As a Bird owner I can vouch for how good this brand is, not just in terms of how much fun their bikes are, but also after-sales and reliability. My mk1 Aeris is 5 years old now and, with sensible levels of maintenance, this bike has been bomb proof and still rides as well as the day I bought it. The Aether is probably not the bike for my aging bones, but looks great and I'm sure rides great.
27.5 s all the way! Funner and just as fast. 160 mm travel that’s long but not too long with 27.5 wheels makes a very fun and capable bike. Soaks up the the chatter and ready for big hits. Great for switchbacks too. Carve those corners. Work the bike! I’d take it over a super long 29. 29 ers have their place no doubt. But for average trail rides- I have slot fun on my 27.5”.
"You can see the welds here and there." was a negative in your opinion? How long have you been mountain biking, 3 weeks? On alloy frames seeing the welds and Not grinding them down (like Cannondale has done since their inception) is a badge of honor. Seeing those rolls of Nickels is super sexy and always has been especially when Yetis were handmade in Durango Colorado, not so much now that they are Carbon and made in Taiwan like every other bike on earth. Great review except for that blunder. ;-)
I have a Bird Aeris which is 27.5 which I bought used and its the best bike I have ever ridden bar none over the 20 yrs I have been riding and its inspired me to ride so much Im thinking of "racing" Enduro and the after sales is justifiably legendary
So odd it’s not all about how fast your going it’s about having fun, agility, weight. Etc. Soon we’ll have 37.5 tires 55 degree head angle and bus like wheel lengths. You just plow.
And the reviewers will claim it's still surprisingly agile! And despite weighing over 50 lbs, it climbs really well because they steepened the seat tube angle one degree. "We don't rate bikes on how they pedal anymore because we don't!"
Great review as usual! The bike looks business... great geo love the whole specs too - Shimano drivetrain and brakes Pike/Superdeluxe suspension DT rims on Hope hubs. I wouldn't change a thing on this baby...
Too much focus on wheel size... My Whyte T-130 ploughs through anything I can think of, and I come out the other side with a massive grin in my face. That's what MTB is all about!
My Intense Tracer 27.5 is gathering dust while my 2000 Rockhopper 26" is much more fun to ride. So light and nimble in comparison, sure it will never be as fast, or as comfortable, but it is a lot more practical. Hopping off and lifting it over a fence is so easy (real mountain biker here), I dont know how these monster huge 29ers can get over fences, must be a right pain in the butt.
It's good to see a real mountain bike been tested. I'm getting fed up with all the flat bar gravel bike that keep getting mislabelled as mountain bike. I have never been taken in by tge marketing BS.
@@paulosallsopp Slightly strange question, but what do you weigh? I only ask because I weigh 250lbs and some bikes feel like a noodle when I’m standing pedaling or plowing through chunky stuff.
Great review Tom, just slightly confused. Bike is agile and playful, rides shorter than it looks, but you focus a lot on the descents. Would this be a good ride for flatter, twisty trail centres (i.e Cannock Chase) and local woods? Looking at a new bike with better geo than my a Giant Trance, but don’t want a stretched out sled that’s not nimble. Airdrop Edit also looks good, but maybe too much travel. Any advice appreciated.
Can you guys stop saying "27.5 not dead *yet*" or "can 27.5 *still* fly" and all that stuff? It really seems like you're pushing the market by implying that 27.5 wheels are out of date and that everyone needs to go out and buy a 29er to stay hip, which will lower demand for 27.5 and then it might ACTUALLY fizzle out, which would be unfortunate. Smaller wheels have their place, not everyone who rides bikes races or cares about plow-ability and just want a bike that's agile and fun, which 27.5 does better than 29.
Sadly, I’d be very wary of buying a 27.5 bike now. Given how the bike industry has historically operated, 27.5 will likely become ‘extinct’ over the next 5 years. Try finding a 650c road wheel, 26” Mtn wheel, square taper BB, etc....
Will be more stable at speed, especially over gnar, and if the length is in the front so that the reach is long, like with this bike, it will put your weight back more on steep descents so they’re not so sketchy. If the seattube angle is not steepened to make up for the increased reach you will get a lot of front end lift on climbs, but this bike’s geometry seems good. Some people will say they are not as nimble on tight twisty trails or switchbacks. While I agree with that to a certain extent, once you learn how to ride these newer, longer bikes they’ll go through most twisties and switchbacks that you are going to encounter on a trail just fine. It has to be a really, really tight trail for the length of these to be a detriment. The other thing is they will require more speed and preload to jump. So jump parks without much ride-in to the jumps will be harder and require more effort. Bottom line- if you like going fast and like taking the gnarly line, and hitting features and steep chutes and things, or especially going to lift access parks, (basically if you ride like a hooligan) longer is better. But you have to ride them faster and use more body with them to get the most out of them. If you just like to sit and spin and get in miles, a shorter, more old school geometry bike might be better. Hope that helps.
29ers dominate trail bikes in marketing, for sure. Tech climbs- while 29ers do roll over better, I find that I can pick my line much better with a 27.5. In my experience, I can clean tech climbs more often when I can pick the line I need easier, rather than just trying to smash over everything with a bigger wheel. Bigger wheels smooth out the terrain- I find this one kind of ironic, because the same people that preach the benefits of this for 29ers, are the same people who post vids saying that now you need to buy a bike with less suspension travel to make the trails fun again. Here’s an idea to keep trails fun- buy an aggressive 27.5 that requires more rider input and line choice and encourages hooliganism but with bigger suspension for days you want to go big. With a compression switch with trail mode if you are on a less gnarly trail just flick it into trail mode. I also think a lot of newer riders would do well on 27.5 because they can’t just try to roll over everything regardless of form and technique- it forces a newer rider especially to learn how to handle a bike, how to lift the front wheel to get over things, how to pick a line,how to really use elbows and knees to flow with the bike, how to really lean the bike to make the corners, how to clear a gnarly section by airing over some of the roots or rocks. All these skills are essential to learn so that, when you get to the point where you are beyond what the bike alone can do, you have the skills to avoid eating it. Of course a 27.5 hardtail is the best for this. This bike looks like a blast. I bet this bike would be a ton of fun, and much more fun for so many riders than some less aggressive geometry shorter travel 29er.
The trails get more technical so manufacturers make bigger wheels to iron out the trails 🤦♂️ and we buy them to make our technical trails easier to ride? 🤷
