STARLING ROOST

Is Starling’s new Roost cock of the walk or just an ordinary old clucker? We find out...

£1,220 (frame) / MX 29-27.5in / starlingcycles.com

Is handmade really a feature? I suppose it is for an artisan baker and most definitely if you’re having a suit tailored to fit just so. But given that most performance mountain bikes, be they carbon, aluminium or steel, are all handmade, it’s not even worth mentioning on the spec sheet.

What’s more important, at least for some, is where those hands are actually located. So while Joe Mcewan from Starling Cycles makes some of his steel mountain bike frames right here in the UK, the Roost is manufactured in Taiwan by Ora. That’s partly because one man can only produce so many frames by himself, so it makes sense to have helping hands overseas. Also Starling Cycles doesn’t have the expertise needed to work with stainless steel tubing, so that’s where Ora comes in.

So what is the Roost? In short it’s a sleek, fun, hardcore hardtail. The frame is crafted out of slender stainless steel tubing and the geometry has been designed around an MX wheel configuration – so you benefit from the additional roll over of a 29in wheel up front, combined with a stronger 27.5in wheel and shorter stays out back.

The front triangle of the Roost is clean, understated and conventional.

For the frame finish the raw stainless tubing is shot peened, then brushpolished for that timeless look. No lacquer is needed as it won’t rust, so if you do scratch it you can buff it out with some wire wool. Starling offers three frame sizes, M to XL, where the size L sports a 470mm reach and the two sizes flanking it grow or shrink by 30mm.

The welds are as neat as any I’ve seen and gussets on the underside of the top and down tube reinforce the head tube area. Starling designs the geometry of the Roost around a 140mm travel fork, the Rockshox Pike giving our test bike a relatively slack 63.5° head angle and a 75.2° seat angle with a saddle height of 740mm. Both measurements are slightly slacker than claimed.

It’s the rear triangle of the Roost that really defines its character. Not only does it have a smaller 27.5in rear wheel, it also has size-specific chainstay lengths – 430mm on the L, 425mm on the M and 435mm on the XL. It’s something we’ve been requesting for years, as it helps maintain the same weight distribution across the entire size range. It’s rapidly becoming commonplace on full-suspension bikes, so it’s great to see manufacturers like Nukeproof and Starling moving things forward in the hardtail arena too.

Borrowing tech from its fullsuspension designs, Starling has added a tubular chainstay yoke that’s elevated from the BB shell. Not only does it look cool, it offers stacks of tyre clearance. How much is stacks? Well, with the 2.4in Michelin Wild AM tyre fitted, I had a full finger width of clearance either side of the stays and could put two fingers between the tread and the back of the tubular yoke. That’s more than enough to take a 2.8in tyre and still have room to spare. Unfortunately the tubular yoke also elevates the stays, so the Roost suffers from more chain slap than other hardtails I’ve tested. Which is why I suggest doubling up on the chainstay protection.

The front triangle is clean, understated and conventional