BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Bristol-based Starling has shared news of its latest version of the Beady Little Eye, a bike it describes as “the freakiest, fastest, weirdest beast in the Starling brood”.
What does that mean? Well, a single gear, tiny travel, and a skinny steel frame: Lo-Fi MTB fun is the name of this game.
The Beady has become the choice of discerning bike geeks including ultra-distance riders and racers, bike-packers, XC-racers, dirt-jumpers, park-ratters, and grown up-BMXers.
In essence, the Beady appeals to those that know the more you subtract, the more you add.
Fundamentally, The Beady is a full-suspension, single-speed mountain bike – a hardtail with more grip and less chatter, built to be fun and fast.
It has 90mm of rear travel and is built with a Reynolds 853, UK-made front triangle and a UK-made, heat-treated Chromoly front triangle. It’s available with 27.5”, 29” or mullet wheels and suits forks from 110mm to 140mm.
Starling points out that “The Beady’s special sauce is that the swing arm rotates around the BB”. This means zero chain growth and a simple, single-speed setup. The chain line is offset from the pivot, meaning you run zero sag to stop the pedal bob. Built around hardtail geo, and a super low BB, this delivers a bike designed to corner like it is on-rails.
Ultimately, The Beady is an exercise in building and delivering “the best, purest, simplest fun available on two wheels”.
Simple is rarely simple to deliver. Less is more invariable means multiple iterations.
The new Beady gets a host of upgrades to bring it up to speed with Starling’s V3 full-suspension frames, featuring a swoopy headtube gusset, the brand’s anti-flair head tube and anti-seize seat tube.
Also updated is the dropper insertion and Starling has moved to a classic seat-clamp to keep things simple. The Beady also now features a redesigned bottom bracket solution that increases crank compatibility and, reportedly, significantly extends bearing.
The Beady Little Eye now featuring a raft of V3 upgrades, is back in the Starling line-up for a limited time – orders close on Thursday, October 31, 2024.
Available as frame only, or frame + shock.
// Beady frame only: £2,456
// Beady frame + Rock Shox Deluxe Ultimate RCT: £2,781
Image credit: Sam William Andrews
