Took the Starling out to Loftus with Eugene who was on his old school 26″ TREK Y Frame and we did the 16km XC loop through to Engadine and back (mostly single track and fire trail). Just wanted to share some thoughts.
I was wrong about the coil shock feeling just like the air shock. The air shock just feels way more squishy, and the coil feels much more invisible. When I’m just pedalling at slow speeds I can look down and see the coil compressing with every single pedal stroke, but it’s only compressing a very small amount and I can’t feel it compressing or robbing me of energy. Where my Amflow feels like full squish, the Starling feels like my hardtail with suspension. Sounds silly, but the Starling just seems to mute everything without feeling squishy.
The Lyrik is amazing. I’ve always run Fox forks, but this thing is so active and plush on the small bump stuff. I was surprised at the end of the ride to find that I used up most of the travel too (not even possible for me on my Fox 36). Checking to see if my headset is loose is impossible with this fork without locking it out because when you hold the front brake and push down in the slightest the fork dips (VERY smoothly too).
The bike still feels heavy and sluggish but I managed to make it up the steepest fire road climbs without issues. Surprised me as I 100% thought I’d be walking up them. I was in the very lightest gear, but in that gear (30/50) the bike was happy to just slowly get to the top. I think the weight of the bike plus the muted ride feel and how silent the bike is are it’s main characteristics, but it’s got really fast steering, changes direction really well on single trail, plenty of grip on fast corners and small berms. It’s an interesting ride.
Eugene and I swapped bikes, man his Trek was a hoot! Full XC race position with arms locked out, the thin tyres and tiny wheels made it feel like a road bike on the trails. Unlike the Starling you could feel every single bit of the trail, and it felt super efficient too. Hopping back on the Starling I instantly felt that muted and heavy sensation again, but it rolls way faster than the Trek with less effort which further confirmed the Starling’s characteristics for me.
Eugene hasn’t owned a modern MTB yet, but he’s ridden my Norco and Amflow. His thoughts on the Starling were that the steering is damn fast and the ride was smooth and stable. The position was wild to him. He felt like he was leaning forwards so much more. He really loved the Starling and said the Amflow felt more like a tank in comparison.
I did notice that when we swapped bikes he pulled away from me. He’s a super strong rider (I average 30km/hr at Centennial Park on the roadie, he averages 35km/hr) so I think I just need to get stronger to get more out of the Starling so I can get into a heavier gear to get the bike moving.
We were having such a chill ride and so happy to be out on the trails (only shit thing that happened was running into a group of 4 old guys on e-MTB’s and the guy on an Amflow yelled out “time to get a real bike mate!” to my mate). The Starling rolls fast but it doesn’t feel fast. It’s not a rapid, poppy and nimble machine. It gets off the ground OK, but I’ve really got to work to get it off the ground. My hardtail feels faster, but Strava shows that I’m faster on the Starling with 4 PR’s on yesterday’s ride (and we were just chatting and chilling the whole way). All that said, the second (and much longer) ride on the Starling was great!