INCOMING !! New frame day... Bird Aether 7

[weeksy]

I guess I'll put this in here but could go anywhere in one of about 6 threads on riding/,bikes

Spent the day at summit with Crust and my lad today. It was absolutely excellent and I was trying to put into practice the things picked up in coaching from Thurs.

What this essentially meant was popping my jumps later. Along with corner entry into them too.

One of the massive differences was to the Aether7 with the bars rotated back, it's made a huge difference to the front end feel and along with a different cornering stance for me, it's meant I am not reaching so far and it's made things easier.

The jump may not look spectacular on video but it's a good 10-12' in length so a decent one to clear. But I'm trying to clear it with technique not speed, slower in but more pop to clear. This one wasn't bad, but a few felt better and I was in the air longer.


I have to admit I was doubting the Bird Aether7 this week and it was potentially going, but the bar position has sold me and those doubts have gone now.

Great to see crust doing the jumps and drops, maybe not as graceful as he wished, but a brilliant start from him.

[weeksy]

More time on the Aether7 today, over at Swinley with the boys. Was supposed to be a day trip with others over to Wales but one of the parents had to bail due to puking, so i pulled it and went to Swinley with mine and 1 other. I left them to the jumpy stuff and i was just riding round basically. Mostly because i'm chief spanner man for the ZX6R at Silverstone tomorrow so couldn't risk any dangerous stuff today

I am getting on more and more with the Bird Aether7 now after the bar changes, but i also noticed that the seat was quite far back on the rails, so gave that a bit of a shove forward, but was only right at the end of the ride.

I've got lots and lots of Swinley coming up in the next few weeks.

[Mr Moofo]

With LLS, you do have to ride forward on the bike to get the front wheel weighting. That means the saddle going forward - which initially looks weird.
Once to have got used to that middle of the bike position you wonder why you ever bought layback posts

[weeksy]

I rode my lads mates bike yesterday, Canyon Spectral, jeeez I kinda liked it. Front end is very poppy and turns sweetly. Really impressed actually.

[MingtheMerciless]

I rode my lads mates bike yesterday, Canyon Spectral, jeeez I kinda liked it. Front end is very poppy and turns sweetly. Really impressed actually.

It's a Canyon......AVOID. After sales back up is rubbish to utter shite. A few years back a guy I ride with bought one, he's a big lad and ended up snapping chain stays and Canyon's warranty service was atrocious (and he's not the only one to have such experiences).

[weeksy]

I rode my lads mates bike yesterday, Canyon Spectral, jeeez I kinda liked it. Front end is very poppy and turns sweetly. Really impressed actually.

It's a Canyon......AVOID. After sales back up is rubbish to utter shite. A few years back a guy I ride with bought one, he's a big lad and ended up snapping chain stays and Canyon's warranty service was atrocious (and he's not the only one to have such experiences).

Interesting. Was a bit of a random thought rather that "that exact model"

[Mr Moofo]

I rode my lads mates bike yesterday, Canyon Spectral, jeeez I kinda liked it. Front end is very poppy and turns sweetly. Really impressed actually.

It's a Canyon......AVOID. After sales back up is rubbish to utter shite. A few years back a guy I ride with bought one, he's a big lad and ended up snapping chain stays and Canyon's warranty service was atrocious (and he's not the only one to have such experiences).

Interesting. Was a bit of a random thought rather that "that exact model"

The Canyon I test rode I really liked - but it had a higher front end and a much shorter top tube - so more familiar ( at the time) seating position.
What stopped me buying one was the chainstay issue on the Spectral ….

[weeksy]

It's a Canyon......AVOID. After sales back up is rubbish to utter shite. A few years back a guy I ride with bought one, he's a big lad and ended up snapping chain stays and Canyon's warranty service was atrocious (and he's not the only one to have such experiences).

Interesting. Was a bit of a random thought rather that "that exact model"

The Canyon I test rode I really liked - but it had a higher front end and a much shorter top tube - so more familiar ( at the time) seating position.
What stopped me buying one was the chainstay issue on the Spectral ….

Funnily enough there's one on Pinkbike with a broken chainstay too, lets hope this doesn't happen to my lads mate as he can't really afford a replacement if it did.

I'm still a little up in the air with the Aether7 i guess...sometimes i love it, sometimes i want something more conventional. I dunno really.

[weeksy]

Quick jumping session and ride session today with the seat pushed forward 15mm or so... it's getting better

I have to say i did irritate myself a little as i didn't take my pads and armour as i was mostly just dropping my lad off, but there's 2 jumps in this woods, rooty entry, but once you've ridden them a few times it's ok. The first is a bit 'oooooh' and the 2nd is more 'OOOOOH'. I stuck a twig across the exit of jump1 to see where i'm landing and it transpires i am clearing enough to arugably make jump 2. Jump 2 is a bit 'gappy' and gaps are a bit of a freak out for me at times, so i really need to find some big boy pants next time there and have a go at it. I practiced jump1 and then gauging my entry speed for jump2, but i wasn't quite there in headspace yet to take it on...

I plan to next time there though.

The irritating thing is, if we were at BPW and it was a feature that we hit on the trail at speed, i'd arguably just take it on.... but as it's not... i think a bit too much about it.

[weeksy]

Spent the day up at FoD today and despite the fact I'm still at times thinking "I can't get this thing round corners as well as the G160" I'm setting PRs on the tricky sections, some of them by a decent amount too. More than it would be just from trail familiarity or any improvement from just me as a rider.

I also spent time in the skills area where I pleased myself by doing the drop of doom, it's only 4' but is not the easiest as it's tough to carry speed into it due to the drop before it. It's a bit of a road gap drop too, but I case the landing every time and can't hit the full landing. However, I still made it.
I then also cleared the tabletop which was a first for me, although it took my lad giving me tips on both entry speed and technique, which still amuses me in some ways as the little sod is only 13, but he's a talented 13 as we've seen and seems he can read a technique well as to what bits I'm not doing. It's about 15' in length from the top of take off to landing and quite a few riders make it look easy, but quite a few struggle too, which was my story until the last session there today.
I still don't go into tabletops in attack mode, there's still a certain amount of trepidation, but I'm getting slightly more comfortable at times, I don't know where these feelings come from as I've never stacked it on a table. So it's weird it plays on my mind lol.

But with all this in mind, it's hard to fault the Aether7, it does everything, but there's still something at times holding me back from a love affair.

[weeksy]

Took the big pink thing to Swinley today, my lad was on (another) training day, this time his is 2 days a week, 3 hour sessions, for 3 weeks. So a fair bit of teaching, he's in with Tom Reynolds (Brother of jump legend Sam Reynolds) so picking up plenty of skills we hope.

Me and one of the other parents went out and hit the Red. Now having seen him ride and jump, lets just say i knew i was in for a tough day at the office so to speak.

I wasn't disappointed with the semi-race and with the Aether7 for that matter. At somewhere like Swinley it eats up the red and when i later checked Strava i had 26 trophies out of 52 segments and that included a fair few PR golds, on sections all downhill. So something with the pink thing works really well it seems. It loves Swinley though and really suits it. The more i think about the sections i've struggled on it riding, the more sense it makes and i can sort of see the reasons too. I think because they've been super steep or techie/rooty i'm shifting my weight back when i forget how i'm supposed to ride, which is unloading the front as well as putting my weight too far back to make the corner, it's almost a survival instinct and a natural instinct thing going on that i continue to struggle with at times. I honestly don't think i'd do any better on a shorter less progressive geometry bike.

[weeksy]

Another day another Swinley.

Some decent times and plenty of fun. It's great in nice weather while the boy gets taught, I get to play on the trails.

Gave my bike to Tom Reynolds to bounce on, "needs a bit faster rebound on the rear, slower on the front."

So 2 clicks on each done and we'll see how it goes.

[weeksy]

I've also made a minor change of swapping to the slightly lower bars, but rotated correctly.

I'm getting on well with the Bird but I still can't say we've bonded. It's currently up on eBay as a 'maybe' but I won't be giving it away and the price it's up at doesn't seem to be generating much interest.
I'm now in a bit of a quandary, am I going faster because of the bike, or because of me? Less travel making it a bit more XC and faster, or improving skills getting me down quickly.
I was looking at an Orbea Occam AM in a large, it's basically the opposite direction in terms of geometry with a short top tube.
I'm tempted to buy it and do back to back testing, then sell whichever I don't like the most.

But that's me being a bit crazy. What would be nice is to test a mates Santa Cruz 5010 cc but I'm a bit shy to ask him as he's more an acquaintance than a mate. I'd use it if we go out, but he runs silly pedals

[Mr Moofo]

Have you sold it yet?
I get the feeling that if you do, you will regret it!

[weeksy]

Have you sold it yet?
I get the feeling that if you do, you will regret it!

No.... but... it's not completely out of the question, however sorting the Sworks for tomorrow is top of my list.

What i need ideally to do is test something less LLS for an hour or 2... But that's obviously not that simple.

There's lots i like about it, it goes well, pedals well... but i still wonder about the turning.... I do get that is down to me as well as it... but doesn't mean both couldn't be improved.

[Mr Moofo]

what is the HA?
Fit a slackset to reduce it?

[weeksy]

what is the HA?
Fit a slackset to reduce it?

it's more the Long Low than the headset angle i think.

I've just pinged Ben and the guys at Bird a message regarding a demo on a M or ML version. Along with "can we swap the frame and what would it cost me"

There's a local bike that's giving me some thoughts...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165002951731?ul_noapp=true

[Mr Moofo]

is the cost reasonable?
Make sure you ride it first!

[Mr Moofo]

There's a local bike that's giving me some thoughts...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165002951731?ul_noapp=true

I assume you bought it, then?

[weeksy]

There's a local bike that's giving me some thoughts...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165002951731?ul_noapp=true

I assume you bought it, then?

Not currently. As i say, i'm still a bit up in the air. Am i looking for/fixing a problem that doesn't exist. Am i trying to resolve something that's purely in my head. However i don't know of a simple way to answer that at the moment. The obvious answer is 'try something else' but logistically that's kinda tricky as i don't have another bike to test. My local riding mates are riding 29ers, or XLs.