New bike - man maths help!

[Woody]

Guys,

Now that I don't have to go 'under the knife' any time soon I think it's time for that new bike I was promising myself.......

Have narrowed it down to 3 but need some opinions/man maths help lol

The contenders are:

Bird Aeris 3

Vitus Escarpe - Spec

Calibre Bossnut - Spec/Review

In true 'man-maths' style I've done a spreadsheet showing the specs:



Specs are all fairly comparable for the main components - just finishing kit that varies; but that'll probably get changed over time anyway....

Advantage of Bird and Vitus is that I can use my existing dropper post.

Looks like non of them have a lockout on the rear shock - is this going to be a problem?

The company uses CycleScheme which only the Calibre is available on. Which means that instead of £1k it'll cost me around £600.

Question is - are the others really worth the extra £1k???

Now I'm a huge fan of Bird and have followed them since they started - and having poked around Zulu's Bird (zero) briefly they are very well built/finished and great spec.

Reviews of the Vitus are very good - think it won the £1500 category not so long back in one of the mags.

The Calibre is a bit of an odd one though - British Design (Sheffield iirc) and only sold through Go-Outdoors. Their previous Hardtails have had rave reviews and quite frankly you have to wonder how they've com up with the spec for £1k. Ok so it's got a stupid name - but is that an issue??

Only one I can reasonably get a test ride on is the Bird, but will mean travelling to Swinley. Have noticed a couple of guys over the Chase with the Vitus so could possibly put a shout out for a look/sit on.

Here are the contenders:

Bird:


Vitus:


Calibre:


Looks wise I think the Bird wins as I can spec it in Orange

The Vitus is soon to be replaced with the 2016 model so no idea what the new colour scheme will be.....

The Calibre isn't a bad looking bike though....


Now my head says Calibre as that's the cheapest....

Vitus is a cracking bike for the price and can get a 10% discount on CRC with my British Cycling membership.

But the rest of me is shouting BIRD!!!!!

If I get the Calibre am I going to think in 12 months - wish I'd gotten the Bird/Vitus or if I get one of the others am I going to think what did my extra £1k get me??

Also the Bird is out of stock until mid October, the Vitus is out of stock until the new one is released and the Calibre would take a while due to company being slow on cyclescheme vouchers..... so no rush as all on same sort of lead in times!

Any other suggestions for upto/around £1500??

Cheers!

[Woody]

I do like the Canyon Nerve - but am looking for something slightly slacker - my current HT has similar geometry. Looking for something more trail than XC.