Last week I tested the Bird Zero. The first thing you notice about this bike is it’s knockout fluorescent yellow paint work with bright pink logo which makes the bike stands out from the crowd around trail centres with its colourful personality.
Once riding the bike it handles brilliantly cutting into the trails and holding its ground on tight twisty single track. The handling is light and responsive, you can push the bike around which for a light rider like me (58kg) is great for a larger wheeled bike.
As a cross country racer, it’s important that a bike performs as well going up as it does coming down. I found the Bird Zero rolled well up hills and I rarely used all my gears even on steep hills. The 650b tyres roll more efficiently than 26″ over rocks and the 130mm of travel made popping over tree roots a lot easier, although, having more travel than my usual cross country bike and without a pop lock meant I did lose momentum going up-hill.
The bike changes gear smoothly from most transitions, however when trying to change quickly uphill it sometimes ran into difficulties and was quite noisy, this was, down to pressure through the chain I believe.
Having 130mm of travel gave the bike a comfy confidence boosting downhill ride as it maintained speed over rough ground and tracked the ground quickly.
This is an all-round fantastic trail machine, it’s 130mm travel soaks up the bumps of the trail and ensure good contact with the track, which gives confidence for fast descents. It’s light alloy frame paired with its fat 650b tyres make this an excellent single track warrior, which would be comfy enough to ride all day exploring.
As a girl it is sometimes hard to find a saddle that fits well, I didn’t notice the saddle on this bike at all, I was too focused on having fun on the bike which I think is a great sign.
The 15″ frame felt comfortable for me but at 5’6 I would have probably gone for the 17″ if I brought the bike due to liking a little bit more length in the frame.
I was really happy with the way the bike performed and feel this would be a great bike for any budding mountain biker to progress on.
Star Rating:
Appearance: 5/5
Frame : 4/5
Forks: 3/5
Feel: 5/5
Handling: 4/5
Fun factor: 4/5