Mountain bikes with 26in wheels are for kids who can’t fit on proper-sized wheels, right? Not if you ask Starling Cycles, which has just released a new steel-frame enduro bike with 160mm travel and wheels straight out of the 1990s.

Let’s get one thing out the way first, this isn’t an April Fool’s Day hoax, and Starling hasn’t knocked this one up using AI on Photoshop. I don’t think so anyway, although with just 10 bikes being made I’m starting to think I might have been had.

At first glance the Dive looks enormous, until you let you brain readjust and recognise those dinky wheels

But head honcho Joe McEwan assures me he really has made a new 26in bike called the Dive – with more travel than the Starling Murmur, at 160mm, he says it’s for riders who are playful on their bikes.

“Smaller wheels suit people that ride more playfully and move the bike around a lot, so it’s only natural that those riders want something that’s even more fun, more playful and easy to chuck around that 27.5,” he said.

Starling Dive need to know

• New 26in full suspension bike from Startling, called the Dive
• 160mm travel puts it up against the best enduro mountain bikes
• Reynolds steel frame, handbuilt in Bristol
• Limited run of just 10 frames being welded
• £2,456 frame only without shock

Starling’s welding and bracing is a joy to see, and this new raw finish helps it shine

The Dive is handmade in Bristol from Reynolds 853 steel tubing. That already makes it pretty darned niche in an era when most bikes are made from carbon or alloy, and with hardtails like the Cotic Solaris usually accounting for steel fans.

And that’s before we even start talking about the 26in wheels, which are completely at odds with the 29in standard of today – and which Starling does a pretty heft line on by the way, the brand’s Murmur rolls on big wheels as standard.

Why Dive? “Joe spent his youth racing 26″ single-pivots and partying in Bristol’s grungiest of dive bars,” Starling says

It’s a proper bike then, but it’s also got to be seen as a piece of counterculture, and perhaps even a middle finger to haters out there. “The keyboard warriors spend a lot of time saying ‘the year 2000 called and wants is bike back’,” Joe says. So we thought, fuck it, why not just lean fully into it?”

So while the rest of the industry looks to be heading the other way, Starling has built something rather more retro. Elsewhere 32in wheels are now being touted as the next big thing – rumour has it XC race teams are asking to try the bigger size, while brands like DirtySixer has been making bikes around 32in for years.

It’s not quite the retro piece you might be thinking though, because this bike has some pretty modern geometry to try and keep you upright on those little roller skate wheels. The size large with a 485mm reach gets a slack 63° head angle, and a BB drop of 4mm.

Starling makes this 26in bike, but also a host of regualar wheel sized machines

The wheelbase isn’t long though, measuring up at 1,258 and encompassing a short 435mm back end – presumably to help whip it round the corners better.

Starling wants £2,456 for this bike, and that’s frame only. If you want a shock in it too that’s an extra £645 for the DHX2. So that’s £3000 for a frame and shock – definitely not a joke.

Who’s going to buy this bike then, I asked Joe. My guess was old BMXers who still despair at the length of modern bikes, and long for the olden days.

“We get loads of retired BMXers on Starling’s bikes, and heaps of old-school MTB fans that love the idea of 26,” Joe says. “It’s also a great reminder that you don’t always need the supposed latest and greatest, marginal gains, ‘23% more better’, marketing-driven bike fads.”

Multiple shock mounts let you adjust the bike’s geo

Building with 26in

Sourcing 26in wheels, tyres and forks to go with the small wheel ethos wasn’t easy, and Starling had to go with a 27.5in Fox 38 up front to get the 170mm travel it wanted. There is a Fox coil DHX2 on the rear generating 160mm.

The wheels are Hope’s 26in Fortus wheels and the bike uses Schwalbe 26in Magic Mary tyres. Hope supplies most of the rest of the bits, including the brakes, drivetrain (apart from some Shimano Saint), headset, valves, seat clamp and pedals.

Renthal supplied a Fatbar and Traction lock-on grips, the seat post came from BikeYoke and the saddle from Fizik.

The frame comes in a one-off, not available (yet) IPA/Dark Lacquer raw finish, too, something Starling says this raw and unpainted finish will be available on all its regular wheel sized bikes.

Who’s really buying this bike then? Not little kids who don’t fit on 27.5in bikes yet, they probably can’t afford this statement piece. More likely Starling needs to find 10 big kids who never quite grew up. Failing that, it can just sign this off as a neat piece of good publicity, showing the world just how alternative it can be.

Starling Dive 26in bike