Bird has been direct selling its UK designed Zero hardcore hardtail and 140mm Aeris aggro machine for a couple of years, completing them with well thought out and buyer tuneable components at excellent, no middle-man or shop-margin prices. Here we take a first ride on its 120mm Aeris.
Bird Aeris 120 spec overview
- Frame: 6066-T6 alloy
- Fork: RockShox Pike RCT3
- Shock: RockShox Deluxe
- Wheel Size: 650b
- Drivetrain: SRAM X01 Eagle
- Brakes: SRAM Guide
- Head Angle: 67
- Seat Angle: 75
- Reach: 495mm (L)
Bird Aeris 120 first impressions
There’s a whole world of pros and cons about buying direct rather than going through your local shop that we feel obliged to reel off like the ‘your home is at risk…’ small print on a mortgage advert.
The new metric sized RockShox Deluxe shock is impressively smooth too
The long and the short of it is how much you like your local shop and how good it is/you aren’t with a spanner.
What’s undeniable is that in this case feeling sheepish around your local shopkeeper means you’re getting a SRAM Eagle, Pike and pimpy RaceFace bar kit that usually only adorns £4,000 to £5,000 bikes.
With a 655mm top tube and 495mm reach, value isn’t the only thing being stretched either and while the 67-degree head angle isn’t that slack, the 2.4in Maxxis tyres feel stable and surefooted in the Boost-axle-equipped frame.
It’s a proper quality chassis (£850 separately) with some really neat hollow-back-machined junction sections and collet-secured pivot axles for the enduro bearings.
The new metric sized RockShox Deluxe shock is impressively smooth too, although it took us a while to spacer and pressure it to a progressively supportive sweet spot.
The stretched stability and slightly chunky 13.28kg overall weight can make it feel slightly dull rather than dynamic for a short travel ripper, but if you’re looking for a UK-proof, UK-designed hardcore trail bike nothing will touch it on kit value. (Only frames shipped to USA/Australia).
