Atherton Bikes is celebrating their 5th birthday today, and in doing so gave us a sneak peek at a new bike in development. The UK-based mountain bike brand of probably the winningest gravity family ever, Atherton has come a long way from that first prototype DH bike made of carbon tubes bonded into 3D-printed lugs. And now it looks like they have an aluminum enduro bike up their sleeves.
Atherton bikes, we wish you a Happy 5th Birthday. Machining Cnc
The Athertons sent around a slew of photos celebrating the road map they’ve come from soft launching their own bike brand in mid-winter of 2019.
Check out their own wrap-up, here.
From that soft rollout in January… to Rachel already winning on the world DH stage that June at Fort William…
…to ultra-limited consumer bikes for the start of year 2, to making more bikes available to the public, to now 4 bikes on offer. We’ve been following along intrigued since the beginning.
And we can’t wait to see more from Atherton Bikes.
The only info we have about the new prototype bike project comes from this note: “Coming soon: The team are working hard on a new Aluminium product for release early this year.” But we can unpack enough from that image to be interested.
We can’t really see what’s going on with the suspension, but the boxy seatstay extends further into the front triangle, so it’s not teh exact same DW-link design as the current AM.170 – their latest new ti & carbon bike. But there is still a black rocker link here, attached to the seattube and driving a vertically-oriented coil shock, so it might not be all that different.
A Fox 38 Factory fork means enduro, with 160-180mm of travel up front. A 170 or 180mm Fox 38 is standard option for their current carbon & ti AM170. That matching Fox DHX2 coil rear shock supports the idea of big rear wheel travel.
The aluminum Stan’s Flow wheels, mechanical shift rear derailleur, and FSA Gradient 35 stem & Alloy 25 low-rise bar fits with a solid, but not ultra-expensive build. Purple Haze edition Hayes Dominion A4 disc brakes, are just a nice touch, though.
Headtube, downtube, toptube, seattube, chainstay & seatstay all look to be the same gray color of raw alloy. That should mean much lower cost of entry to buy an Atherton enduro bike.
Thus, the Athertons say their new HQ in Machynlleth in Wales is ready to “allow the company to build and scale in line with their ambitions”. So will that mean bringing alloy production in-house too?
Our attention has been piqued. And we’ll share more as soon as we hear (or see) it!
Cory Benson is the EU Tech Editor of Bikerumor.com.
Cory has been writing about mountain bikes, enduro, cyclocross, all-road, gravel bikes & bikepacking for over 25 years, even before the industry gave some these names. Prior to Bikerumor, Cory was a practicing Architect specializing in environmental sustainability, has designed bike shops & bike components and worked as a bike shop mechanic.
Based in the Czech Republic for 15+ years, he is a technical mountain biker, adventurous gravel rider, short & medium-haul bikepacker. Cory travels extensively across Europe riding bikes, meeting with key European product developers, industry experts & tastemakers for an in-depth review of what’s new, and what’s coming next.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
A simplified DW-link Enduro bike sold in fewer sizes for a more reasonable price than the £4000+ custom ti-carbon frames. Sounds pretty sensible to me, I look forward to seeing what it actually is.
A simplified DW-link Enduro bike sold in fewer sizes for a more reasonable price than the £4000+ custom ti-carbon frames. Sounds pretty sensible to me, I look forward to seeing what it actually is. . Feels a bit mad that it’s already 5 years since the Athertons launched the brand. Which must mean it’s approaching 10 since Robot Bike Co’s earlier prototypes.
Review: A new Ortlieb Duffle RC combines waterproof duffle bag and backpack into simple, reasonably-priced gear bag…
Watch the Season 2 Premier of Call of a Life Time at an LBS near you!
Handlebar Tape is an often overlooked upgrade that can greatly improve your relationship with your bike. The tape on your handlebar is quite literally where…
Stromer brings the ST5 Pinion stateside: A long-range commuter with a Pinion gearbox, electronic shifting and ABS front brakes.
Check out Ron’s first impression of Tumbleweed Bicycle Co’s Big Dipper Drop Bar.
Affordable Nordest Britango is back in mk3: longer & slacker version of popular 4130 steel hardtail for more technical mountain bike riding…
All-new eThirteen wheels are better in every way: trail Optimus, all-mountain Sylvan & gravity Grappler wheelsets in carbon & alloy, even for eMTB too…
Like a good NFT, this custom-painted proof of concept is a true one of one, except you can actually ride it. Bidding is now open.
Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.
Cnc Metal Machining Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.