Hope Tech 4 V4’s.

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.

OneUp Components V3 150mm 31.6mm dropper post (436g), Burgtec Rhodium seatpost clamp 34.9mm (21g) and my fave saddle, a WTB Volt Carbon (161g).

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!

Race Face Aeffect 165mm cranks and 30T chainring from the parts bin.

ZTTO cassette is crazy light and shifts amazingly.

Weight has gone up by 200g due to the heavier (but shorter) 165mm cranks. BB is still super low though so I might even look into 155mm cranks if I want to keep the mullet setup (will have to see how these go with the extra 5mm clearance).

If ya ain’t fallin’, ya ain’t tryin’?!

First time out there on a mullet setup yesterday morning and first time tackling this janky segment at Loftus on the hardtail. Definitely got more pedal strikes (might put on my shorter 165mm cranks), but damn the mullet setup is so much more fun on the flowy stuff, and quite confidence inspiring on the techy stuff too (climbing up tech was fine!).

The mullet setup got the total weight down to 12.08kg’s and I had been contemplating grabbing the anemic lightweight stem off of my Amflow, and at the same time, stealing the carbon OneUp bars off the Amfow too which would get the bike into the high 11kg’s, but man I’ve got to stop tinkering, and just ride more.

IE: If I had the carbon bars and the weenie stem on for today’s ride, the fall I had would have damaged them much more than the light scratches on my Renthal bars, brake lever and stem.

All in all just super happy with the setup. The fit feels good, the Fox fork is amazing, I could go lower for my weight, but 17psi front and 20psi back tubeless feels right, the mullet setup definitely feels slower on the firetrails but the fun factor everywhere else is worth it. I did have one huge front tyre washout, but it was a loose off camber corner, so I’ll stick with the Schwalbe Hans Damf front for now before considering something wider/grippier (the Maxxis Dissector rear was solid).