Starling Cycles Mega Murmur

Quick drool: Starling Cycles Mega Murmur

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Our resident steel boinger fan Benji is currently having a bit of lie down after receiving details of the new Starling Cycles Mega Murmur.

Starling Cycles Mega Murmur
Starling Cycles Mega Murmur

Round about this time last year we reviewed the Starling Cycles Twist Trail, a steel full-suspension mixed-wheel trail bike. It’s fair to say we loved it. A lot.

However, Starling Cycles’ most iconic offering is the Murmur. It’s the bike that effectively made Starling Cycles. 135 or 150mm rear travel, skinny Reynolds 853 steel with 29in wheels front and rear.

Don’t worry. The Murmur is still in Starling Cycles’ range. This new Mega Murmur, as you may be able to guess by the name, is the bigger travel version.

Starling Cycles Mega Murmur

The new Mega Murmur

140 or 165mm of rear travel. Paired with up to 170mm travel forks up front. Time for some bullet points because they are helpful with this sort of thing…

  • Longer travel (165mm) version of the Murmur
  • Longer (455mm) chain stays than Murmur
  • For “riders that want more travel OR taller riders looking for a more balanced fit”
  • Reynolds 853 front triangle hand built in Bristol
  • Chromoly rear triangle hand built in UK
  • Seat tube reinforcing strut on XL and XXL
  • Stainless, numbered dropper port
  • New machined main pivot part
  • Aluminium seat tube insert to reduce seized posts
  • Anti-flare head tube
  • Revised Starling headtube gusset (triple clamp forks are allowed)
  • Bottle mount
  • Only available in Large, XL and XXL
  • Also available in ‘Trail Mode’ (140mm rear travel)
  • SRP £2,330 frame minus shock (inc Hope headset and seat clamp)
  • Rear shocks available at time of ordering (Cane Creek, EXT, Öhlins)
  • Current lead time of 16 weeks

Where does Starling Cycles say the Mega Murmur is intended for? “Race tracks, big mountains, bike parks, downhill tracks, the Enduro World Cup, and seasons in the mountains.”

I dare say it’d be really good at mucking about in your local woods too, provided there’s enough steep and/or jumpy stuff in there.

Starling Cycles Mega Murmur geometry

In Enduro mode

Vital stats: 64.1° head angle, 77.2° effective seat angle, 440mm seat tube (Large), 110mm head tube (Large), 485mm reach (Large)

One very welcome – and wise – move is the longer chain stays. This is especially true for those of us around 6ft tall or more. Longer stays not only make things more stable generally, they often make bikes feel like more balanced and centred. There’s less of the whole front-wheel-or-rear-wheel binary bias biking.

Anyways. Yep, nice bike. Interested to have a play on one…

starlingcycles.com

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Orange Switch 6er. Stif Squatcher. Schwalbe Magic Mary Purple Addix front. Maxxis DHR II 3C MaxxTerra rear. Coil fan. Ebikes are not evil. I have been a writer for nigh on 20 years, a photographer for 25 years and a mountain biker for 30 years. I have written countless magazine and website features and route guides for the UK mountain bike press, most notably for the esteemed and highly regarded Singletrackworld. Although I am a Lancastrian, I freely admit that West Yorkshire is my favourite place to ride. Rarely a week goes by without me riding and exploring the South Pennines.

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