Here is a great read from Starling Cycles. Highly recommended. It has a lot of inside information:
Some quotes:
Starling Cycles: Mountain bike geometry has changed, and we have a better understanding of what is required for different types of riding. The long, low, slack suits rough high speed terrain, but maybe at the expense of some pop and maneuverability. Personally, the more I think about it, the more I think we need to think about how we ride and what geometry suits our needs, rather than just thinking making it as long as possible is best. There’s an ergonomic aspect too.
Starling Cycles: Being a British Manufacturer is not easy. Without getting too political, manufacturing is just not valued in the UK. The people making money, with minimum risk, are estate agents (don’t get me started), lawyers, solicitors, finance, marketing people. They add nothing, but take everything. Whereas in the EU and many other places it is understood that manufacturing is key to a strong economy and it is respected. Engineers are respected, not just seen as weird geeks.
Some interesting technical information:
For their V3 starling, they use a cast BB cluster. I think this area experiences the highest stress on a bike, especially since the pivot is attached to it. They mentioned it cracked during testing.
There is probably a $150 cost difference between cast and CNC cluster at scale. The cast cluster has a chicken and egg problem (you need to invest in the molds in order to test your design). Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but it must have been an interesting and difficult decision to make.
Their lead time is 8-16 weeks, which means they must run a very efficient and lean manufacturing setup.
I love that can focus on optimizing their main product while still being open and experimenting with new designs
Thanks, I’ve been trying to find news/reviews from Bespoked 2023 and I keep coming up short. A far cry from MADE 2023 which you couldn’t turn around without being hit with another roundup/review!
seems like you’re following different media and people than myself, my insta feed is full of bespoked content… It is a bit euro centric though, while MADE was a bit Americas-centric I think.
There is a pinkbike article by TEBP (the european bike project), don’t know if it can get any bigger than that media wise.
Marino is a very unique builder who is doing things different. I’ve seen a few of his bikes and they are very interesting as they bridge the gap between affordable and custom.
His drill press miter set up was very interesting. It didn’t seem to have any issues metering.
