It’s funny actually – I enjoy the ownership side as much as the actual riding, and with four to look after on DIY livery I/we only really get one or maybe two days a week away from the yard. They’re as much a part of the family as the dogs are though, and we’re lucky to have awesome sharers who lighten the (physical and financial!) load somewhat.

Am currently trying to get over my fear of hacking out having been unceremoniously dumped very early on in my riding days whilst out on the Ash Ranges – slow progress but I’m getting there.

Mountain bikers arguing over wheel size are amateurs compared to the shod/barefoot debate..!

Three bikes in the house – all 26″, straight steerer, threaded BB, QR rear, two are 20mm front, the last is QR. Been holding off doing anything til things looked like settling down a bit – now got a Boost 650b, tapered frame on order. Still got a threaded BB though!

@sacki – ah, thanks! Must have been a late-night, half-asleep browsing mistake; cheers for clearing that up 🙂

So, a bit of research has uncovered the e*thirteen TRS+ and the new Ritchey dropper, neither of which has been released yet. Looks like I’ll have to wait til they’re available..

Forgot about that – don’t they have some weird twin-lever thing going on though?

If I’m honest, I’d want new for the warranty, and a black stanchion to match the bike! Surely the Command Post can’t be the only one of its kind?

Hah, my 40th next month too! I demoed the Aeris 145 a couple of weeks ago (review on here somewhere) and really liked it. Their proximity to me and how awesome the guys there are made it a no-brainer. Just need to pop back up and sort out the spec..

Isn’t there a shim/spacer on the fixed side of the XT lever in that image posted? Reckon that has anything to do with it?

http://www.xfusionshox.com/products/seat-posts/manic

Good to hear – I’m split between this and the forthcoming X-Fusion one for a new build. Neither has the (potentially unreliable) IFP, but the X-Fusion doesn’t have the reset port. It is £100 cheaper though..

Bird can do the new Aeris 145 with the X-Fusion Metric fork, which is a properly burly fork – suggesting that the frame is more capable than “just” 145mm rear travel would suggest. I’m getting mine with the 160mm Lyrik which should be more than enough, and the geometry is really progressive in terms of Reach, ETT, and an upright seat angle so it climbs well. Worth a look I’d say.

Yup, sounds about right.

The pedal to saddle distance will get slightly shorter as the suspension compresses.

Err.. on a URT, yes. On an Enduro, or pretty much any other current FS bike, nope!

What’s your BB centre to top of saddle position on your old bike? I’m 6′ like you, and shorter in the leg, and mine is just over 29″. In practice, this meant on a Large Bird Aeris (470mm ST), I had a 150mm Reverb about 5mm out of the frame to fit properly, so I can’t see how a 125mm Command Post doesn’t fit you on a large Enduro (463mm ST)?

I demo’d a Large Aeris 145 a couple of weeks ago: it’s got a 655mm ETT and 506mm reach, yet thanks to the inline post and 35mm stem the saddle to bars was only 15mm longer than my Medium Pitch which has a 586mm ETT and 446mm reach.

On the basis of my Aeris 145 demo I’ve now got one on order so I’d say book a test ride day on the 120. Not steel or ti though, but supporting a local(ish) business who really care about making good bikes, so…

Not hugely, no – I did notice the width of the saddle when moving rearwards but only because I think it was a 143 whereas my own one is a 130. My baggy shorts tend not to be too baggy anyway, so if you’re rocking the gangsta-low crotch it might be different!

Regarding rear wheel grip; given that on my Pitch the cumulative effect of running a 170mm fork and an offset seatpost means that a plumb line dropped down through the saddle clamp is over halfway along the chainstay, I tent to move around quite a bit on technical climbs anyway. As I think I mentioned, I had no less traction at any given point, but less front wheel lift.

The OH has ordered me one for my birthday (talk about a keeper 😉 ), and I will be going for the 160mm Lyriks over the 150mm Pikes that were on the demo, so I’d expect that to shift the weight balance ever-so-slightly rearwards.

Everyone overlooks the Specialized Command Post, but it’s great. Mechanical locking collet, air spring, cable actuated. Unless you do what thepurist mentioned above (and it is recoverable at home, just!) then a service takes 15mins and only needs done occasionally. I just wish the Command Post came with an inline head..

I was a committed SPD user until I bought a FS six years ago, when I thought I’d give flats a try. Loved them, but kept the clipless on the commuter. Got fed up of not being able to just jump on either bike in trainers, so stuck flats on the hack as well.

Tried clipless on the FS last year and even with the cleats all the way back I felt like I was standing on tip-toes. Plus the float felt like I was stood on ice and I didn’t feel connected with the bike (ironically!). Binned the clipless pedals and have no intention of going back.

Not really; I wanted to try the large as that’s what Bird reckon for my height, and given that I’m a) long of body/short of leg, and b) already probably riding a bike smaller than is recommended – I wanted to see what a bike that was supposedly correct felt like. After 3hrs I did get a bit sore between my shoulders but I’d say that was down to the 800mm bars when I’m used to 760s.

So, I’m not entirely sure how coherent this will be as I’m no Steve Jones, but here goes…

A little background:
Me – approaching 40, 6′ with short legs/long body, solid red/easy black level rider, happy with gaps up to about 6′ and drops to about 4′.
Current bike – 2011 Pitch Pro in Medium, running 1×10 (non-expanded), 170mm Lyrik RC2DH, Float CTD Kashima rear shock. 66deg HA, 446mm reach, 1170mm WB, 585mm ETT but with 35mm setback on the Command Post, 60mm stem, 760mm bars. Centre of saddle rail clamp to centre of bars 673mm. Top of saddle to centre of cranks 740mm.

The Aeris 145 – Large, Pike RCT3 150mm forks, RockShox Super Deluxe RC3 DebonAir. 150mm Reverb, 35mm stem, 800mm bars. Reach 506mm, ETT 655mm, 65.5deg HA, 1255mm WB.

Despite initially looking massive, when measured the saddle-to-bars measurement was only 15mm more than the Pitch, thanks to the 35mm stem and inline clamp on the Reverb. Felt weird looking down at the front wheel and being able to see the front of the headtube! Had to run the Reverb all the way into the frame to get the saddle height correct at full extension, but all good. Set the sag on the forks and shock (cheers Ben!) and we’re good to go.

Get it out on the trails, stop several times to drop pressure out of the tyres as whoever had it before must have been running nearly 40psi! Short, steep, loose scrabbly climb; the steep saddle angle centres you nicely, definitely less front end wander without sacrificing weight over the rear. Needed less weight shifting adjustments to keep the balance, but I still needed to be careful to stop the front lifting on the steepest bits. It’s no XC machine though, so don’t be expecting that!

At the top of the trails at my local skills area now, so let’s choose my favourite run with the off-camber (wet) roots, path gap stepdown and 4′ ski jump drop. Getting slightly loose and out of shape on the wet roots but hold it together. Not carrying enough speed into the path gap and case the landing but the rear sucks it up like a trooper without kicking me off. Hit the lip of the ski drop and whoah, needs a bit more weight shift than that to stop the front end dropping! Get away with it though, but lesson learned. Stick another 20psi in the rear shock though as I got deeper into the stroke than I’d have liked. Definitely no weird spiking or harsh bottom-out though.

Up the climb again, and a long flat traverse now – even without flicking the compression lever on the shock I can still stand and sprint without it wallowing into the midstroke. Seated and cranking along on the flat, the initial stroke takes out the small chatter nicely. Playing around trying to manual through puddles needs much more of a rearward weight shift.

Head for a few more of my favourite trails and the bike just feels right; like the Pitch, but more so. There’s no weird handling characteristics, no strange quirks. It’s not a bike that you make small subtle movements on though – it really rewards you exaggerating your weight shifts. That long wheelbase really inspires confidence, and I nailed a small steep chute with a drop-in at the top that I’d previously shied away from – riding away left me wondering what the fuss had been. Found a superb track (Jonah Loamu), all tight loose turns cut into the loam. Feeling so much more centred on the bike had me throwing it into the corners like I was pretending to be Brendog, even attempting a front wheel pivot into one steep turn! The front end also felt much less like it wanted to tuck under in tight turns, giving me much more confidence to weight the front and really push it to find grip.

Heading for home, I started thinking what I really liked about it, and I suppose the best thing that I can say is that the ride wasn’t about the bike; it was about the trails, and the ride itself. The Aeris was just there, doing it’s thing and letting me have fun without thinking about it. I never felt the need to run the shock anything other than fully-open, even when stood cranking up climbs, as the initial stroke really helped the rear wheel dig in and find grip before the mid-stroke held it up. Chatting with Ben afterwards, he went through how much work went into getting the leverage curve and the shock tune dialled, and they’ve done a damn good job. The fork didn’t feel quite as composed as my RC2DH Lyrik, but Ben reckoned that the new RC3 Lyrik should do (if you can’t stretch to the Lyrik, he’s got a handy tip for improving the Yari performance right out of the box). In short, it does everything you’d want it to, without fuss, without you noticing how good it is – yet without it being boring. The more rowdy I got, the more it egged me on. Go on, push back up, you can nail that section quicker… It felt much easier to pop up into the air than the Pitch, so much that I was looking for every little root, lip and kicker to pop off.

It’s clear from talking to Ben at Bird just how much they care about what they do, and it shows in how the bike rides. In his words, “We ride every bike we make; we’re not relying on feedback from pros, we’re just average riders like you guys, so we wanted to make a bike that not only makes us feel like great riders, but a bike that makes us better riders.” I’d say job done.

The only question is: which colour!?

Demoing one tomorrow..

Got any sizing specs for it?
Edit: never mind, just seen it’s not a stock type bolt.

Agreed, that Forme is nuts for the money! I’d buy it and I don’t even need a bike, or even like hardtails..

I had this happen to me too – don’t remember how I did it, but I did manage to get the seal head back up onto the shaft without damaging the seal so it is definitely possible to recover without having to cut it off and replace.

Bird Aeris 120 looks pretty good I’d say.

How tall are you and Tomas, Ben? I’m considering one of these as a 40th birthday present to myself next year – 6′, riding a Medium 2011 Pitch Pro (but with a Command Post, so 30mm added to ETT effectively). I’ve got a long upper body and shorter legs – was looking at maybe coming to demo a L in the new year.

That’s one of the most clearly-explained and concise instructional videos on drop-offs I’ve seen – spot on IMO.

Virgin do cable broadband separately, don’t they?

Wiggle are not trying to con you into a new contract, or force you to wait 30 days, or any other of the myriad of conspiracies you seem to believe you are subject to. That looks like a bog-standard returns email that simply gets sent out by default regardless of the situation that initiated it.

If you get this worked up over a minor quibble like this, how the hell do you deal with, you know, actual problems!?

Shimano AM41/AM7

Your trail leg is not moving with your pedal. From you description of what happens when you ride flats You are lifting your foot off the pedal instead of unweighting it and letting the drive from you lead leg return it to the top of the stroke. That would suggest that when clipped in you are pulling up on the back stroke which has been shown to be very inefficent.
That is not what the pros do. they unweight instead of pulling up.

Exactly, and the very reason I use flats on my 34/18 SS hack; 120rpm on the road in flats soon showed up the lack of smoothness in my pedal stroke and helped me correct it. Second nature now, just like riding clipped in used to be.

At the end of the day, if there’s any weaknesses in your pedalling and weighting technique, flats will show them up. If you fix them, the fix will transfer back to SPDs. If you choose not to fix them, that’s up to you! It’s all just grown adults arguing about pushbikes after all.. 😉

…but find they irritate me non stop as you I cant pedal properly without lifting feet off the pedal every 30s

FTFY 😉

I’m going to order five ten Maltese falcons so I can install cleats once I’ve improved my skills.

Bad idea IMO – get dedicated flat pedal shoes as otherwise they’ll be a compromise. FWIW, don’t be put off by the stories of mashing your shins and calves up; I rode clipless exclusively from the age of 16 til 35, moved to flats just over 4 years ago and have yet to slip a pedal and catch my shin or my calf.

Ideal foot position is ball of your foot over the forwardmost innermost pedal pin, and don’t worry about forcing your heels down either – concentrate on a light seat, light hands and weight through your feet. If you have the right technique you won’t be slower uphill either, that’s nonsense.

I’ll provide the opposing view then – have tried twice to get on with hardtails (good ones too, with quality spec) and just hated the unbalanced feeling of having suspension at one end but not the other. I’ve never not had fun riding my FS (170/150) regardless of the trail level, so sold them pretty sharpish and don’t think I’ll bother again.

I have a fully rigid SS too btw, which I love, and ride just as much as the FS – before anyone suggests I can’t ride without suspension! 😉

Not married but together 11 years, no kids – all finances pooled into one pot and she looks after it as I’m useless with money and we’d be broke in a week if I were in charge of it!

I’ve been very interested in these as well – which 27.5 did you try? I thought the 140mm was 29 only, and the 130mm was 29/650b+, with the 150mm being a 27.5 only?

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/specialized-command-post-ircc-review.html

It always gets mentioned but everyone ignores it – two people so far have said: COMMAND POST! Very early ones occasionally had issues with the collet breaking but that has (AFAIK) not been a problem on the Backlite and later. Can be stripped and serviced in 15mins, cable actuation so no bleed issues. Fit and forget really.