NBD: Starling Beady Little Eye, Carbon Wasp Truffle-120, Norco Sight VLT
A quick mop-up of a trio of the most interesting new bikes to land in our collective inbox this past few days. Something for everyone in this dirty triad.
Starling Cycles press release:
The Starling Cycles Beady Little Eye is BACK!
The Beady Little Eye is the freakiest, fastest, weirdest beast in the Starling brood.
A single gear, tiny travel, a skinny and steel frame, a shed load of lo-fi fun.
And it’s now back in the Starling line up, for a limited time only, with a whole heap of V3 upgrades.
The Beady is the choice of a special community of freaks and geeks. Ultra-distancers, bike-packers, XC-racers, dirt-jumpers, park-ratters, grown up-BMXers. The enlightened few that know the more you subtract, the more you add.
The Beady is a full-suspension, single-speed mountain bike. But think of it as a hardtail with more grip and less chatter. It’s stupid fun and crazy 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.
The Beady’s special sauce is that the swing arm rotates around the BB. That 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. That means hardtail geo, a super low BB, on-rails cornering.
The keyboard warriors will say it doesn’t make sense, but our community of Beady owners know that it’s pure, low-fi lightning. It might just be the best, purest, simplest fun you can have on two wheels.
It cranks like a hardtail, with the explosive punch of a single speed. Throw in a big hit, drop or compression and the suspension comes to life, working when you need it to. Just enough movement for silly, scary speed. Just enough for a raw, rowdy, lo-fi, pedal-all-day, one-of-a-kind ride.
It’s a weird bike for weird riders. Riders that don’t give a damn about gears. Riders that love the feel of steel and a bike that’s brutally simple, zero maintenance and absolutely flies.
The new Beady gets a whole load of upgrades to bring it up to speed with Starling’s V3 full-suspension frames. It’s now got that lovely, swoopy headtube gusset, our anti-flair head tube and anti-seize seat tube. We’ve upped the dropper insertion and we’ve moved to a classic seat-clamp to keep things simple. The Beady also now has a really smart, redesigned bottom bracket solution that increases crank compatibility and extends bearing life massively.
The Starling Cycles Beady Little Eye is available now, for a super limited time only. Orders close 31st October 2024.
- Available as frame only, or frame + shock.
- Beady frame only: £2,456
- Beady frame + Rock Shox Deluxe Ultimate RCT: £2,781
starlingcycles.com/frames/beady-little-eye-2024
Carbon Wasp press release:
Carbon Wasp have updated the Truffle-120, a 120mm 29er XC/trail bike from Yorkshire
- Hand made in Yorkshire
- 120mm rear travel
- Modern trail geometry
- £2,950 frame and shock
The Carbon Wasp Truffle-120 has always been designed to be built into a bike for all occasions. With 120mm of plush and progressive rear travel, combined with a strong and stiff carbon frame it will get you efficiently to the top of the trails so you can get rowdy on the way back down. The frames are hand made in Leeds, UK, by Carbon Wasp and they are available now.
Adrian Smith, Chief Designer and Owner of Carbon Wasp commented: “We’ve been working hard on updating the Truffle-120 to update the frames whilst still keeping the same winning performance that made the original so popular. The Truffle-120 is light and predictable for climbing, agile for singletrack and robust for technical descents. We basically made the bike that we want to ride, a bike that would be at home on the XC race circuit or razzing around the local woods”.
About Carbon Wasp
Carbon Wasp was set up several years ago and have been making components and frames for other brands for some time as well as their own brand parts. The parts they have designed, developed and made have been used by world class riders on road, track and triathlon and have featured in the Tour de France, multiple World Championships and the past two Olympic games.
The company is staffed by MTBer’s though, who have continually developed the Truffle-120 alongside other projects.
Construction Details
When updating the Truffle-120 the objective was to make a frame that could be built into a lightweight XC race bike, but was also robust enough to take on the most technical descents. It’s not designed for bike park laps, but it could handle that if you ever needed it to.
The carbon lay up has been refined and the brand has invested heavily in precision tooling to improve the finish and reduce manufacturing time. The frames are made entirely in Leeds using pre-preg carbon fibre sourced in the UK. That allows Carbon Wasp to keep a tight control over quality and ensure shorter lead times. The frame is fully constructed from carbon fibre, with the front-tri, rear swingarm and carbon linkage, each moulded as a single piece, which offers increased stiffness and low weight.
Fully sealed cartridge bearings make the frame Yorkshire-proof, with a familiar flex pivot at the rear dropout to help reduce weight and the complexity of the construction.
The Truffle-120 includes contemporary features such as downtube storage, clearance for a dropper post and ISCG mounts with BSA threaded BB shell. Full internal cable routing helps to maintain the clean lines and the Boost 148mm rear axle and UDH mech hanger keeps you bang-on-trend. To maximise build options the frame has clearance for 2.6” tyres and up to a 38T chainring. All this comes with a 5-year repair or replace warranty.
Geometry
The Truffle was designed as an XC/trail bike that can get you efficiently to the top of the trails and then let you get rowdy on the way back down. It’s available in 4 sizes and has modern numbers for reach (480mm on large) and head angle (65.5deg). The Truffle-120 can accommodate 30.9mm dropper posts with a 250mm minimum insertion depth.
Recognising the need for rear centre to grow with each frame size but also recognising that personal preference and riding style can have an influence on the perfect chainstay length, Carbon Wasp provides 6 options for stay length. Each size of Truffle-120 frame can be fitted with any of the 6 stay lengths, giving a range of chainstay length from 435mm to 460mm in 5mm increments. To keep things simple, those stays are optional, not adjustable.
Suspension
Carbon Wasp chose the single-pivot with flex stay arrangement for the Truffle-120 because it’s tried and tested for this genre of bike and gives reliable and predictable ride characteristics.
The kinematics of the Truffle-120 are designed to provide 120mm of plush and progressive rear travel. Shock progression is 38% across the full travel (27% from sag to full compression). Anti-squat is fairly standard for this type of bike (115% at sag in 32-39), making it a stable climber. Again, Carbon Wasp aren’t reinventing the wheel, but doing what works to make a solid bike that achieves the performance characteristics they want.
If you’re looking for a trail ready, hand made, point and go trail bike, designed by riders for riders then the Truffle-120 is for you. Developed and tested in the best and worst trail conditions that you would expect in the north of the UK.
Pricing and availability
Carbon Wasp are a small company and focus on making the frames, so the Truffle-120 is still only available as a frame-only, although they can put together a custom full build if that’s what you need.
In another novel update Carbon Wasp doesn’t paint its frames, they fit a coloured wrap. Frames come with either their standard factory Wasp-Yellow wrap (pictured) or any custom colour of your choosing (one-colour) for no extra cost. More elaborate custom wraps are available, but you’d better call with your ideas to get a price.
Frame and Cane Creek IL DB Air is £2,950 (inc. shipping) including custom wrap (one colour).
Frame only (if you have or can source your own shock) is £2,600.
Available to order now, delivery around 2 weeks.
Norco press release:
NEW NORCO SIGHT VLT CX DROPPING SPRING 2025
FULL POWER TO PLAY HARDER, IN A MUCH LIGHTER PACKAGE
The dynamic power, range, and natural ride feel of the newly updated Bosch Performance CX line is the perfect blend for an all-mountain eMTB. Combined with our high pivot Sight VLT platform, it’s the ultimate setup to rip laps all day and do it all again tomorrow. You’ll hit your trailspeed like never before, whether you’re charging rough tech or pulling for doubles.
Continuous innovation in our VLT lineup means the new Norco Sight VLT CX is nearly 20% lighter than the previous model, with a larger battery and reduced riding noise – while still delivering the same impressive torque and power the CX system is known for.
The Sight VLT CX is all about balance, boosting riders’ confidence to go hard and trust their bike. Its rearward axle path, idler, and unique VPSHP suspension layout give riders the stability and control they need as trails get tougher. The high pivot layout combined with 160/150mm travel makes this bike punch above its weight without losing snappy playfulness. Available in three different models, you’ll be able to choose the spec build that best suits your riding style.
Front-end confidence meets precise directional control in the Sight VLT CX. With size- specific rear-centres, our geometry maintains uncompromised kinematics. Chainstay lengths, tailored for each frame size, balance weight and handling with a mixed wheel setup.
The updated Bosch Performance Line CX is a lighter drive unit and battery, with a higher capacity. This bike delivers the same power as its predecessor, while weighing significantly less. Upgrades have also been made for the most natural ride feel possible, including an ultra- fast reaction time between pedal stroke and motor response, and a near-silent motor so you can enjoy the sound of the trail. The powder-coated, magnesium battery housing is corrosion- resistant, strong, and built to withstand harsh conditions with a waterproof sealing system.