The internet is an integral part of human life these days and Starling Cycles have celebrated that by adding some of their favourite feedback onto their 1000th frame.
The gold rule is ‘never read the comments’, but Starling decided to throw that idea in the bin and celebrate their 1000th frame with a custom design that incorporates the best and worst of what the internet can throw at them.
Photos by Jamie Edwards.
“Not to be mean but “cares about aesthetics” doesn’t describe the typical Starling customer”
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 DOUCHE BAG 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, we haven’t only made 1000 frames.
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!
More at starlingcycles.com
