The Starling Sturn is a steel, single-speed downhill bike with 29″ wheels and 180mm travel. Handmade in Bristol at Starling Cycles HQ.

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Starling Sturn need to know

• Hand built in steel in Bristol
• 180mm travel
• 29in wheels
• Singlespeed
• Room for up to 2.7in tyres
• Reynolds 853 tubing with a custom-butted downtube
• Jack-drive inspired design
• Custom geometry available (You can supply your own numbers or Starling can give you some advice)

Joe McEwan from Starling: “I’ve always had a downhill bike in my head … I knew I wanted big wheels, so I made it 29″ to go fast on rough, gnarly tracks. It would have to be steel and hand made in the Workshop in Bristol, naturally.

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“I also knew that I wanted it to be single-speed. I always found gears to be more of a hindrance than a help on my downhill bikes. It’s a bike for riders that want no hassle from broken mechs or bashed up gears. It won’t skip a beat through the winter or through a season of gnarly gnarly. It’s a bike for a big summer in the mountains or a long year on the race circuit.”

Starling press release

It has room for up to 2.7″ tyres, adjustable geometry and can be built with custom geometry to suit a rider.

The Starling Cycles Sturn. More at https www.starlingcycles.com starling-cycles-sturn Photographer Ben Broomfield benbroomfield.com photobenphoto

It’s made for riders that want no hassle from broken mechs or bashed up gears. It won’t skip a beat through the winter or through a season of gnarly riding. It’s a bike for a big summer in the mountains and is surprisingly good on the race track. It’s single-speed in order to be tough and simple – meaning absolutely no hassle on or off the trails.

The wild-looking cogs and chains make up what’s called a ‘Jack Drive’ and are inspired by the classic Brooklyn Machine Works designs. The ‘Drive allows you to run the suspension and the drive train through the same pivot which cuts out chain growth and allows the bike to be single-speed.

The Starling Cycles Sturn. More at https www.starlingcycles.com starling-cycles-sturn Photographer Ben Broomfield benbroomfield.com photobenphoto

We’d had a downhill bike on the drawing board since day 1 and we’d always liked the idea simplicity of single-speed. When we visited Brett Wheeler at Wheeler’s MTB Holidays we go chatting, he was stoked on the idea and it was the excuse we needed. I got to work and made the first prototype of the bike, which appears in the video.

The Starling Cycles Sturn. More at https www.starlingcycles.com starling-cycles-sturn Photographer Ben Broomfield benbroomfield.com photobenphoto

The first prototype of the bike was built earlier in the year and sent out to Lousa, Portugal for Brett to ride.

Since he received the bike, Brett has won the Masters categories at the Portuguese Nationals and the European Downhill Championships and placed 4th (with a puncture) at Masters World Champs. Brett and friends made this little RAW video to show off some of the fun he’s been having on the bike out in Lousa on his home trails.