The UK Handmade Bike Show is taking place in Bristol this weekend. Starling Cycles will be exhibiting two of their ‘Swoop’ bikes.

Please come and support me, one of the few mountain bikes against a tide of road bikes…

Be good to have a chat with a few Singltrack readers and get you thoughts.

Funnily enough, I have saved a few weeks back the starling bikes site to my iphone.
Looking good, wasn’t sure what pricing is though but realise it may be early days.

Plus custom jobbies it’s hard to say I guess.
When I come up good on the lotto I’ll drop a load on one just to see as always fancied a balfa back in the day.

All the best bud 🙂

Pricing is sorted, see the website… Some good deals on build kits as well.

I will probably be signing you in on Thursday! See you there.

Good luck Joe – hope the orders come flooding in

Just glad I got mine sorted when I did

See you there. It’s my annual stock up on cool tee shirts…

The local vicar did give my Demon tee shirt a bit of a strange look.

No T-Shirts or freebies from me I’m afraid. Just some lovely bikes to see and sit on!

I’ll be there. Not sure about that pivot point mind. I saw an Orange 5 break there once. 😉

I’ll be there Saturday, look forward to seeing your stuff

Mr Agreeable, I hope that smiley is a wink!

A reference to a comment that some clueless goon made when I posted a link to the bikes on the Trails Group Facebook page.

Clueless Goon indeed. Lets hope he comes and makes the same comment to my face!

Will definitely come and have a nose around and say hi on Saturday as have been keeping an eye on your stuff as it looks great!

Sad to see no Adrian/Swarf or Tam/Burf/BTR there this year, and I don’t think Shaggy/Automatic is exhibiting either so thats -3 decent MTB exhibits as well 🙁

one of the few mountain bikes against a tide of road bikes….

Now, we can’t be having that…

I think both Swarf and BTR don’t feel there’s much benefit for an MTB company. As I said, it’s dominated by road bikes.

However, I’m hoping for a bit of exposure this time around on my first attempt.

I think both Swarf and BTR don’t feel there’s much benefit for an MTB company

I can understand that, I guess half the problem is that if the MTBers continue to not exhibit there then that will continue to be true. If more did then perhaps it would be more balanced and there would be more benefit…

Anyway, looking forward to the show and will definitely pop over 🙂

I haven’t had much chance to build in the last year, so there didn’t seem much point turning up with the same bikes. I’ve got a Hack Bike Derby bike there though. I’ll also be there on behalf of Singletrack and Grit, so I’ll say hi on Thursday/Friday.

Looks like Eric, from Winter, is bringing a mountain bike, which should be interesting.

My suspicion is that ‘all road’ bikes will be a popular build this this year. Ted James will hopefully have a Mtb or two on show.

I think both Swarf and BTR don’t feel there’s much benefit for an MTB company

I bet it’s mightly expensive to show your bikes there – if Swarf a two time winner in two visits doesn’t think there’s much benefit, it must be bloody expensive.

Not visiting this year (have exhibited once and usually drive down for a nosey Sunday). The kids and one of their mates came for the first time last year and 3 of them mooching round had a surprisingly good time – chatting with Chris King was their highlight.

Another mtb to look out for:-
http://www.tbikes.co.uk/

Saw him riding one outside last year and it is an utterly fantastic mechanism and very cleanly executed. Truly hope he gets recognised in the awards (rather than the same old faces).

Driving down on Friday, will come say hi, Missed it last year but the reviews with all the detail photo’s were excellent. Expect to see some superb specimens of innovation and style.

Hey all Adrian from Swarf here. Last year there actually were quite a few MTB at the show, more than I was expecting. The show itself is not actually prohibitively expensive, but once you factor in insurance and accommodation it becomes quite pricey. It also takes up a heap of time in preparation. I’ve got a hack bike at the show and there should be plenty of my carbon mudguards dotted about on various builders bikes.

There will be some interesting mountain bikes to look at too don’t worry about that! I don’t think Starling will be the only full suss either………

Looking forward to seeing everything on Friday, see you all there!

Another full-susser, sounds interesting! Any sneak peeks to be had?

That tbike looks …different!

Like the folding concept one

@bedfo another UK manufactured full suspension bike you say?? That sounds interesting… I’ll need to look out for that. 😉

Thanks to everyone who turned up to support me and have a look at the bikes. I got lots of great feedback and met lots of interesting people. Hopefully, it got the brand a bit more exposure and nudged a few sales.

Also, Starling Cycles was awarded a Singletrack award for best MTB; I’m well chuffed.

Nice to have had a chat on Friday, albeit my knowledge of frame design is virtually non-existent, it was great to see something a bit different amongst a sea of pretty, but not exactly bleeding edge innovation road bikes.

Also got to chat with the T-Bike chap as well as Cotic and the one off builds by Brian ?? at the far left of the hall from the entrance. Wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I think I was expecting salespeople rather than the actual owners / builders!

Thanks to everyone who turned up to support me and have a look at the bikes. I got lots of great feedback and met lots of interesting people. Hopefully, it got the brand a bit more exposure and nudged a few sales.

Also, Starling Cycles was awarded a Singletrack award for best MTB; I’m well chuffed.

Thanks for taking the time to chat Joe, really enjoyed meeting you and seeing the bikes, getting up close and able to see the details is always so much better than what you can see in pics online and well done for the award!

You certainly seemed to have a fair bit of interest despite being somewhat tucked in among bigger stands so hopefully a sign of things to come.

Definitely want to see/have a go on your SS bouncer one day 😉

Matt (BTR/Schwinn guy)

Starling looked good :o)

View this post on Instagram

65.5 h/a 155mm travel steel full suss from Starling Bikes #bespoked2016

A post shared by RADventure.cc (@radventurecc) on Apr 15, 2016 at 4:34am PDT

And how long was the Cotic/Shand/Swarf Rocket collaboration?

View this post on Instagram

Bike of the show for us @coticbikes Rocket 'Longshot'

A post shared by RADventure.cc (@radventurecc) on Apr 15, 2016 at 5:40am PDT

Also, Starling Cycles was awarded a Singletrack award for best MTB; I’m well chuffed

In a field of one? 😉

Congratulations, winners there are usually for a very good reason.

Nice to finally meet you Joe. The award was well deserved.

I think you can measure the curviture of the earth against that Cotic top tube.

he Cotic/Shand/Swarf Rocket collaboration?

I had wondered if Cotic would make their suspension parts/design available to custom builders. Not that I would know what to do differently, I just like the idea of these type of colaborations and the bikes look fantastic.

They haven’t made their parts available to custom builders they’ve commissioned Shand and Swarf to build them a steel front and carbon rear.

Ahh. perhaps even more interesting? I can’t find much info on the web, do you know of any on line sources?

I read about it on the Swarf site

I’m on my way, ta

There is a bit more about the Cotic (and Starling) here

http://www.mbr.co.uk/news/bike_news/top-five-bikes-bespoked-bike-show-340430?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social

Interesting comments on the geometry as I know that Cy was at the Chris Porter talk.

Yet, three years later you’ve got people like Chris Porter saying 63 is the new 66.

Cotic: Got Soul

I read that earlier, also mentions a short travel Rocket is due this year…

I think there’s quite a bit in the pipeline…