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With both 2024 Bespoked UK and MADE Australia taking place over the same weekend, we’ve got an action-packed week of event recaps ahead. First up, Josh is in Manchester, England, reporting from the historic Victoria Baths with the first group of stunning bikes and products from BTR Fabrications, Clandestine, Condor, Craft Bikes, Sour, Sturdy, Ted James Design, Hex Components, Tailfin, and Buxumbox. Let’s dive right in below!
The mad lads at Starling Cycles in the UK just announced an all-new short travel Murmur cleverly dubbed the Mini Murmur. This new chassis is a 120mm rear-travel Trail/XC/Down Country/do-whatever bike that’s really fun and fast. Let’s check it out.
At BESPOKED 13 (and in just over two weeks’ time!) the custom bicycle showcase be hosting its first cycling film night with the support of @condorcycles on Saturday, June 29th, from 18:00 to 22:00. You can catch a sneak peek at our new Radavist documentary there!
Framesets are Starling Cycles’ frame-only collection. They’re the roots of what the UK makers create as a custom, handmade framebuilder and the best-selling side of its business. Sure, they offer custom builds, too, but the framesets keep the lights on at Starling, so to speak.
This caused a moment of pause with how they market these bikes. The frameset relaunch’s intent is to create a clear and concise purpose for each frameset, let’s check out where they landed…
In this short film, Fairlight team rider India Landy talks about how ultra-distance cycling helped her to heal and recover. Beautifully honest and insightful and highlights, how on some level, cycling is medicine for all of us; mindfulness, routine, ups and downs, highs and lows, escapism.
John here. You can buy the FlareMAX I reviewed from Cotic if you ride a C5. The price is more than reasonable for a made in the UK chassis with XT. Both Cy and myself feel it’s better that it stays in the States now, as shipping it back to the UK doesn’t make sense and is expensive.
If you’re interested, contact me at The Rad Bazaar listing and I’ll connect you to Cotic. I’ll include the Wolf Tooth B-Rad but am keeping the bottle cage! I cleaned it up real nice and it’s boxed and ready to roll.
I really really love this bike, and if money wasn’t so tight right now, I’d buy it.
Restrap is inviting its followers in a worldwide effort to make the most out of the long days coming from June 17th through the 23rd with its Solstice Century. The challenge is to ride 100 miles on any bike and any terrain over that time, giving you a full week to complete the century.
You can register at Restrap where you’ll be provided with a link to upload your route in order to receive your Solstice Century 2024 patch!
Is mountain bike pedal kickback a load of rubbish…? Good question. It’s a hot topic in mountain biking, and everyone is obsessed with the idea that our feet are getting blown off the pedals. A lot of bike media will tell you that single pivot bikes are THE WORST for pedal kickback. But is it actually true? Or is pedal kickback something people are worrying about for nothing? Joe from Starling Cycles tackles it all in this informative video.
Initially released in the mid-aughts, the Singular Cycles Swift was one of the first bikes to embrace 29-inch wheels, which, as we now know, became a highly popular size during the proceeding decades. Still, nearly twenty years later, the Swift endures. The frameset has undergone multiple updates over the years, with the most recent incarnation featuring elements true to its roots, like thin steel frame tubing, eccentric bottom bracket, thicc tire clearance, and reasonable pricing. Yet the MK5 version, launched in late 2023, finally gets internal dropper routing, tapered headtube, boost spacing, and thru axles.
When Josh swung through Portland, Oregon, earlier this year, he picked up a Swift test frameset from US distributor Biciclista and outfitted it with choice parts from generous partners like Ingrid, Chris King, and Paul. A longtime fan of plus tire bikes, Josh reviews the Swift after a few months of riding on his home trails in southern Arizona. Is this 29+ suspension-corrected rigid bike still relevant in 2024? Read on to find out…
London-based bag maker Wizard Works have teamed up with York-based maker-of-things Matty Waudby (Get Mild Matty) for the brand’s fourth collaboration; a limited run of hand-embroidered bags celebrating the lazy days of summer…
From snow to sand, wildflowers, and close encounters with a rattlesnake, John’s been putting the Cotic FlareMAX Gen5 through the wringer for his in-depth review on this made-in-the-UK short(er) travel, metal full-suspension bike. Read on for his full take on how less is more with the FlareMAX’s design below…
Cotic’s steel full-suspension bikes are something else, and next week, John will tell you why with his FlareMAX review, the little sibling to the RocketMAX. Let’s focus on this RocketMAX and its new color, Golfie Green. This stunner of a paint job is now available to order on RocketMAXs and joins Copper Orange in the color choices for the RocketMAX. These frames are made in the UK, in Scotland by the talented lads at Five Land Bikes, with every single Cotic bike built to order at our Chesterfield HQ. For sale as either frame only (from £2199 inc UK VAT) or a complete bike (from £3299 inc UK VAT) built to the spec of your choice; Your Bike Built for You, sold directly to customers worldwide. All the details on the RocketMAX can be found at Cotic.
Peter Georgallou might be the last person ’round these parts you’d expect to test an all-mountain/enduro full-suspension mountain bike like the steel single-pivot SRD prototype from Sour Bicycles but that’s what makes his review so interesting. Continue reading below as Petor dives head-first and in-depth into a new-to-him world of riding in addition to a preview of some exciting things to come from our friends at Sour…
With the bike industry awash with uncertainty over the future of brands right now Starling Cycles is committed to looking after its riders long-term, both original owners, and those that bought second-hand, offering a 7-year extended warranty…
Hydration vests have been used in ultra-endurance running circles for some time now, but only recently have they been introduced into cycling, specifically bikepacking races. Restrap announced its first foray into vest design with the Race Hydration Vest. Let’s check it out below.
The Radavist thanks 1-Up USA for sponsoring our Sea Otter Classic 2024 coverage!
Josh and John were out at Sea Otter this week, covering people, products, and bikes on display. One bike in particular that caught our eye was this Stanton Sedona 29er, on display at the 5Dev booth. We love a good hardtail and much like Steve from the Hardtail Party YouTube and Instagram account, we’ve been lauding their merits for a long time! So we know a good bike when we see one. Let’s take a look at this shreddy 29er below!
Wizard Works have just announced their latest release, the Figwit Cargo Cage bag (£41.67), launching tomorrow. Read on for more info on these made in the UK bags.
April Fools..?
Rather than pretending to rebrand or make a goofy bike, Joe from Starling Cycles fancied a bit of a rant.
