Cyclist
Meet the maker: Tore Juncher Jørgensen of Starfish Bicycles
Strava stats, watts per kilo, ultra-high modulus carbon… in the performance-obsessed world of modern road cycling, the simple joy of getting around on two wheels is easily overlooked. That glorious feeling of cruising along under your own steam can get forgotten when there’s a KoM up for grabs. But Tore Juncher Jørgensen of Starfish Bicycles is on a mission to change that.
From the Starfish workshop in Vester Skerninge, Denmark, Jørgensen crafts what they term ‘soft bikes for soft people’. These aren’t performance machines built for crushing PBs; they’re designed for fun with an emphasis on comfort, and what they sacrifice in speed they compensate for in character.
‘I’ve always been riding bikes,’ says Jørgensen. ‘To begin with it was just a means of transportation, but then around 2017 my sister worked in a bike shop and she gave me her old single-speed bike.
‘I was living in Copenhagen, which is the flattest of flat cities so a single-speed bike is perfect for getting around. It was an eye-opening experience for me and I slowly got into the single-speed scene, dabbled in a bit of fixed-gear touring and just enjoyed riding the bike. I do a lot of DIY and I’ve always been interested in learning about whatever I’m working with, so it was natural for me to just start experimenting with the mechanical side of things, which eventually turned into framebuilding.’
That’s the path that led Jørgensen to set up Starfish Bicycles. It’s a name they picked for a number of reasons, including their love of animals as well as the starfish’s characteristic softness and gender fluidity.
To date, Jørgensen has built a number of weird and wonderful bikes and parts in the Starfish workshop. These include a single-speed MTB, a multi-surface, mile-munching ATB, various racks, forks and even frame bags. But Starfish’s latest creation, and the one Jørgensen chose to show at Bespoked 2023, is their personal mixte-frame randonneuring bike.
‘The idea was to build my take on a rando bike,’ Jørgensen explains. ‘I wanted it to push the limits of softness. It was my goal to find out where that threshold is: at what point does a bike become too soft?’
Jørgensen built the frame using Rene Herse x Kaisei tubes. It was the thinnest tubing available at the diameters they wanted, allowing them to make the frame as soft and flexible as possible. They also made the choice to build a mixte frame rather than a traditional double diamond.
All mixte up
The mixte, for the uninitiated, is a breed of step-through frame that replaces the conventional top tube with a pair of smaller tubes that run all the way down past either side of the rear wheel, meeting the rear dropouts just below the seatstays. This creates a low stepover height that historically made it suitable for all genders.
‘I chose the mixte style because it was a fun way to do something different and stand out a bit at Bespoked,’ says Jørgensen. ‘I really like the look and history of it. Today you kind of perceive it as a women’s bike, but the intention of it was to be for mixed genders.
‘In addition to the frame, the stem is also hand-built by me. The headset is an old one by Campagnolo. Sram supplied a lot of the parts, but I wanted to find some components that would contrast with the modern stuff. It had a few scratches and little dents in it, but I just gave it a polish to clean it up. The old Brooks saddle was completely flat when I found it, so I had to soak it in water to restore it. Then I gave it a good clean and put the paracord in to keep it nice and tight.’
What Jørgensen loves most about this particular frame is the subtle details that make it sing. The head tube reinforcements, for example, took many hours to file and perfect. They’re functional but also decorative and they give the frame its personality.
‘I really enjoyed the slowness of hand-filing lots of these little details. It’s a fun contrast to all the big jobs you have to do to make a frame. I love spending just as much time perfecting the details that are purely there for the looks. You have to have the reinforcement, but it could just be a simple ring.’
Starfish is taking commissions, but pricing isn’t set in stone as of yet. It’s still relatively early days for the builder with only a handful of completed bikes, so the best thing is to get in touch and talk your idea through.
Jørgensen’s plan for the Mixte Rando bike is to make a few tweaks and start racking up the miles in spring when they tackle their first brevet – a style of non-competitive riding that ties in nicely with the brand’s core values.
‘I’ve been inspired by randonneur bikes these past few years, so getting into it was a no-brainer for me. I like that it’s kind of a competition, but it’s also not. There’s something that pushes you but it’s not the desire to be first, and that really resonates with me.’
Starfish Mixte Rando bike • Price TBC • søstjernecykler.dk
• This article originally appeared in issue 150 of Cyclist magazine. Click here to subscribe
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