Starling Cycles Launches the New Tellum

The Tellum is a ground-breaking, industry-shaking full suspension mountain bike... with a difference.

It takes the scalpel-precision of a fast and maneuverable 27.5” wheel and places it up front. Then, adds the blunt force of a tough, hard hitting 29” wheel on the rear. The bike is made with no geometries compromises and built around Starling’s fast, compliant and simple steel single pivot frames.

The Tellum was born out of Starling founder Joe McEwan’s constant hunt for answers to the question of how we can go faster and have more fun on our mountain bikes. Having built the Starling Twist, a traditional Mullet bike, Joe questioned whether his understanding was correct.

“I think I was mis-lead in the way I applied the science” says McEwan. “I started from a clean piece of paper again and thought ‘how do we properly do this?’”

“I have talked a lot about gyroscopic stability, the forces that keep a wheel in-plane, and how this is the only significant difference between 29” and smaller wheels. A bigger wheel is more likely to stay in-plane and not get deflected off line, it is also more stable when leant over in a corner. It is these factors that people translate as “better at carrying speed”. But conversely they also make the wheel harder to be manoeuvred in and out of line choices.”

“With the Twist I took the industry standard mullet solution and applied the wheel stability science, concluding it was better to have a big front wheel for tracking, and a small rear wheel for manoeuvrability. Essentially applying science to a pre-existing solution.”

“With the Tellum, I took a different approach, if we start with the science, what solution do we end up with? What we want is a manoeuvrable front wheel, allowing it to be moved in and out of line choices, picked-up and put where we want - after all the front wheel is where steering occurs! The rear wheel then just follows on. If the rear wheel is stable it just trucks on and keeps the speed, there is no need for a manoeuvrable rear wheel.”

“The solution, the Tellum, just works. The science is right, the bike is right!”

“I hope that my approach inspires the bike industry to flip their established notions of bike design and look at how they can do things differently. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a World Champion on this sort of bike soon?”

The Tellum is available now for pre-order through Starling Cycles with a limited run of frames being built to order. Pricing and further information is available on request.

More details are available at starlingcycles.com