The internet is a cruel courtroom, filled with jesters in the gallery. Do something different, counter to the status quo, and watch them roll out the snark. Pushing paradigms with its simple, no bullshit approach to bike design and fabrication, Starling Cycles brings out the insecurity in various media outlets’ overwhelmingly male audiences. To celebrate the hate they’ve received over the past several years, the Bristol-based builders rolled out the Starling Cycles 1000th frame, full of the internet comments they’ve received. Normally, we rewrite press releases in the third person, but this one is too good to edit, so read on for the full presser from Starling Cycles below…
“Not to be mean, but ‘cares about aesthetics’ doesn’t describe the typical Starling customer.”
“STEEL IS REAL – REAL UGLY!”
No bike brand’s journey is complete without the highs (and lows!) of internet comments. And at Starling Cycles, we’re no strangers to exactly that. And we LOVE it.
We love creating a reaction, taking people by surprise, challenging industry bullshit and getting riders talking.
The comments are where that happens – the real talk, keeping-us-honest, unfiltered voice of the community and the genuine, can’t-hide-from-it measure of whether you’ve hit or missed. So, when we saw the big milestone of our 1000th frame, we knew it was time to celebrate the keyboard warriors. The folks who have made Starling what we are. Singing our praises, hauling us over the coals, rating us and hating us.
“IDK why but Starling is just a brand I want to see succeed.
“OVER THE TOP HIPSTER DOUCHEBAG MARKETING”
Frame 1000 is the 1000th frame that Starling has made in-house in Bristol, UK. It’s one of our handmade in the UK, steel frames and is a Twist, our mixed-wheel mullet, in size medium with 135mm rear travel. Each frame is hand-stamped with its unique number on the dropper port, and this one bears the prestigious “M1000.”
Fun Fact: The ‘M’ means “Murmur” and shows that it’s the 29” version of our handmade, steel front triangle. Our Twist mullet frame is made up of a 27.5″ rear triangle, and 29″ (Murmur) front triangle. Make sense? We also have some frames stamped with ‘S’, which denotes our Swoop (27.5″) front triangle. And no, numbers don’t duplicate, so there’s only ever going to be one frame 1000.
“I want to see a tattooed guy in his 40s bumbling down loamers filmed on a dadcam before I buy my pretentious steel bike parts”
“NICE LOOKING POGO STICK, BUT A BIT PRICEY!!”
To make this happen, we roped in local artist and rider Adam Hayes – AKA Its All Rideable.Adam is based just over the border from Starling in Abergavenny, Wales and creates some fun, hand-illustrated artwork that we love. In a world of AI-generated images and fast art, it was great to work with a proper artist and illustrator. Adam wrote a whole heap of our favourite comments on the frame in black ink, with a mix of some really positive, really heartwarming ones, and some that are considerably less so.
They’re taken from various excellent media titles, including Pinkbike, Singletrack and MTBNews. Also Starling’s YouTube and social.
“LONG LIVE STEEL!”
“HOW DOES STARLING GET SO MUCH COVERAGE ON PINKBIKE?!”
In case you were wondering, nope, while this is our 1000th frame, we’ve made more since.
We made this one a while back, and it just took ages to make the project happen. We’ve also made a whole heap of frames outside of our UK workshop, alongside – such as the Factory Murmur, or Roost. The exact number? Probably a secret. More likely something we’ve lost track of!
“Strong. Light. Cheap. Pick One.”
Thanks to Adam and thanks to everyone who has commented on a Starling post over the years, particularly anyone whose comment was used. Here’s to another thousand frames and many more comments. Cheers everyone!
See more at Starling Cycles.
