Starling Murmur V3 Frame

When I was looking for my next long-term test bike, I wanted something a bit different. I’ve always been a huge fan of steel frames, drawn in by the promise of a smooth ride and something a bit more exotic than your run-of-the-mill carbon frame from Asia – as awesome as those are today, they are for the most part not all that unique. I told the rad folks at Starling Cycles about my plans, and they kindly cooked up a Murmur frame for me to ride this year. I’ve been putting in the miles aboard this little made-in-the-UK masterpiece for five months now, so I thought it would be high time to share my impressions. Keep reading to learn more!

Starling Murmur V3 (135) Highlights

• V3 frame design with updated technology
• 29″ wheels
• 135mm rear travel as standard
• Adjustable shock mount also allows 120mm/150mm rear travel (new shock required)
• Front triangle hand-built in Bristol, UK, using Reynolds 853 heat-treated tubing
• Rear triangle hand-built by ORA, Taiwan, using heat-treated Chromoly
• UDH derailleur hanger, T-Type compatible
• Fits standard tapered forks
• Shock length: 210x55mm
• Headset: ZS44/28.6 (top) // EC44/40 (bottom)
• Seat Tube: 31.6mm
• BB: 73mm Threaded
• Chain Device: Integrated 28T-34T
• Rear Axle: 148x12mm Boost
• Max Tire Size: 29 x 2.6″
• Brake Mount: PM 180mm (max 200 mm)
• Main Pivot Bearings: 6902 2RS
• Bash Mount: ISCG05
• Seat tube reinforcing strut on XL and XXL
• Stainless & numbered dropper port
• Starling headtube gusset
• Bottle mount in frame on medium & above
• 7-year warranty/crash replacement service
• Frame repair, refurbishment and repaint service
• Frame only MSRP from: $2,400.00 USD (excl. tax, excl. shipping) // £2,150.00 GBP (incl. VAT, excl. shipping)

Initial Impressions

Starling does sell complete bikes now, but we went with our own build for this project, so we will be focusing this review on the frame itself. Our frame arrived in a small box, with the swingarm dismantled, so our first task was to put it back together. The frame is beautifully finished, with a kind of rugged-yet-polished air to it. The welds are fillet brazed as opposed to TIG welded, which gives them a very smooth appearance (Starling owner and head designer/frame maker Joe McEwan also likes the way brazing requires a lower temperature which in turn spreads out the “heat affected zone” or “HAZ” a bit more, which can lead to less stress risers in the welded areas). The single-pivot design was easy to assemble, and the frame was perfectly aligned out of the box.

We received the V3 version of the Murmur frame, which benefits from several improvements over its predecessor. The main pivot bearings have been moved out of the frame and into the swingarm itself, which makes it much easier to replace them and also increases the stiffness of the frame/rear triangle. The rear triangle is now UDH/SRAM T-Type Transmission and postmount compatible, and the seat tube has been fitted with an aluminum sleeve to avoid any issues with seat posts potentially seizing up inside it. The head tube has been reinforced on the V3 frames to reduce any risk of it flaring out, and there’s a neat little integrated chain guide to help keep your chain on in the rough stuff. The shock mount is adjustable to allow you to alter the rear travel and run shocks with different stroke lengths. We love the little extra touches like the stylish, bolt-on brace on the rear triangle and the cut-out Starling birds in the head tube gussets – this is exactly the type of embellishments you want if you’re looking for that “boutique” experience. The paint job was uniform and rich, and the frame graphics appeared solid (even if they don’t sit under the clearcoat).

Starling’s single-pivot design creates a very linear leverage rate curve, with just 11% progression over the total travel. Typically, we’d expect it to work best with a progressive air shock, but we see a lot of Starling builds with coil shocks, and the company is adamant that their frames work well with them, so we made sure to test both. We opted for EXT suspension, with the latest Era 2.1 fork and either a Storia V4 or the Aria air shock. DT Swiss provided wheels, we’ve tested two different pairs on this bike so far (the reviews are up on the site), and we’ve been running either Hope Tech 4 E4 or Trickstuff Direttissima brakes with SRAM GX Transmission for the drivetrain. Some Deity bits and various droppers have rounded out the build at different times (both wireless and cable-actuated). The straight seat tube provides great insertion depth for the dropper post, on our size L frame there's about 310 mm of distance between the top of the seat tube and where the end of the dropper could be (providing space for the actuator mechanism and a little wiggle room for the cable to bend - a bit more would likely fit with a wireless dropper). 

Putting the bike together was a generally pleasant experience, with all the bits and pieces fitting nicely. The water bottle placement is a little bit awkward, and we experienced some rubbing between the shock piggy back and the bottle with the EXT shocks. We did also battle with a tight seat tube which showed up loaded with heavy grease and took some cleaning and slightly more force than usual before it would fit the seat post. The external cable routing makes everything very easy, there’s enough room everywhere to thread brake hose fittings through with no problem. The cable guides do a good job of holding the cables neatly in place, although we think Starling could add a guide to the inside of the head tube gussets just to avoid any potential rattle or rubbing in this area. Other than those quite minor issues, we were definitely stoked on how this bike came together – it’s every bit the “boutique” bike we were hoping for. We didn’t build it to be light, and it tips the scales at about 15.8 kgs/35 lbs with coil suspension, a pretty heavy fork, and proper wheels and tires with sealant.

Before we move onto our riding impressions, a few words on the company. Starling is a small outfit that manufactures and assembles their frames and bikes in the UK. Front triangles are welded right there on their premises, while the rear triangles are made in Asia and shipped to Starling for assembly. Starling stands by their products and recently upgraded their V3 frame warranty to a generous 7 years (for existing and new first-hand customers alike). During that time, Starling will rectify any manufacturing defects, including repairing and repainting. Owners outside the UK will need to arrange postage and delivery at their cost. Starling frames are also to a large extent modifiable, for example to change travel or wheel sizes. Starling can accommodate such transformations, and also generally refresh or repaint a frame should a customer want that. That’s all part of the advantage of working with steel and modular frame designs, and of course being a small company, Starling can act with a lot of flexibility.

On The Trail

We opted to test the size L, and we found the geo numbers to be right in line with modern mountain bike design trends. 485 mm reach, a steep 78-degree seat tube, and a reasonably slack head angle all make perfect sense for a trail bike. The chainstays are a bit longer than we are used to finding in this size bracket, at 445 mm (same length across all the sizes). Note that we opted to run a 140 mm fork, which will have steepened up the angles slightly – that’s because we wanted to err on the “poppy” side of the build as opposed to over-forking it for example (we have big enduro bikes for those days). The geo chart below applies to builds with a 150 mm fork.

Moving out, the Murmur behaves like we would expect of a trail bike with reasonably burly components and tires. It pedals well, and the steep seat tube definitely helps keep you in a good position for climbing. Fun fact: it’s the first time this tester HASN’T needed to slam the seat all the way forward in the rails, testament to the straight seat tube design which yields adequate steepness both in terms of effective and actual seat tube angle. As for pedaling efficiency, the Murmur sits mid-pack. It’s not super snappy and there is a little bit of pedal bob present. The result is a bike that is happy enough to motor along at your chosen pace, but doesn’t explode off the line when you sprint it for example. Using a climb switch on the shock helps with extended road climbs. Comparing the Murmur to this tester’s two most recent long-term trail bikes, the Transition Smuggler and SCOR 4060 ST, both of those bikes hold a slight advantage in terms of pure pedaling efficiency and response.

When the trail turns downhill, the Murmur comes into its element. The geo puts it squarely in the trail bike category, with a head angle that is slack enough for the gnarly stuff yet conservative enough to keep the bike feeling very lively. With the 140 mm fork and longer chainstays than we are used to, we felt slightly over the front in the early days, but we quickly adjusted and the weight distribution became very natural. We stuck to Starling’s recommendation for the coil shock spring rate, which worked out just great. The bike rides quite high in its travel, which allows you to pump and move the bike around with ease. We played around with the air shock as well, and we found that even at lower pressure the bike would still sit up fairly high. This is in fact the direct result of the low rate of progression in the leverage ratio – when you set up the bike for the correct sag, you end up with quite a lot of mid-stroke support (as opposed to many linkage bikes that will tend to “blow through” the early parts of the travel thanks to very high initial leverage ratios). In the case of the Murmur, the rear suspension design creates a bike that feels very alive and not sluggish at all, even with a coil shock.

Fast and rough terrain is where it really excels, filtering out the chatter with a level of serenity that belies the relatively modest amount of travel on tap.

What about that “steel feel” then? Well, there’s definitely something to it. Without wanting to sound like a snake oil salesperson, there is a bit of a magic carpet ride quality to the Murmur. Fast and rough terrain is where it really excels, filtering out the chatter with a level of serenity that belies the relatively modest amount of travel on tap. The bike doesn’t monster truck over bigger obstacles, in fact it has a small tendency to hang up on square edges on slow and janky trails, but it sure knows how to keep its composure on a generally rough surface. This translates to a lot of grip as well, the Murmur is as surefooted as can be in rooty off-cambers and rocky turns.

The Murmur gets a lot of looks out on the trail, with the very sleek lines of the steel tubes drawing attention to the fact that this is something different. One question that pops up a lot is whether or not that somewhat flimsy looking rear triangle creates a lot of flex. The answer is both yes and no. We half expected the bike to feel a bit like a wet noodle in some situations, but that is not at all the case. If you grab the rear wheel and the frame and force them in different directions, you’ll be surprised at how laterally stiff the bike actually is. There is a certain amount of give, yes, but it’s very taut still. Pulling a few cutties on an asphalt road reveals more than enough resistance to twisting, and we’ve not noticed any brake rotor rub that could also be an indicator of excessive frame flex. On those fast and rough sections of trail we mentioned earlier however, there’s no doubt that the Murmur flexes in all the right places, absorbing the bumps and holding its lines beautifully. We were also surprised to find that it doesn’t feel overwhelmed when you take on bigger features. We wouldn’t necessarily recommend a Starling if hucking to flat is your main thing, but there’s nothing stopping you from sending it either. Both the shocks we’ve been using on this build feature hydraulic bottom-out, which does help when the touchdown is a little less smooth than you planned on, but the bike doesn’t hit bottom nearly as often or as violently as you might think when studying the suspension numbers. Coil or air? It plays nice with both, dealer’s choice! We’ve settled on coil for the long term as we love the extra little comfort and the set-and-forget aspect of it.

So who is the Murmur for? First and foremost, it’s a trail bike, so it would potentially appeal to a pretty large segment of the general mountain biking public. It’s good at pedaling and will easily take on a big day out. It’s GREAT at ripping down rough trails, and it will put a smile on your face in pretty much every riding situation. You can build it light if racking up the miles is your thing, or go for beefier components and a longer travel fork if it’s a mini enduro you need. We wouldn’t necessarily recommend it if you also plan to regularly visit a bike park or if you spend a lot of time hitting very big trail features, as a more progressive bike will certainly be more forgiving in those scenarios, but there’s nothing stopping you from throwing the Murmur into the deep end of the pool from time to time either.

Things That Could Be Improved

The beauty of a bike like the Murmur is that it is NOT a run-of-the-mill frame from a big manufacturer, so a few quirks would not seem out of place. Having said that, it ticks all the boxes you’d expect from a modern day MTB, but there are a few little issues we’d like to highlight here anyway. The frame layout provides room for a water bottle, but it sits in a somewhat awkward spot that doesn’t look too aesthetically pleasing. A vain comment perhaps, but this is definitely the kind of bike you also buy for how it looks, so it’s worth pointing out. We were just able to squeeze in the two piggyback shocks we used for this build, but they both rub against the bottle in one spot. The seat tube is very tight, perhaps that’s a good thing over the long run but it was definitely a lot tighter than any other bike we’ve had in recent years. Starling has added an aluminum seat tube inner sleeve to their V3 frames, which is good for avoiding seized seat posts, so bonus points there, but it’s still a bit tight for sure.

The cable routing is generally very neat and tidy, but there is potential for cable rattle and rub where the cables pass behind the headtube gusset plates. A simple solution could be to add a cable guide on the INSIDE of the gusset plate, to hold the cable in place and point it away from the head tube (it wouldn’t be very practical to work on when attaching the zip tie, but it would be doable). And a last point to highlight in this section, we found that our T-Type Transmission derailleur would occasionally slip a bit on the UDH mount. This is probably down to the slippery nature of the steel, as opposed to carbon and aluminum frames where the derailleur mount can dig in a bit more. It’s not much of an issue, but you may need to keep an eye on the derailleur to make sure it stays in the right place over the course of a couple of months or so. Some form of friction paste might help too.

Long Term Durability

We’ve been on this bike for five months now, and in that time it has seen about 700 kms of mixed trail riding – all pedal powered. So far, not a single thing has gone wrong, beyond the occasional need to readjust the position of the T-Type Transmission derailleur (which as pointed out in the previous section tends to slip a little bit on the UDH interface of the swingarm on this bike). The bike is very silent, no creaks have developed anywhere so far. The main pivot came loose after about a week of riding, but after we tightened it up it has not budged since. The frame finish still looks awesome, the chainstay protector is still in one piece and the glue is holding strong (it does look a bit “garage made” for lack of a proper technical term, but it does a great job). The main pivot bearings have not suffered any degradation so far (we have been testing in mainly dry conditions), but they are super simple to swap out when the time comes. We addressed Starling’s 7-year warranty on V3 frames extensively in the “Initial Impressions” section, but it bears repeating here again – Starling warranties the frames against any manufacturing defects for 7 years, and they can pretty much repair any damage if something should happen that is not covered by the warranty terms. All in all, we’d feel pretty good about plonking down our pretty pennies for one of these, knowing that the product is robust and that the company stands behind it.

What’s The Bottom Line?

Buying a steel frame from a small manufacturer may seem like a pretty niche thing to do, but whilst the overall ownership experience definitely has that boutique vibe to it, the Starling Murmur also ticks every box you’d expect of any trail bike. It’s fast, nimble, and above all fun to ride, and it brings a unique ride quality to the table that is hard to match with a “standard” carbon or aluminum frame. Sure, there are a few little quirks left to iron out (they really are little), but the Murmur more than makes up for it with its on-trail performance and its undeniable charm. Should you consider getting one? Most likely yes!

More information at: www.starlingcycles.com.

Vital MTB Rating

• Climbing: 4 
• Descending: 4.5
• Fun Factor: 5
• Value: 4
• Overall Impression: 4.5

About The Reviewer

Johan Hjord - Age: 51 // Years Riding MTB: 19 // Weight: 190-pounds (87-kg) // Height: 6'0" (1.84m)

Johan loves bikes, which strangely doesn’t make him any better at riding them. After many years spent practicing falling off cliffs with his snowboard, he took up mountain biking in 2005. Ever since, he’s mostly been riding bikes with too much suspension travel to cover up his many flaws as a rider. His 200-pound body weight coupled with unique skill for poor line choice and clumsy landings make him an expert on durability - if parts survive Johan, they’re pretty much okay for anybody. Johan rides flat pedals with a riding style that he describes as "none" (when in actuality he rips!). Having found most trail features to be not to his liking, Johan uses much of his spare time building his own. Johan’s other accomplishments include surviving this far and helping keep the Vital Media Machine’s stoke dial firmly on 11.

Photos by Tal Rozow and Nils Hjord (action) / Johan Hjord (product)