So the Bird is out. Although with me riding it, it's more of a heavily laden chicken taking flight. This is not the bikes fault 🙂
Spring, right there.
[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7658/17186504261_e5a758c3bf_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7658/17186504261_e5a758c3bf_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/sbHjWZ ]Penyard MTB - First proper Bird Aeris ride[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/60876362@N00/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
Hint of tweak!
[url= https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8747/17161176486_aa2631cafb_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8747/17161176486_aa2631cafb_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/s9tvTd ]Penyard MTB - First proper Bird Aeris ride[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/60876362@N00/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
Can I do this every day
[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5350/16566906763_34bcf9b738_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5350/16566906763_34bcf9b738_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/reXJcv ]Penyard MTB - First proper Bird Aeris ride[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/60876362@N00/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
Heavily Laden Chicken gets airborne
[url= https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8703/17000888119_04991e7d9a_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8703/17000888119_04991e7d9a_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/rUiZJF ]Penyard MTB - First proper Bird Aeris ride[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/60876362@N00/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
Where's it gone?
[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5346/17000904159_bb19238ffa_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5346/17000904159_bb19238ffa_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/rUj5ve ]Penyard MTB - First proper Bird Aeris ride[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/60876362@N00/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
Love this time of year
[url= https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8752/16566857173_672ff5c0fd_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8752/16566857173_672ff5c0fd_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/reXtsv ]Penyard MTB - First proper Bird Aeris ride[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/60876362@N00/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
Other things I've learned
- Pikes really are amazing. Better than X-Fusion Traces, not that much different in feel (to me) than BOS Deville's.
- CCDB Air is so much more fluid and supple than the Monach on my Pyga. Some of that is suspension design, but the bird just tracks the ground so well and then seems to have all the pop you need as well.
- Carbon rims are lovely because they make fat tyre profiles. Stiff as well but noticeably stiffer than what I've had before. Hmm.
- I did ride it off some bigger (but not that big) jumps. It felt a lot better than the Pyga. It's a smaller frame with better suspension so I guess that's why it is. Felt very confident on it straight away tho.
- a slack angled 650B wheeled bike that's about the same length and weight as a 29er with a 3 degree steeper head angle corners quite differently. Not surprising but it's the one thing I really noticed. It's not better or worse, but it's properly different both setting up the turn and pushing through it. Brilliant to be able to practice on dry trails, much more to come.
- When you're riding dry, dusty trails through spring vegetation under blue skies after a week of hard graft in a mostly windowless building, you can only feel truly grateful. A new bike is the cherry on the top. It's a very big and very nice cherry tho!
Really liking the bike.
Good day out! Whereabouts was it - it looks like round here?
Penyard woods above Ross on Wye. Where are you?
Shh, it's not (it is great)
Hope you hahaven't improved on any segments!honestly though how does it rate vs the mega and pyga for local
I was talking it pretty easy but still managed to nudge a couple of PBs 🙂 Oddly I don't ride these trails that much, and the mega has probably only been up there once or twice. It definitely felt a bit more nimble than the Pyga in the tight stuff and a little bit more lively than the Mega at slower speeds. Pyga climbs a bit better, but not as much as I thought (because the CCDB Climb switch works so well).
Hard to tell from one ride esp with 'new bike glasses' on but it at 30lbs on the nose (so a bit lighter than the PYGA and quite a lot higher than the mega) it's a good compromise in terms of climbing and descending. No way I'll ever find the limits, but it's nice to have the safety buffer.
I'm keeping the PYGA and will probably ride that a lot in the Malverns still where 2x10 feels sort of mandatory, but I was already pretty much of the opinion his would replace the mega before I even rode it. Now I've ridden it, I'm sure it will.
Ah, ok - chilterns. That last pic could have been taken by the back of our house. I had to look really closely to see if I recognised the stump!!
Used to live / ride in the chilterns. Many great rides from Wendover or Watlington. Some superb singletrack and surprisingly steep in places. on the downside it's HORRIBLE in winter and I ripped my knee open on some flint a few years back.
Had a great ride round wendover today. Starting to make up for the 6 months of sheer horror that is winter.
I generally rip tyres apart on the flints. Managed not to today though - bonus!
Nice one Alex - looks great!
Back from Spain now, so hopefully mine is on it's way!
Looks great
Carbon rims = diminishing returns?
Nice green colour.
Ace day for a ride.
@alex - worth the wait. Be interested to see what you think when you've had a few rides
@matt - I would have said not until I bought he American Classic Wide Lightenings for the PYGA. they were noticeablly stiffer than the Arch EX / Hope combo and the super fat profile/low psi of the tyres made a big difference. The carbon ones are like that. I can't tell if they are better. A bit lighter maybe, more expensive definitely, easy to scratch..er yeah 😉
One extra thing, the BB is low. Even with the recommended 170mm cranks I'm catching stuff pedalling (flats not SPDs but quite thin ones). The low BB is fab for all the normal reasons, and I might be running too little air in the CCDB, but it's worth mentioning. Doing some classic black mountains riding today, so will see if I continue to notice it.
Nice one, damp trails, old bike but the sky was blue for me today.