room for disc rotors up to 200mm and 2.5” tyre clearance. The frames will fit metric rear shocks and 148 x 12mm Boost rear hub spacings.
Choose frame-only or rolling chassis. Frames will be available in two sizes and with a choice of rear shocks from Rock Shox, DVO or Fox. They can be supplied as a frame-only package or build kits with components from Rockshox, DVO, Fox, SRAM, Hope, Burgtec, Middleburn and Maxxis. Frames will be available in Primer Grey with black graphics as standard or in a choice of custom colours for an extra cost.
Want a UK-made Starling with custom geometry? No problem. Riders that want a custom geometry, British-built Starling frame won’t be disappointed. [Ed. Note: we have a Starling Murmur being tested at the moment. Stay tuned.]
Starling will continue to hand-build frames in the UK and customers can simply choose whether to commission a one-off UK built frame or order one from the ‘Factory’.
Available to order now. We are taking pre-orders now with delivery expected in Autumn 2018. Frames will be £1850 with a Rockshox Deluxe shock and all pre-orders will receive a Hope headset and seat clamp. Orders paid in full at pre-order will also receive a Burgtec control kit.
You can learn more from Starling Cycles and pre-order a frame at starlingcycles.com.
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Member since Mar 6, 2018
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> $3500 for a frame and shock - yikes!
Steel doesn't mean low quality though. This is a shit hot bike with lots of considered design and built to highest quality. All of my customers so far, and press reviews have been massively positive.
It's the law.
Not sure if this a good or a bad thing.
"The Factory Murmur frame is supplied with a rear shock for £1850, while British-made, custom geometry frames are £2040 without shock"
Otherwise very nice. And the non replaceable hanger would annoy me. First thing I’d wreck probably
My only concern is the sizing, I think there needs to be an xl size as a 440mm seat tube doesn't give tall riders much to play with.
@DC1988 He does offer custom geometry on his UK made frames. His foreign frames will probably allow more people who are fine with the standard offering to get one of those so you have a better chance to get one of his UK made frames with custom geometry.
I was looking at the bike yoke revive 185mm dropper, I still don't think it would go high enough. I'd love the custom geometry but the price is just too high.
Kingdom XFS is currently 1785 gbp w/o a rear shock.
but one has to look a bit closer to distinguish the fine details, there is almost no CNCing on the Murmur, the XFS is loaded with CNC features and not to mention is a full titanium affair. Kingdom has lifetime warranty on all frames, Starling has 1 year warranty.
Would you rather have a bike with lots of CNC parts that rides shit. Or a bike that's been designed to be a simple as possible, with minimum unnecessary crap and rides great?!
Was only agreeing with you mate!
I was already impressed that Starling could offer a good frame for not really much more than what you'd pay for something from Orange. I think the addition of Taiwanese production was mostly because of the huge demand. And I have nothing against that. The situation in Taiwan is much, much better than it is in China whose products we have come to accept.
So sorry, I'm sidetracking myself again.
TL;DR: Frames have gotten more expensive over the years and I'm already more than happy someone still produces a good single pivot design. The addition of Taiwanese production is nice and isn't hurting anyone. If you want a handmade UK or German steel frame, you'll still end up on a waiting list which implies demand is still higher than supply.
Numerous reviews, customer feedback, best of year awards suggest steel is in fact a very good material for a suspension bike.
I suspect your reply will be that you need a stiff frame and that the suspension will do the job of grip and shock absorption. But lean the bike over 45° in a corner and now the suspension only deals with half of the movement acting on it. And your laterally stiff frame cannot conform to the bumps.
A fairly consistent comment on reviews of steel bikes, that typically have more lateral compliance because of the thinner tubes, is that they have amazing grip.
Do you still think you are correct?
If steel offered a superior solution for making high performance FS bikes, you would see more than a very small niche of companys using it. I understand that a certain degree of flex in specific areas is desireable, but flex is something that can be engineered into a frame regardless of material. Similarlly, Ti, which was once the pinnacle of materials for hard tails is non-existent with FS.
My current ride is aluminum and has quite a bit of lateral flex on the stays, possibly because they are by today’s standards silly long.
Dont believe the hype - carbon fiber and aluminum are NOT better than steel and Ti for a FS frame.
Steel is not an easy material to work with when building a complex suspension frame, it is expensive to machine compared to aluminium. Titanium is even harder. The economies of this are the reason why there aren't as many suspension frames made from these materials.
I agree you can make a compliant frame from any material, but thin diameter steel tubes lend themselves to this better than ally or carbon for a given strength.
How much does it weigh?
Anyone?
(It's a rolling chassis.)
AFAIK they still offer regular build kits... or they did previously.
But, I know people have an irrational fear of steel hangers, like mice I suppose, so the Taiwanese frames have a replaceable aluminium hanger.
It begs the question once again though, could a 4130 single pivot frame with open source dropouts, 44mm ht and decent geometry be possible for £600-£800 inc shock if done to a decent scale of production in the Far East - I think so.
I think that this is possible but sans shock, the dropouts marino (sometimes) and stif use are pretty open source i think. A good taiwan hardtail like the stif morf already costs about 600 bucks so with a basic shock it should be possible for 999 bucks
That flex would be deliberate, that's the whole point. Not everybody wants a carbon wheeled carbon frame bike that wants to pop out of every rut and corner, some like the idea of lateral flex allowing the bike to track the terrain in something other than the vertical plane.