🤯 Forget the rest… Long-travel trail bikes are the most fun bikes to buy right now!!!

Welcome to Street Pigeon MTB. In this video I ride the longest-travel trail bike I have ever ridden. Spoiler alert… It absolutely rips! To the point where I think long-travel trail bikes might just be the most fun bikes available right now.

We dive deep on the new Bird Aeris AM, the spiritual successor to the amazing Bird Aeris AM9. It’s a bonkers good trail bike. The Aeris AM features everything Bird have become known for. Progressive geometry, massive standover height, responsive pedalling dynamics, all packaged in our lightest and most advanced all-mountain frame to date. This is the longest travel trail bike they have ever made.

Bird like to point out that the new Aeris AM is:

– Light enough to ride all day, strong enough to tackle the biggest challenges.
– Bird’s 4th generation, compact frame design give max clearance for you on the descents, while still leaving room for a 750ml bottle and storage pack.
– 160mm of efficient travel, capable of riding any trail up or down.
– Lifetime warranty on all frame bearings including bottom bracket and headset (with Enduro BB/Headset upgrade)
– A price you can afford, without compromising on quality, service or style.

So feel free to jump in and see how I get on riding the longest travel trail bike I have ever ridden!

0:00 Intro
1:09 A closer look at the Bird Aeris AM
5:08 First trail on the long-travel trail bike
7:16 What is it like on natural trails?
10:18 Aeris AM versus trail centre trails
13:03 Can it handle bike park trails?
17:05 The most fun bike to have right now?

If you are new to my videos then expect to see high quality riding vlogs shot in the same style as McTrail Rider and BKXC. I try to travel to the best MTB locations in Scotland finding you the best mountain biking trails to ride, enjoy and explore.

The video was shot on a GoPro Hero 10 mounted on the chin of an Endura MT500 helmet using a R3Pro mount.

I am sponsored by Bird Cycleworks. To they make incredible bikes at really competitive prices. check out their range of bikes and more at their website: https://www.bird.bike/

I am sponsored by Mudhugger. They make the best MTB mud protection out there! https://www.themudhugger.co.uk/

I am supported by Endura clothing. This is one of the most respected brands in the industry. To see why check out https://www.endurasport.com/

My bike is maintained by Bspoke Cycles Peebles. They offer insanely good service and I cannot recommend them enough. Check them out at https://bspokepeebles.co.uk/

#trailbike #mtb #mountainbiking

Hello and welcome back to the channel so we got a super exciting video today going to be doing a First Impressions video and a first impressions video on the longest travel trail bike I have ever ridden and I’m super stoked about this thing um knowing that it’s been

About to be released for a while um and honestly I’ve just been excited to actually um get the bike out and ride it so today going to be taking you on an absolute mix of trails literally a little bit of everything and see how the bike performs but um I’m not going to

Tell you too much about the bike I’m going to hand over to Ben from bird who who can give you all the knowledge about their latest incarnation of long travel trail bike so um we’ve come here today I’ve come with Jamie we’re at Glen we’re riding our latest long travel trail bike

Which is the AIS am um it’s 160 mil front and 160 mil rear although you can run it to 170 up front if you want to it is rated to that it’s designed around the same kinematics and basic Platformers are very popular AAS 9 and jobike but what we’ve done with this one

Is we shaved a full kilo out of the weight from the frame and we’ve optimized the the suspension slightly more in favor of pedaling and climbing uh versus descending so that it’s it’s a little bit more versatile than the the AIS 9 in terms of a generalist bike now

What we’ve been finding is more and more of our customers every year they’ve been reaching for longer and longer travel trail bikes and so we’ve really taken it to what we think is probably the Zenith of of trail bike travel which is 160 mil and the reason we’ve stopped at 160 is

Because at that point you find the transition between the 35 36 mil Fork chassis switch up to the 38 and you start to get into a whole different weight category so in in stopping it at that 160 it gives you the flexibility of

Either a 160 Fork a 170 fork and a 35 or a 36 mil chassis or you can bump it all the way up to a 38 if you want to it’s rated for that we’ve got no issues with you doing it but it’s just in order to

Sort of find that sweet spot so that each individual Rider can pick where want to be and they can get the bike set up for just how they want to I said it was a kilo lighter it’s actually 2.6 kilos for the frame um bear with the

Axle and the the flip chips it offers a mullet all 29 configuration with almost identical geometry in both settings um it allows you to chop and change between the different Wheels we’re expecting most of our small Riders will go for the size small or medium in a in a mullet

Setup and we think the split is going to be around the midsize where taller Riders will probably go for 29 but we’re leaving it open you can order the bike with a 27.5 29 setup or you can order at 29 whichever way you want there’s a lot

Of new features on there for us um in terms of the way we’re doing the cables this one is our first internal only bike but the decision to do that was based on a number of factors not least the fact that by going internal with the dropper

Post we can now fit a full 240 mil dropper even on a midside bike it will swallow the whole thing which obviously gives enormous flexibility for dropper posts um it’s very quiet it’s definitely the quietest bike we’ve ever made in terms of its ride quality it’s got a

Whole new one piece um lone shelf and chain stay protector it’s well sealed it’s got Enduro Max black oide bearings we’re doing it bundled with Enduro Max hit bottom brackets you can get big warranties on all the bearings lifetime warranty on the frame bearings you get seven-year warranty on your head head

Set bearings you’re getting lifetime warranty on your bottom bracket bearings I mean this is a bike designed to be ridden not to be put in the garage and looked at um it’s a very rounded bike as well I think that anybody who gets on it is going to feel pretty naturally at

Home we’ve tweaked the geometry slightly we’ve actually rained the reach numbers in a little bit for you because we found that bikes were getting a bit too long um and the we were starting to run out of riders let’s call it who needed bikes that big so we’ve rained it in a little

Bit we’ve we’ve closed up the numbers in the mid-range so that everybody’s got a bit more Choice stand over’s improved over some of our previous models I mean we’ve just taken everything and we’ve tweaked it big bottle cage compatibility even with big piggyback shocks um we’ve

Got new bottle mounts at the front to take a bag that we’ve developed in conjunction with 76 projects we’ve got just just all kinds of new stuff packaged into one exceptionally good value carbon bike um Jam’s going to be riding today I hope he likes it I know I

Do I’ve been on one for for it feels like forever but probably 18 months now it’s it’s by far the most versatile bike we’ve ever made and uh I hope you like it too right should we go let’s do it go bro yeah do you want to go first uh if

You want yeah go first and take it steady so literally exciting times I love getting on a new bike um very excited to see how this performs um going to be taking it relatively easy to begin with so I get used to it w nice so straight off the bat very

Plush got the coil on obviously the fast shock that lyric is very nice and yeah straight away I’ve got theur bike this is Nimble definitely lighter feeling than that fullon Induro build that we’re so used to these days if you haven’t run this Trail before

It’s quite a good trail at Glen what you me super fast oh nice and very chunky if you ever want to get a good feel for a bike and ATT test some suspension it’s a good trail to come on oh yeah oh nice oh yeah W nice

Wow I don’t know what I said had going there in that trail that was fun that’s a mega RS on that right guys so yeah I’m not going to say too much now but that was an absolute hoot so actually going to take Ben I don’t know if Ben’s done

This Trail I don’t think I’ve actually shown this Trail on the channel but this is a great test for a bike because it starts off super natural pretty challenging pretty techy and then almost turns into a little bit of almost a bit of narrow bike park flow so yeah looking

Forward to it see what the old schal tires are doing you know I’m a bit of a Maxis Fanboy so interesting to try these I think it’s got tacky CH on it um so far so good this is fil don’t know if that’s coming across

But this Trail is a web of route to begin with I’ve seen some very skilled people riding this very fast nice oh we’re just trying to piece our way through it’s a bit of a rabbit warrant to to find the line but it’s fun and straight away noticing the nimbleness of this

Bike able to turn it tilt it all quite nicely oh now you can see this is where the trail changes in nature a bit get pretty quick definitely going to keep your about you w these tires are very good so what I’ve always loved about bird bites is very stable platform on older

Machines which for someone like me is always good yeah oh this has got a bit gnarlier lots of uh glassy Roots sticking up never used to be like this woo see if there’s much in the ways of trees down a lot of wind W oh my God serious

Water definitely got a wet foot now oh that was cool right trying to find a yeah way out of Here done like yeah maybe she just P pimp himself Out The Brak man right we’re going to slightly more Trail Center so everything we’ve done so far in this bike has been just pretty much endure off pieced and has been really good interested to see now on

Some trail Center stuff which is a bit less gradient but a bit faster W straight away into the speed going to stick with the main track oh nice it’s Nimble definitely Nimble let’s go up here miss some of the Jun yeah oh nice get on the pedals a bit it’s a bit

Flatter I really like this Trail because it actually gets super fast in in a minute here we go from about now we start to get a decent Hall of speed so composed this bike it’s got the confidence to absolutely FL loose what nice right going to take a bit of a breather woo

Tight and then we got one more super fast bit oh nice oh oh yeah this is this is good can you tell I’m enjoying the bik oh oh yes that was sick oh what a bik what a bike right so for final Trails come to

Some of the new stuff at Glen um really good to have this new stuff at glint but bit more guess flowy and this first one is H probably best describe is quite bike Parky so we’ll get to fling this down there’s a few jumps in there so

See if I’ve got the uh the bottle to send a new bike off some jumps but uh yeah looking forward to it but yeah if you’ve not seen this Trail before I’ll take you over to it it’s uh it’s a pretty amazing creation and the views as

Well it’s got Cardona down there and head all the way down there so yeah should be a good one we’re going to head down here I should have said obviously this has got a really nice spec on the bike when you buy bir bikes you can you

Can spec them how you like can’t you pretty much but I have to say this is a this is a pretty lovely spec it’s nice nice right well let’s see I’m I’m tempted to see if I can actually got the bottle to jump it yeah so I mean I’ve been really

Really at home on this bike um but yeah always I’ve always um get a little bit scared of jump in anyway so whether I can chopck the new thing off woohoo yo it’s so cool having trails at this at Glen TR now it really is

Why right so I’ll take it a bit easy off here nice yeah okay we got some we got a little bit of movement on the bike there felt pretty confident so one thing compared to my inura bike is I think this is definitely a bit shorter put a away link to

Geometry chart so yeah it’s different but it’s it’s quite maneuverable you nice yeah here we got you oh there’s some breaking bumps and a half in there now sho yeah bringing the old school tricks just cuz that’s all I’ve got ah fun man so you know what I think

Honestly we always talk about Do-it all bikes don’t we and I mean we’ve got to be getting pretty close to the doit all bike now cuz this is easy to climb easy to Chuck about but actually super capable oh nice right so yeah complete opposite now of the off piece this is

Super flowy not ridden this for a we while actually but um I seem to remember it was super fast oh yeah I do remember so actually one of the jobs you’ve got on this is like is almost not to come off some of these and send it too far and get out

Control I’m sure the good people can Gap that oh nice you’re really like looking down the trail um looking around the corner and now I’m feeling the the slightly shorter bike around this stuff very easy to tip in nice the size of the these BMS hello you oh this is

Fun there is a place for flow for sure you actually getting tired legs you wouldn’t think it on trail like this but nice keep concentrating right last bit a little squeak from the brakes oh that was good man what a good day out on a bike actually right so that was an awesome

Day um I just always get excited about riding new bikes to I’m honest with you um and it’s really cool now that I’ve ridden quite a few bir bikes just to kind of see I guess the evolution of the bikes it’s been awesome see um that sort

Of whole concept of long travel trail bike is really pretty exciting um and it’s interesting that you know you think of like how heavy and long travel bikes have got there’s obvious some downsides that as well and are we sort of coming back to the sweet spot but in terms of a

Do it all bike in terms of just raw enjoyment if you’re taking a bike out for a day it’s pretty hard to beat that to be honest with you cuz it pedals well yes it’s not as fast as a on a climb as a cross country bike but it’s fast

Enough that that you’re getting around and you’re not absolutely killing yourself doing it but then of course you point it sorry point it down a trail whether that be an off piece trail floow trail jumpy Trail and it just performs and so yeah very exciting so I’ll

Hopefully get my hands on one of them at some point um but yeah hopefully um it’s been a useful video for you if you are thinking about that bike or type of bike um it definitely get the thumbs up for me and yeah hopefully you could that

Came across in the uh in the video so um see you again soon um lots more videos to come this year in 2024 um weather’s a bit rubbish at the moment so we’ve not been doing too much exciting places or exciting locations um but yeah excited to bring you some more

So hope you enjoyed that video and we’ll see you again Soon