Bird Aether 9A launched
I’ve had my eyes open for a long time – well since Bird brought out the Aether 9C to be honest – for today’s launch of the Aether 9A.
In fact, as a member of the flock I was well aware this was coming via their enthusiastic Facebook group. My interest in this bike is as a replacement for my YT Jeffsy because… well, because really.
The Aether is Birds’ mid travel platform – more trail than enduro although the geometry will let you get away with a lot. But the key point is this is about fun rather than maybe racing. As such, it comes with 130mm of rear travel and a suggestion of 140mm at the front but you could go up to 150mm and run plenty of sag I suppose. Size-wise it’s almost identical in cockpit dimensions to my Bird AM Zero hardtail and that is a perfect fit in ML (Medium-Long) for me with a 50mm rather than a 35mm stem.
Pretty much the whole rolling chassis off the Jeffsy would port over easily, leaving a switch to 1×12 required. Well, I’ve been keen to do that for ages…
The only issue really is availability and colours. On the availability side, it’s a case of January at the earliest – fair enough – but on the colour side, it’s a bit meh.
The flock love the raw ally/silver colour on any Bird, but I’m not that fussed. Tungsten Grey is just, well another mid-black bike. I don’t like black bikes. Which leaves their ‘Ron Burgundy’ red. Maybe OK, but again I’ve never seen a red bike I liked, and certainly never wanted one.
So on that front at least I have a decision to make. I could go for a purple ano accent on the raw silver I suppose, or perhaps silver on the red but neither options excite. It’s one thing having a decent trail bike, but you’ve got to actually love the look of the thing haven’t you? I think Santa Cruz currently have the colour-issue nailed with some lovely mid-century, chalky, semi-gloss finishes.
We’ll have to see where all this goes. But with an ongoing bike shortage I feel it’s a good time to move the Jeffsy on…
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December 24, 2020 at 6:01 pm
Jez says:
Looks and sounds a nice bike, with up to date geometry.
I get what you mean on the colour, personally I now favour a bike that works for me over colour, as long as it looks OK. There are some ugly bikes in the market place.
I think you could bling it nicely Matt, they tend to look better in the flesh rather than pictures.
How about a Cotic Flare MAX or the new Jeht?
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January 21, 2021 at 5:08 pm
Mat-S says:
Bird raw looks really nice in the flesh.
I’d seriously recommend trying the AM9 as well if you can- gent in our club just bought one. I have a chance to try it when he demoed it and it pedals/handles in a really nice and sprightly way for a longer travel bike. Absolutely great going down too.
It’s top of my list as a possible replacement for my commencal- I think you could it build it up pretty lightly for ‘round here’ and think about a cheap 170 fork and DH tyres in a box if you wanted to take it to the alps, for example.
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January 21, 2021 at 9:43 pm
Matt says:
Hmmm [rubs chin]
Not sure I need a long travel 29er at this point but AM9 is very well thought of and would work well in this context. I don’t feel Bird get the media attention they should (something for them to work on there).
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January 21, 2021 at 10:23 pm
Mat-S says:
Aye, I’d really like to try both- be interesting to see the differences. Seems to be mostly the chainstay length as the key difference.
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January 21, 2021 at 11:08 pm
Matt says:
Yes, different chainstay length and shock ratio I guess, with the reach being longer on the Aether to compensate. They have the same wheelbase.
The AM 9 can go longer, and probably is a tad less poppy as a result but we are talking degrees rather than huge gulfs between them, IMHO of course.
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