Did anyone go to the bird demo day?
If so what are your opinions on the bikes, particularly the aeris 145 as I have one on order.

Yep – I was at Cwmcarn on Sunday & demoed a Zero AM and an Aeris 145, both in medium. I’m 5’8″ and the medium was a good fit for both models.

Background – I’ve been riding a 2003 Specialized FSR Enduro (medium) and an On-One 456 Evo (18″). I’ve demoed a few other bikes over the last 12 months:

Specialized Stumpjumper 29
Specialized Stumpjumper 650b
Orange Four
Cannondale Habit
Lapierre Zesty (not sure which variant)
Bird Aeris 140/150
Whyte T130
Whtye G160
Airdrop Edit (S&M!)

Of all of the above the most impressive were the Aeris, the Edit and the T130, although I wouldn’t say there was a bad bike amongst them. The release of the Aeris 145 really piqued my interest with the low standover (shorter seat tube than any of the other bikes listed), metric shock & boost wheels.

First ride was on the Zero AM – really nice – better fit than my current On-One 456, climbed well, very chuckable on the descent – I was impressed; if I was going to buy a hardtail this would be top of my list.

An hour or so later I took the Aeris 145 out – it felt pretty similar to the Zero in terms in climbing and chuckability, but was more forgiving and a bit more stable on the descents. The handling was very neutral and I was able to put the bike exactly where I wanted and not think about it, the trail flowed without me thinking about the bike at all – always a good sign.

As it happens I had already placed an order for the Aeris 145 in medium, on the condition of being able to ride one before final purchase – having ridden one I am now very happy with the decision and very keen to get my hands on my new machine!

I don’t think you will regret placing your order.

I’m waiting for a demo day up north. They have one at hamsterly coming up but its mid week. Quite fancy a go on the 145.

sargey, how did you think the Aeris 145 compared to the old Aeris?

this thread was not about what I hoped it was..

I’m 5’10” and Ben/Dan advised me to order a M/L.
Looking at the geo chart its going to be vastly different to my medium 2016 Bronson. I hope i’ve not made the wrong choice.

ps Sorry for getting your hopes up nick.

mark90 – excellent question…

It has been about 6 months between demoing the old Aeris and the new one, so a long way from being back-to-back and my thoughts will be hugely subjective and can be taken with a large pinch of salt.

The newer bike felt lighter and more natural to me, I don’t know whether the geometry encouraged me to have my weight more centred than on the older model, but it seemed to flow better and whilst on the old model I felt like I was behind the bike on a couple of occasions, I never felt like that on the 145. It certainly climbed at least as well if not better and I simply felt that I could pick a line perfectly.

I guess that as the old bike was good anyway that any improvements are likely to be subtle rather than massively obvious.

Suffice to say I’ve not ridden a better bike – perhaps if I had a go on some £4k+ carbon exotica I may feel differently but for under £3k I doubt there is anything better for what I need/want (which may of course not be exactly the same thing!)

Thanks for the comparison.

I guess that as the old bike was good anyway that any improvements are likely to be subtle rather than massively obvious

I’ll just take this bit (and ignore the bit about the 145 being the best bike you’ve ever ridden) and remain happy with my mk1.5 🙂

Edit: I must say that I do feel very centered in my mk1.5 Aeris, but then it is the longer of the two sizes I was between.

I’m 5’10” and Ben/Dan advised me to order a M/L.
Looking at the geo chart its going to be vastly different to my medium 2016 Bronson. I hope i’ve not made the wrong choice.

mrlinderley – I had the same thoughts. I’m 5’6″ (with short legs) and have always been limited to small frames (currently on a 2012 Giant Trance) to get the saddle height right with a dropper but then feeling short in the saddle-handlebar distance. Ben recommended a medium frame which I ordered having tried a medium Aeris 120 but went to Cwm Carn to have a go on the 145 as I was a bit nervous that the extra reach and wb over the 120 version would be a problem. The fit felt spot on – climbing felt better than my Giant and overall the bike was really well balanced and definitely not difficult to corner from the length of the wheelbase.

I rode the Twrch trail afterwards on my Giant which felt twitchy and more difficult to corner in comparison.

Based on your height compared to mine (and Ben/Dan’s recommendation) I reckon the fit on a ML for you will be fine.

id be interested in hearing your thoughts on the other bikes you rode
sargey2003

I rode an Aeris 145 and was really impressed. I’m 6 ft, large was perfect.

Climbed very well, felt direct when you pedaled hard – didn’t just start bobbing like some frames. Really fun to descend, poppy, had me jumping off/over things I would normally ignore on my Rune. Neither the forks or shock were set up to my liking initially, but after a bit of tweaking its easily the most comfortable i’ve felt on someone else’s bike. Very impressed, i’m tempted to get one now..

Incidentally my partner (5’5″) started off on a small which was a little cramped, medium was perfect, she’s getting one.

@andybrad

I think I mentioned that I’ve been riding a 2003 Specialized Enduro – I should add that it’s had a few mods – it’s running a Pike 464 140mm fork, with a Works Components headset to slacken the head angle by 1 degree (taking back to around 67.5 degrees I think) – also set up tubeless on Stans Flow 26″ wheels. With that as my baseline here are my thoughts on the bikes I demoed

Specialized Stumpjumper 650b – pretty neutral bike – didn’t feel that there was enough of an improvement over what I had to merit a purchase.
Specialized Stumpjumper 29 – similar to the 650b version, but I found I kept clipping the side of the rutted singletrack with the bigger wheels (I am used to 26s after all).
Orange Four – didn’t really get on with this one – I suspect it was badly set up, but it just didn’t flow for me, I found it harder to keep the front wheel where I wanted it.
Cannondale Habit – the least favourite of all the bikes I demoed – felt twitchy and less stable than the others.
Lapierre Zesty (not sure which variant) similar to the Stumpjumper 650B, slighty more stable but also felt burlier (felt like a bigger bike than it was).
Bird Aeris 140/150 – Already mentioned that I enjoyed this one – new version is even better! 🙂
Whyte T130 – very nearly went for this one – it is a great all-round machine, the first bike I rode that truly had me thinking that I could get a significant improvement on what I currently had and quite possibly all the bike a good rider really needs – I decided that for me a little extra travel would give me more confidence to attack the really hard stuff.
Whtye G160 – similar to the 130, not quite as good going up but an absolute monster on the descents – if you spend your time hitting the gnar very hard then this would be perfect – only a full-on DH bike would out-descend this beast.
Airdrop Edit (S&M!) – rides really well, I was tempted to go this route, but fell between the small & medium (top tube on mk1 medium was a bit high for me, but it has been dropped on the most recent batch).

And the end result of the demo –

Lokks stunning Sargey! Must book a visit to see Bird soon…

Any idea if the black logos are available on the black 120s? Your spec (colourwise) is exactly what I’m looking at apart from an orange bar up front!

First outing yesterday I can honestly say I was blown away by the 145. I took it to Hebden Bridge where it’s nice and steep and it was so much more confidence inspiring than my Bronson. I’m 5’10” and was advised to get the m/l. I’m glad I did. A lot roomier than my medium Bronson. I was a bit concerned about the added weight so I weighed the bronson before I swapped all the parts over.(bought frame only with super deluxe shock)We have some accurate scales at work. It was only 400g heavier. It came in at 14.25 kg. The frame with shock weighed 3.54kg for anyone wondering. Can’t wait to get out again this afternoon.

The new Aeris 145 does look veerrry long. I’m 5’10” on an old version Aeris, and even that feels ‘fairly’ long for my height. Or in other words, if feels just right and balanced, but with a bias towards modern geometry.

If I jump on my friends’ bikes, they all feel quite short in comparison. And while that means they are less stable, they are actually quicker in some of the easier, twistier trails we ride, as they’re more manoeuvrable.

That’s not to say I find my Medium (old) Aeris bargelike. It’s still easily responsive enough. My point is though, the new Aeris 145 has a fair bit more length again. So I’d imagine that a Medium/Large at my height, would be quite a change in terms of stability (but also marked drop in manoeuvrability).

If your aim is to ride relatively technical trails at speed, where stability is paramount, then the new 145 will probably be ideal, and yeah, a Medium/Large size. But if it’s more average trail centres, twistier trails, or more general riding that you’re going to be doing, then I would personally think you’d be better off on either a smaller sized Aeris 145, an Aeris 120, or another slightly shorter bike like a T130.

I may well be wrong though, as I’ve not actually ridden the 145, so take the above with a pinch of salt.

I rode the L Aeris 145 on some pretty tight stuff and never once felt like the length was an issue.

Got my 145 on Friday, BPW on Saturday and it was quicker everywhere, god knows how dangerous I’ll be when I get the forks set up properly. No problems with tight corners just me being too impatient with tyre pressures and not learning what the knobs do on the fork.
6′ on a large.

That’s not to say I find my Medium (old) Aeris bargelike. It’s still easily responsive enough. My point is though, the new Aeris 145 has a fair bit more length again. So I’d imagine that a Medium/Large at my height, would be quite a change in terms of stability (but also marked drop in manoeuvrability).

Having ridden both the older (1.5) Aeris in medium and the new Aeris 145 in medium I would say that you will probably not notice any difference in length. I’m no geometry expert and you’d get a far better explanation from the Bird team of why that would be, but I think it’s basically the steeper seat angle meaning that the extra reach (on paper) does not translate into any longer feel on the bike.

In fact I would say that the new model feels more chuckable than the older bike – on the older bike I had wondered a couple if the medium was a little too long for me, but I’ve not felt that on the 145 at all.

I took it down some really tight singletrack yesterday evening and it rode beautifully.

Also took it down a loose, loamy near-vertical descent and felt in more control than I have done on the section before.

Still finding it a great bike (which is a relief..)