Well?

Opinions please – about to pull the trigger. 😉

Try the Swinley Forest Mountainbikers facebook group. Quite a few owners on there as Bird a local company. Personally never slung a leg over one, but feedback seems very positive, anecdotally I know Ben and the Bird team spent a lot of time perfecting the angles etc and the build kits are great. They look nice in the flesh too.

There are a few owners on here, search for ‘bird’ and a number of threads will come up.

Good VFM, quite like the ethos behind it, looked good on paper, walked in to buy one, demoed one, was not the biggest fan, but that’s just me.

I was comparing to a charge blender and your run of the mill trailish HT, pinnacle ramin, sort of felt like a bad combination of the two.

IE gave up a lot in terms of feeling fast and efficient over my 29er HT, little gains over the blender, then in terms of fun, didn’t gain much over the 29er, but gave up a lot on the 29er. Well that’s my best explanation of it.

If you want a good, solid, VFM bike, the birds are cracking and to be fair there isn’t anything similar at the same price points that get close on the overall package, though if you’re looking for a fun bike, it isn’t that, if you’re looking for an efficient bike, it isn’t that either, it’s just a solid, average bike. Well that was my verdict anyway, others may agree or disagree.

IE you can’t go wrong buying one, it’ll be good, just maybe not dazzling.

All my opinion and not based on fact.

Zero.2 owner here.

I’ve had it since the beginning of January. I previously had an entry level Saracen Mantra, and have only ridden about 4 other mountain bikes (2 2k+ full sus, my wifes DJ bike and the Mantra). Of all of them, it is my favourite. I wasn’t sure if I would regret not saving a bit more and getting a FS, but I really don’t.

It looks better in person than in the photos. It’s really balanced when riding, heavy feet, light hands sorts itself out. It feels really solid (but lighter than the Mantra), and thunders through things that I had to carefully ride over before. Although, I did twist the handlebars into my knee on the first ride and lost the whole of January waiting for it to heal. I’ll be racing* it at the end of March too. I went for 1×10, (from 3×8) and lost about a gear and a half at each end. But as it is lighter, I can still climb everything I could before and have set PRs on ups, downs and smiles 🙂 My old bike made you work hard for things (pumping, manuals, roots etc.), but the Zero just makes it a whole lot easier.

*First race, wish me luck.

Thanks, two quite contrasting reports there but overall – nothing bad it would seem?
TBH I would love a Stanton but just can’t afford 2 grand plus on a HT. The Bird looks a good (if slightly less cool) alternative and for £1200 it is bang on my budget. I value the opinions, good, bad or average.

Thanks, I’m probably going to pull the trigger and as I am in the Midlands and have zero (see what I did there?) chance of getting to Swinley for a demo I am interested in any info that may be out there. Component v price it is a fantastic bike, course as we all know that doesn’t guarantee a fantastic ride.

The alternative is the 456 carbon evo from On One, but I’m just not feeling the luurrve for that bike like I am for the Bird.

Am I wrong?

Eltonerino – good luck!

On a purely tart basis – which colour did you get? and did you struggle to choose over the blue or yellow like I am? 😀

Cheers. My arm is too finish 🙂

I got the lovely blue. The 80s kid in me wanted the fluro yellow and pink, but I don’t think I’m fast enough for it. If the blue was out of stock, I would have got it.
The blue is better in real life than the photos. Some Mazdas and Citerons are similar.

Cheers I had settled on the yellow – that’s buggered it up again! 🙂

^^ Wrote that on my phone. My aim is to finish. My arm will hopefully finish too.

Heads blue, tails yellow. If you are disappointed, go for the other one.

I guessed that’s what you meant 😀 I really ought to go down for a test ride but Swinley is a bloody long way from me just to choose a colour…

I’ve got one, love it.

I’m sure it’s decent uphill, but uphill isn’t my strong point so I can’t really say 🙂

Down hills it’s great. I’m not a great rider, often staying on by luck and grim determination rather than skill, but certainly for me this bike is great for flying careering down rough stuff.

In addition, customer service has been excellent.

Cheers greatape – I think I’m sold.

I saw one in yellow on Saturday, and the owner was kind enough to let me have a car park test (mid trail)

So I’m hoping to go pay them a visit as they’re so close by…

It looks burlier than the photo’s make it look – lots of clearance around the rear wheel too.

It’s not that far to Swinley Pez, far in distance but not in time as it’s all mainly motorway. Less time to get there than Degla for us. It’s a pants trail centre though unless you know where you are going I guess.

I’m pretty sure I read on here though that Bird travelled up to Cannock for one of the guys to test out the bike, may be worth asking!

Is it worth considering planet x’s offer on the Titus fire line? Titanium frame 29er, good spec, £1500.

I still haven’t ridden one (I need to). As far as kit for the money goes its very hard to beat! Looks cool too 😉

Not interested in a 29er but thanks for the shout. Barffy I’m going down on the 25th. Apparently Bird have a 10k loop behind the factory? if not it’s Swinley.

PS I did ask but not enough interest for them to come to Cannock on a midweek day – which is fair enough.

can I have a go with your bird when we met up in cannock?

..oops. 😯 kinda sounds wrong , i mean your bike 😀

Ha ha yes mate – I’m looking at ordering towards the end of this month. Zero.1 as I have been saving my pennies and like the all turbine kit.