Ha... That's the ticket. Those Dealers are never wrong...

I have yet to see a Birdy in the wild but when I do I hope to be all over it.

All in all this looks like a fantastic bike. I have been following the reviews on Birdies and they all looks good... fun, Fun, FUN...

👍👍👍 great choice of rotor and cassette! The chain is running well and doesn’t hit anything on the 36T right?

jackyharuhiko Chain is Shimano XTR-10. I’ll take my bike back in a week as I’ll return from vacation. Photos were made by my bike mechanic, but rest assured they will check drive train in and out multiple times + do a test ride. He also confirmed nothing rubbs at 36t. I will check it myself in a week and will post my thoughts here.

I have a 11s 9-34t cassette and there is some space left above the chain, so only 2t more to go to 36t will certainly work without rubbing.

That's good to hear. 36T surely helps going uphill.

Congrats bro.

Thanks, both of you. Jipe did almost exactly what I was thinking. But there are advantages to both solutions.

The dealer I bought my Birdy from in Italy has one R&M touring Birdy left, it’s white color and he is ready to confirm same price for it as EUR 2100 (€-325 if you will buy taxfree). I’ll be happy to share their contact if anyone’s interested.

Will I need to extend brake/shifter cables if I’ll decide to go with 6cm extension? Also any reviews on this Ridea model? Actually it allows 6-8cm extension but 6cm should be fine with me. Also any other alternatives I should look at? Thanks


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Finding a sport 21 degree stem to replace the comfort 10 degree.

not my purpose, I’m thinking to extend up.

Ok, I’m just back from the mechanic. Gears 1-3 36t and next two gears) are slightly rubbing the rear fork faceplate. Tried removing the spacer from crankset to move chain-line slightly towards the center, also tried adding spacer to the right end (cassette side) of the rear hub but still 1 or 3 would still rub the fork. Any idea how to solve it? Chainring is stock. Chain is Shimano XTR-10, rear cassette Shimano 11-36.

Mechanic will try tomorrow installing 11-34 cassette and if still the same issue 11-32 which will be stock on the low gear side.


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I don't understand exactly which cogs are the problem.

Do you mean cogs 1, 3 and 10 = 11t, 15t and 36t ?

Do you have the XT cassette CS-M771 10s 11-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32-36 ?

I have no experience with 10s on Shimano HG hub (the only HG hub I had was the original wheel of my Ti Birdy with a 11-28 cassette but the Ti Birdy frame is different from the Birdy II aluminum frame).

What I wrote about cassettes on the Birdy Touring is with a XDR hub and 11 speed cassettes.

No, the problem is with 36t and next two. Yes, it’s CS-M771 10s cassette and the problem is with 36, 32 and 28. 36 and 28 rubbing more with 32 rubbing less. I wander what the purpose of crankset spacer on the drive side? Removing it shifting chain line inwards improved rubbing a bit but dis not eliminate it.

did you have stick chainring? I’ve installed 11-36 Shimano cassette and 36-32 are rubbing against the rear fork.

The spacer is placed to have the best chainline, i.e. to have the chain no too much deviated on the first and last cog.

The original 10s cassette has 9-10-11-13-15-18-21-24-28-32 so all cogs are smaller, the 3 bigger are each 4t smaller than on the XT 10s 11-36t cassette 11-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32-36.

The cassette I have is 11s 9-11-13-15-17-19-21-24-27-30-34 and there is still space between cog and swing arm on every sprocket (but difficult to say for how many teeth more)..

A 11s is about 2.9mm wider than a 10s cassette which is I think what provides the space between chain and swing arm and avoid rubbing (the biggest 11s cog is about 2.9mm closer to the center of the wheel, the next ones a little less because the spacing between cogs is slightly smaller for 11s than for 10s).

And for the same reason, i.e. a 12s cassette being even wider than a 11s cassette, the 12s SRAM 10-36t 10-11-12-13-15-17-19-21-24-28-32-36 cassette should work without rubbing.

I don’t have any rubbing issues. I have the cassette mounted on an Ultegra 6800 hub, the crankset is a Dura Ace 7800. The chain line runs closer toward the inside, so I have enough clearance. Unfortunately, the chain rings on the crankset are so close to the rear swing arm that I can’t run a front derailleur.

Your chain is closer to the inside because you have mounted a Dura-Ace crankset which is a road crankset and road crankset have a narrower chainline than MTB crankset.

The factory Birdy uses mainly MTB transmission components and has a MTB chanline.

While folding my R&M Birdy Touring with rear rack, the rear wheel doesn’t swing under the bike but have to be moved by hand or leg. Is it normal or are hinge/rack bolts over tight?

Its probably the rack bolts.

They have nylstop nuts, so you can tighten them a little bit less without risk.

One easy solution to reduce the chainline that you could try is to place the chainring on the inner position instead of the outer position (the spider of the Birdy crankset is foreseen to place two chanrings, one outer and one inner, the single chainring is factory installed at the place of the outer chainring, placing the chaining on the inner position may require to remove the plastic chainring protection)

Along with user manual I received these black stickers matching my bicycle color and plasticky things. Any idea what these are for?


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The red thing are disc caliper spacers that should be introduced into the calipers between the plate when a wheel is removed to avoid accidentally push too far the pistons when there is no disc in between.

Received reply from a dealer regarding stickers:

Stickers are to be used as protection for the rear rack when installing a bag. The stickers should be placed in correspondence of the bag clamps.

I didn't receive rhose stickers with my R&M rear rack !

Update regarding cassette. 34t was still rubbing ever so slightly on 1 and 3rd gear. So I had to go lower to 32t which is now perfect. 11-32t 10s. Also removed spacer on crank hub so the chain line is slightly inside. Shifts fine, no issues so far.

After changing elastomer from mid to hard I noticed that mid elastomer was deformed so the rear fork was actually lower than it’s supposed to. I think this was one of the reason why 34 cassette was still rubbing. Add my 100kg weight to that mid stiffness deformed elastomer and you will have lower than average fork position which brings the chain closer to the rear fork. I believe lighter users with stiff suspension block may get away with 34 or 36t cogs. However extra weight needs to be factored in, so for anyone thinking of installing more than 32t cogs I’d recommend testing for chain rubbing with fully loaded rear rack (15kgs).

Received and installed few goodies today. R&M bag, my favorite MKS Allways Ezy Superior pedals and hard elastomer for rear suspension.


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The bag is pretty amazing how well thought out it is. However I’m wondering what are these two velcros in the right zip pocket are for?


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Sorry for posting so much today, still very excited with this bicycle. I want to check handlebar stem for correct torque tightness as handlebar was moved left and right relatively easy but I can’t understand how these 3 bolts are named in the user manual torque table. Could someone assist?


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The Birdy stem mounting is an Ahead type of stem but inverted: the fork is like the stem of a regular Ahead, the stem is like the fork of a regular Ahead with a tube inserted in the fork, the fork being tightened around the stem tube. And has with any Ahead, there is a bold to adjust the bearing play which on the Birdy is between the fork legs that can be seen on the picture below (torx head bold):

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The two bold on the picture below are for tightening the fork around the stem tube (they must be untightened before adjusting the bearing play with the bold above and then retightened).
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So there are no particular torque level for those bolts Jipe ?

the Ridea rear suspension you refer to, I assume it’s also PU based? Dis you feel any different in suspension?

Product page says it’s 75% more rigid than stock block. Which stock block I wonder, hard PU stock? Also if it’s PU based what’s the difference at all to the stock PU suspension block?