Cadbury’s Twirl, anyone?

Price: £4,971 (not including drivetrain; 2022 init), frame only £1,880

From: starlingcycles.com

Tested by: Benji

Much like GeoMetron is Chris Porter, Starling Cycles is Joe McEwan. Joe used to work as an aerospace engineer and build bike frames in his shed as a sideline. Then came the oftreferenced review by Steve Jones in Dirt magazine. The basic gist of Jones’ review was ‘Mind. Blown.’

Interest in Joe’s bikes took off and he’s since gone full time as Starling Cycles. Who doesn’t love that back story? Love has a lot to do with Starling bikes. They are bikes bought with heart first. Starling Cycles is no longer just a one-man outfit. It’s grown into an impressive enterprise and industry shaker-upperer that employs a number of people.

I really should declare my bias here. I am on record as saying that the Starling Murmur is the best looking bike of all time. I have always wanted one from the time I saw one (in Dirt magazine, funnily enough).

The Bike

The Starling Twist may not steal my heart’s eyes (can hearts have eyes?) quite as much as the aesthetically perfect Starling Murmur, but it’s still a stunningly gorgeous bike. Though a few folk might recoil at the skinny pipes on Starlings, they are wrong.

The Twist here must be the bike that’s had the most people (complete strangers as well as riding friends) comment on its prettiness. ‘What is THAT? That is well nice. How much is it?’

This Twist is actually a Twist Trail with 140mm travel at the back (the Öhlins fork is 150mm travel). Starling also does a 160mm travel Twist called the Twist Enduro. As with its iconic Murmur, the Twist uses a single pivot design. Unlike both the GeoMetron G1 and the Santa Cruz Bronson elsewhere in this test, the Twist has a pretty much linear progression ratio. It’s not softer at the start and ramps up to a bottom-out resisting ramp-up. With such a linear mechanical action, how the rear shock deals with things is crucial. It’s down to the shock’s damping circuitry to cope. Thankfully this Twist is paired with an excellent shock in the form of the Öhlins TTX Coil. Although you’d possibly think that an air shock might be a wise pairing with the linearity of a single pivot (and that might well be the case) there’s no denying that the silky muscle feel of the Öhlins is decidedly seductive. Anyway. More about that below.