// 1st April 2025
// For riders who never stopped believing, 26″ is back with a 2025 twist!
//Photos by Jamie Edwards
Just when you thought 26” was gone for good, we brought it diving back.
The Starling Cycles Dive is a steel, full-suspension 26″ mountain bike. It’s the ultimate retro-modern, old-school vs new-school combo.
AND, we’re making 10 of them available to order right away. You can order your very own Starling Cycles Dive 26″ frame today.
The Dive has a handmade steel frame, timeless single-pivot suspension, loads of travel and the most iconic wheel size in MTB history.
The wheel size we were ripping when CDs were still spun, when Steve Peat was World Champ, when Josh Bender hucked the Jaw Drop, when VHS ruled the roost. No social media. No mobile phones.
A golden age.
Why 26″?
Because it still rips.
Because life was simple on little wheels.
Because the haters say our bikes are straight out of the 90s, so f*ck it, let’s just run with it!
Why Dive?
We called it the Dive, cos Starling’s founder Joe spent his youth racing 26″ single-pivots and partying in Bristol’s grungiest of dive bars. They were good times.
We realised those dive bars and 26” both have something in common. They were both a lot of fun and we loved them but we’re happy to have moved on into the future! But we can’t resist a journey down memory lane, now and again!
This super limited edition, throwback Starling was handmade in Bristol, UK.
It would have been easy to just cheat and shove small wheels in a ‘regular’ Starling. But easy is boring, right?
So we designed and made the Dive for real, creating a brand new 26″ Starling frame.
It has all the modern Starling V3 DNA but rolls on 26-inch wheels for the riders who never stopped believing.
It’s made with Reynolds 853 steel tubing and includes the various V3 features of Starling’s wider range, including that unique BB/pivot assembly, anti-flare headtube, UDH hanger and more. It has 160mm rear travel, room for big tyres and some up-to-date geo to keep it super-capable on our modern-day trails.
We made it as a longish-travel, mini-downhill ripper. We all grew up riding downhill, dirt jumps, and 4X on 26,” so we wanted our revamp to revisit those vibes.
We’ve also made the bike in a one-off IPA/Dark Lacquer raw finish. IPA is our raw, unpainted finish that doesn’t go rusty and will be available soon on all bikes.
But this is all just an April fools right? Nope!
The joke’s on the haters – this isn’t just some one-off.
We’re building a limited run of 10 frames, available to order straight away from the Starling website as part of our RARE programme.
If you want one, we’re making just 10 available with orders open right away.
Check out the full specs of the Starling Cycles Dive and order yours online today.
A huge thanks to our friends at the following for helping us to build this special launch bike:
The bike is built with Hope’s 26″ Fortus wheels and Schwalbe 26″ Magic Mary tyres.
170mm travel 26″ fork options were like Unicorn’s eggs, so we opted for a 27.5″ Fox 38 upfront, and a coil DHX2 on the rear.
Hope covered the bike in UK-made bike jewellery, supplying brakes, drivetrain, headset, valves, seat clamp and pedals. All in red, as a throwback to the old-school red bikes loads of us painstakingly built.
Renthal supplied a Fatbar and their awesome Traction lock-on grips. The seat post came from BikeYoke and saddle from Fizik. Gears are 10-speed Shimano Saint, cos life was better with fewer cogs!
