Bird Aeris 9 or Trek slash 8

When I started looking at bikes ~18 months ago the Slash had caught my eye, but ultimately it was the AM9 that won me over.

As mentioned it’s possible to build a much better spec for the same money. The guys at Bird were helpful with any question I fired their way.

If buying new I’d struggle to look past Bird now.

Trek bikes look awesome, but I’d still gravitate towards the Bird (I have one already, I should add).

A shorter seat tube and a much better (and customisable) spec for the price is great, but it’s also about the local and novelty factors for me.

I’ve met the bike’s designer in person, excellent customer service is nearby, and I also like having something a little less mainstream from a small UK brand. All good fun.

The Bird looks nice but naff all availability by the looks of it if you’re after it any time soon.

I have a large AM9 for sale. A truly outstanding bike. I just have too many and after building a Forge I dont need full bouncer.

Trek always seem low spec for the money IMHO.

Go Bird. Customer support is spot on too. Always someone at the end of the phone.

So, trek bikes. I know a few people with them. Tolerances for where the bearings go isn’t great. They have to change bearings a lot to keep it running fresh and they are also really expensive. £80 or so as a couple are unusual sizes. Not sure what wheels come with that trek but one mate has the higher end ones trek does. On his third warranty replacement. Trek are ok bikes, but not worth the extra price. Go the bird and better suspension. I don’t notice better suspension at my local off piste, but get to a bike park, and it makes a huge difference.

Update: I made my mind up on a Aeris 9 and went and picked it up today. I couldn’t be happier and can’t wait to get out on it !

Internal routing..???

Yep, it’s all really tidy.

I thought Bird were a long time fan of external as that’s what customers wanted, slightly surprised to see that on their bikes

Looks really nice. Enjoy!

There’s the option of internal or external. It came with a little bag of bolt on guides and blanking plugs to convert to external if required.

Very nice 😁

I’m enjoying my Aether, which is the little brother of yours 🙂

I like they’ve given the option of internal or external. The internal looks a lot tidier – I used to hate trying to clean between the cable outers on the outside of my Bird frames. Although on the flip side they were easy to work on.

Raw frame with a red Lyrik looks 👌

I thought Bird were a long time fan of external as that’s what customers wanted

We still are, and some customers still want it that way – you can select the set up at purchase. As said it runs both. We supply 2 versions of the forward port – an internal and an external version. The internally routed one is a tidy little 2 cable routing which grips the cables just the right amount, while the external bolts to the same port and converts it to a minimalist 2 cable external routing. Its actually the tidiest external guide we’ve done I would say. Then from there internally cables pop out at the DT/ST junction before going under the stays, while external routing is basically the same as our old way.

When externally routed the only evidence of the internal routing is two bungs closing up the ports near the BB, but they’re right under the cables anyway, so you cant really see them.

When internally routed the only evidence of the external option is an extra single low profile dome head bolt on the down tube near the top which is blanking out the hole for the first down tube external clamp (Just above the ‘R’ on the photo ^), which handily doubles as a strap mount fastening.

All our new FS models with the exception of any eBikes (where you have exposed internals anyway) will run this internal/external option and new models will advance the idea a bit more with some refinements.

That’s an impressive amount of thought Ben :D Nice one.