Project 321 hubs.

They feature an interesting system to allow for the use of either centrelock or 6 bolt.

No need for tyre levers. Hands down the easiest tyre/rim I’ve ever had to set up tubeless.

Love how thin HT ME03 pedals are, super light too at 260g a pair.

Starting to look like a bike!

Custom silver Wingman rims + silver spokes and silver Project 321 hubs came in from The Brig. Heavy AF at 2263g for the set, but really happy with how they look, especially on the bike!

Hope dropper lever with shifter mount to mount it to the brake levers.

Hope braided brake lines and blue Nissen mesh cables for the dropper and rear mech.

External cabling never looked so good.

Garbaruk silver cage + Garbaruk oversized pulley wheels. Finicky job but I got it done without issues.

As the sun goes down.

Patience is testing me so I thought I’d install the Chris King crown race onto the Lyrik.

I thought I’d try a pipe cutter instead of sawing the steerer this time, not as clean IMHO, but definitely faster.

Not often I get to hammer a star nut in these days.

I dug through the parts bin and found a 35mm clamp stem with the same stack height as the Starling stem I’ve ordered (will take a while as I’m getting Starling to paint it the same colour as the frame).

I’ve fitted it up for now with a 35mm Renthal bar but I will be running 31.8 Renthal bar in the final build.

Brakes are on, turns out the rear caliper won’t work with the Hope 180mm IS mount adapter I bought so I’ll have to go for a 203mm rotor in the rear (super annoying as I just ordered a silver adapter that won’t work with these calipers).

Still waiting on a wheelset from The Brig (been a few weeks and they’re not responding to my email with any updates) and coil shock + stem from Starling too. Patience you must have.

Spent some time dialling in the rebound and air pressure on the fork + rear shock too and finally feel like the bike is super dialled in now. Only took me 5 months, but we’re there!

Very nice.

TRP RS01E 2.3mm 203mm/180mm (235g/183g).

Shimano XTR Rear RD-M9100-SGS (242g). Should be the same pull as 11-Speed, just waiting on a Garbaruk long cage + oversized pulleys in silver.

Nissen mesh cables from Blue Lug Japan (I bought a LOT of it in silver and blue, will decide which I’m going to use (or both?), later.

Chris King Threadfit 24 BB + #4 Fitkit (87g/5g).

BB went in real easy.

Chris King InSet 7 (143g).

Headset also went in real nice.

Middleburn RS8 165mm + X-type uno boost chainring 30t (597g).

Them old school vibes!

I went for a Velo Dynasty link over a Cascade as the Cascade link doesn’t work unless you use the 27.5″ flip chip setting when running a 27.5″ rear wheel. Like the Cascade, the Velo Dynasty link increases travel by 10mm (from 150mm to 160mm) and also increases the progression of the stroke.

Was a straight forward install as all bearings were pre-fitted to the link. Now to go out and play!

Turns out the rear is IS mount (older V3 frame it seems as they have now gone to post mount and UDH). I’ve read that the Hope Tech 4 V4’s don’t fit with some brake adapters so I’ve ordered Hope adapters (only found them in black locally, but they’re available in silver in the UK so might look into that down the line).

More mucus made worse by beautiful weather and Eugene sending me photos from his ride this morning at Loftus.

But hey! Another delivery of parts for the Murmur!

I wanted to avoid as many black parts as possible and when I think of silver brakes I think of Hope. Couldn’t bring myself to spend $486 on the matching V4 vented rotors though so I’ll look into something else (probably 2.3mm TRP RS01E).

Love that the frame has cables externally mounted but the cables are meant to go through the (lovely) headtube gusset and guess what? You can’t feed the rear caliper or brake lever through the gusset which means you’ve got to bleed the rear brake regardless. All good as I’ve managed to find some Hope (made by Goodridge) stainless steel braided hoses on eBay UK in any case. Not for function, all for looks.

On the topic of looks I’ve also ordered a silver 175mm PNW Loam dropper post (150mm is out of stock world wide). 150mm dropper posts with the post fully inserted work perfectly for me but on research I’ve found that the PNW posts can be adjusted by 30mm so the 175mm post might work out as the max insertion on the frame is 280mm. Sux to have spent money on a new OneUp post that I might not end up using, but fingers crossed the PNW works out as I think a silver post would suit the aesthetics I’m going for so much more.

RockShox Lyrik Ultimate RC2 D2 150mm.

Hope Dropper Lever + Shifter Mount (40g/10g).

Shifter: Shimano XT SL-M8000 + cable (138g).

MAXXIS Forekaster 29 x 2.4 WT 3C MaxxTerra TR EXO (912g/928g).

I never get sick (I’m a smoker, so technically I’m always sick?!), but fuck me dead I have the flu and I’ve started blowing my brains out of my nose (which has been strangely very satisfying).

Weather is so damn good. It’s getting cooler in Sydney, but no riding for me this week which really blows, but at least parts are starting to come in for the Murmur.

I took the Columbus headset out and weighed the frame which came to a hefty 3817g (without hanger and chainguide). Joe’s on record somewhere for saying the frame weighs about 3600g which is probably about right for a bare naked frame without paint and the adjustable rear shock mount + pivot hardware.

I’ve decided to stick with a mechanical 11-Speed drivetrain for now as I’m trying to avoid Microspline so I can share wheels with my other bikes and besides, I really enjoy the Deore on my Norco Torrent. It’s got a utilitarian vibe (kinda like 105 on road bikes, the groupset of the people!). it’s cheap, light, shifts great and I feel there’s so much more leeway with tuning 11-Speed vs. 12-Speed. With the chain on the 50T cog on the cassette I can pedal backwards without the chain instantly falling off.

I might look into a Madrone Jab rear derailleur later on, but for now I’ve gone for an XT shifter for this build. It came with a naff gear indicator, but thank the Lord there was a block off plate in the box so I could remove it.

I’ve been looking at a modern dual suspension mountain bike to replace my old 26″ Giant Reign 1 since December last year. I’ve looked at Pivot Firebirds, Specialized Stumpjumpers, Santa Cruz Tallboys and Yeti SB130’s, and too right, no doubt about it a new Stumpjumper 15 would be more than enough bike, and probably be the wisest choice, but it was love at first sight when I saw a Starling Murmur.

I went down the Starling Murmur rabbit hole about a month ago. I right clicked and saved a bunch of pics to my new Starling folder on my desktop. Watched all the vids and then one morning a Starling Murmur frameset popped up on Facebook Marketplace (I swear my manifestation powers are too strong!).

I saved the listing, but hesitated until last week when I reached out to the seller to let him know that I was the right buyer for this frame. Turns out the seller is a bike mechanic who owns and runs Jerry’s Mobile Cycle Care. He lives and services Taree and the mid north coast area. That was going to be a 5hr drive! We got chatting, and in the end the champ was more than happy to deliver it to me as he had some work on in Sydney.

Great dude, and I offered to take some shots of him that he can use for his business too.

I’ve been in touch with Joe McEwan, the founder and designer behind Bristol based Starling and the Murmur. This frame has an adjustable shock mount so it can be set up as a trail bike, or an enduro, but I wanted to at least first try the bike in a configuration that the frame designer intended.

Joe’s suggested I go for a 150mm fork and an Ohlins coil shock. He’s suggested the right spring for my weight which will allow me to get the most out of the mid travel and I’m also getting him to colour match the frame for a Starling stem to add even more birds to the build.

I’ve got a lot of parts in the parts bin that can go on this bike, but I think none of it’s quite right, and in the end this build is most likely going to be a slow burn. It’ll test my patience. That’s a good thing. The frame came in at a heavy 3.9kg’s (with hanger, headset, chain guide and rear thru axle), and whilst it’s UDH compatible I’m not sure AXS suits the frame, in fact I don’t think anything super modern suits it (thinking Middleburn cranks, or even White Industries? eeWings?!). No rush! I’m going to have fun with this one!