INCOMING !! New frame day… Bird Aether 7

Fork air spring kit arrived, so i’ve dropped the fork at the LBS for a lower service kit and fitting the air spring.

Also picked up 2m of gear outer so i’ve got nice new stuff on

2021-05-14_02-33-58 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Re the fork steerer length, try it out for a while before cutting it. A lot of owners run a fair few spacers under their stem as Bird bikes tend to be a little lower on the stack height; which is better than being too high and not being able to do anything about it! I’m 5,8″ and I run 25mm of spacers on a headset cup stack height of 16mm and 30mm rise bars on a ML Aeris 120LT.

Interesting stuff. The headtube is 10mm longer than on the Whyte, but that’ll still leave me 20-30mm depending on headset stack height. So plenty of room to play with.

Checked shock, it had 1 volume spacer in, so added another

2021-05-14_06-23-30[/url] by Steve Weeks[/url] – Flickr2BBcode LITE

Silver Bird (can’t get images to display)

https://flic.kr/p/2kV7sGW

Unless i’m missing something, i think we’re all good.

2. Gear outer, not sure at the quality of the gear outer i’ve got in the spares box, so may need to collect 2m when i go to the LBS for fork internals.

Next time just bite the bullet and with the bikes in your household and get 10m of outer at once… it goes MUCH further when you cut to length…

seatpost shim

Got one here if you need it… just replace in your own time.

Birds are pretty progressive- the v1 am9 was maybe too progressive for most riders- sure you need that spacer?

Agree re: steerer – I run 30mm spacers on my ml aether 7, I’m 5’10”.

Birds are pretty progressive- the v1 am9 was maybe too progressive for most riders- sure you need that spacer?

The volume spacer? Dunno yet, I’ll put the Shockwiz on it next week when built

At 81kg ish with a non Megneg Deluxe I needed 2 spacers on the Aether 7. That’s actually what it came fitted with from Bird.

I think I better go out and buy the wife flowers, she’s in invisiframe hell!!!!

Mrs Weeksy jumped on the job of invisframe this morning… i don’t get the impression she’ll be doing it for a living !

We then moved onto the build
2021-05-16_03-24-53 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2021-05-16_03-24-45 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2021-05-16_03-24-36 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2021-05-16_03-24-28 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2021-05-16_03-24-19 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2021-05-16_03-20-33 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2021-05-16_03-04-12 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Still waiting for fork decals and a seatpost shim for my dropper.

Tested in the close and feels quite long, but certainly feels nice.

What size is it? Looks longer than mine – would imagine it’s a fair bit longer reach than your old t130. Not sure how long the g160 would have been as never ridden one of those.

It’s a large. I’m 6’0

Ah that explains it. I’m 5’9 on a medium!

Mine felt long on the first go (6’2″ on a large with 35mm stem). Long enough I was worried about manuals so practiced loads in the garden. Didn’t feel long when riding it properly for the first time.

I would say on the enduro Bird bikes manuals are harder due to longer chainstays – I had to really work at them on my Aeris 145. The Aether only has 425mm chainstays though – so even with a long reach they pop up pretty easily. To start with I was popping the front too high most of the time until I got used to it. It’s the short chainstays I really like, combined with a slack ish head angle and decent length reach.

I was never that good at them anyway 😆. A bit of practice has done wonders. Still not that good but has really helped on trail technique.

I can’t manual anyway. My trail speed is more balls and stupidity rather than skills 🙂

not that i ever drop chains, but for the sake of not much money i threw a chainguide on it

2021-05-17_12-55-11 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Seatpost shim arrived so the dropper is on.
2021-05-17_12-54-53 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

If the weather plays ball after 2pm i’ll give it a run out.

I’m sure I’ve seen you manual off a track at BPW in a howling gale. 🤔

Lol wasn’t quite how it went, but it was impressive all the same. Always elbow pads!

Hope you’re well Matt.

Weeksy that is a lovely looking bike and a great colour !!

Interested to hear how it rides 👍👍

No idea! Every time I go to leave it monsoons!

Man up and just get out there!

I’m good bar the achilles recovery. Should pop out again soon.

Today was the first test ride and as you can imagine it was as much faffing as it was riding.

Pedal, stop, adjust, pedal, stop, adjust, then again, then again, gears, seat height, seat angle, suspension front, suspension rear, levers, gears, saddle…. just constant stopping and fiddling to get things right.

I’ve got it mostly happy now, but suspension wise i’m still needing to take it on more techincal riding as the front feels a little harsh and the rear feels a little ‘dead’ at the moment. I’ll throw the Shockwiz on it and see where we are.

Riding position, weirdly the bars feel wider… Which is clearly impossible as they’re the same bars 😀

When i got home i’ve put another spacer under the stem, so raising the front end by 5mm more.

I’ve got a TINY bit of rub from the chainguide in the final gear that i’ll need to dial out. I’m not quite sure yet just how as it’s at it’s max adjustment in that direction so may need a tiny bend.

It seems to pedal strike less than the G-160 which is a bonus and seems to climb really nicely too, although i still need to dial out a little pedal bob.

First impressions are great though

2021-05-18_11-50-38 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

If the rear end is a bit slow but also having some pedal Bob perhaps you’re running a touch too much sag there. My Aether was noticeably better pedalling than the Aeris 145 I had before it.

On the handlebar feeling wider perhaps the stack is different from g160 to Aether – I can’t remember whether it’s more of less stack that can make the bike feel bigger 🤔

I tend to bash my pedals fairly often on the Aether – I sometimes wonder if I’m running too much sag – or if I’m just slightly incompetent with where I choose to pedal!

Good that you have a shock wiz to get w base setting on – always wonder about buying one of those.

First job then was fitting the Shockwiz..
2021-05-18_02-03-51 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Well, techincally that was job 2…. lifting the front end was first… I stood it next to my lads bike and noticed straight away that while our stems are about the same height he’s got WAY more rise on his bars than i do. Interesting indeedy… So i’ve upped my spacers and my bars are closer in relation to his, but i may go higher rise actually.
the bars that came on the G-160 are 15mm rise and 780mm wide… so at least gives me a start point in terms of knowledge of where i am, so i can then work out where i wanna go

The fork decals arrived, but i’m torn on them now they’re here.
2021-05-18_02-03-44 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2021-05-18_02-03-35 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

MAybe it’s too much magenta. The yellow does seem a decent match on the fork lowers to the logo/text on the frame… so… hmmm.

I’d still change those fork decals I reckon. Freshen it up – the yellow really doesn’t match to my eye.

+1 for changing them. I never liked the old helter skelter graphics. The colours now match, and look how the angles match the bird badge too.

Another plus on changing the Fork Decals. I think the “Not Pink” is a great colour!

Shockwiz said
Less pressure
Slow rebound.

So I’ve taken out 7psi and 2 clicks of tortoise.

I know you said not to….. but.. well… i did

2021-05-19_09-29-01 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Looks better that way.

I do wish there was a coil shock version of shockwiz.

I definitely think the forks / bike looks better with the new graphics – freshens the forks up 👍

I do wish there was a coil shock version of shockwiz.

I do think it’s a bloody excellent piece of kit the Shockwiz, i’m going to get out today and give it a whirl on the back end to see where we are with it. The front end i’ll wait until Sat as we’re at Swinley Summit and doing blues/reds as well. So should have it dialled.

Looks good Weeksy.

I do wish there was a coil shock version of shockwiz.

There was one called Susmybike that works with coil shocks. No idea if they’re still around or it’s any good though.

One more change needed weeksy 😉

That’s longer and pinker than something the “challenging” section of Love Honey.