Mille Johnset's New 150mm 29er Atherton Trail Bike - Crankworx Innsbruck 2020
The Atherton downhill bike has now proven itself a winning formula on the World Cup circuit, and we've also seen a 160mm, 27.5" enduro bike being ridden by Atherton athletes as a pit warm-up bike and at some enduro races too. Now, a third bike has entered the stable for the Welsh racing brand, a 150mm 29er.
This definitely isn't a radical departure for the Atherton engineers, and the silhouette will be very familiar to anyone who has paid attention to the brand's development. The bike uses the same 3-d printed titanium lugs and carbon tubes as the downhill bike with the same DW 6 suspension system driving the suspension. As with all Atherton bikes, the geometry is customisable but a number of stock sizes will be available. Mille described her bike as a medium/large that apparently has a reach of 465mm. Prices start at £3,400 ($4,400USD) for the 160mm enduro frame with full bikes from £5,500 ($7,100 USD) so we expect this one to fall along similar lines.
Mille Johnset was riding her new bike at Crankworx Innsbruck this year so we caught up with her to take a closer look at her ride. She wasn't too sure about set up numbers, but there's still plenty to look at here.
It may look like a standard Horst Link but don't be deceived. This is Dave Weagle's DW6 system that was first commissioned by Robot bikes and has now been transposed over to Atherton. The 6 is important as it highlights that this is a 6 bar linkage as opposed to the Horst's 4. On this bike it has been tweaked to deliver 150mm of rear travel that is paired with a 160mm fork.
A new travel number in a very familiar package for the fledgling brand.
The black on black titanium lugs with carbon tubes is now becoming a bit of a trademark of the Atherton clan's bikes and it remains for this new trail bike. The first picture shows the 2 short links that are a crucial part of the Weagle design.
This team build with Trickstuff brakes and Continental tires is available through the Athertons web shop.
SRAM and FSA parts make up Mille's drivetrain
Vivid blue Crankbrothers Mallet pedals provide one of the few flashes of colour on this stealth build.
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Uhhhhh no it isn't. They don't even let you buy their bikes through their website. You have to email them and then get ghosted and email them again and still no reply and then finally go buy another bike from a different brand
Was it worth it? I’d say so. After you ride, own, and demo enough bikes; you’ll develop a feel for the ideal geometry. Also if you are able to understand the kinematics data, you should have a good idea of what you want. And half the fun is speccing out the components and then building it up.
As for the atherton bike frames. If you have the disposable money, go for it. I think I’ve only seen pictures of 1 owner in the states that has an Atherton bike. So it’ll definitely be rare.
"Hello mate, I'm interested in buying a bike. Can you change the tyres for DHFs and put brendog pedals on it? How much would that be? How about with i9 hubs? How much would that be?"
I always found that really annoying in America and Canada that they add the tax on when you go to pay for it. $25 of T-Mobile credit? That will be $27.28. $70 Billabong boardies? $83 to you sir. I don't want to say retarded, but it kind of is retarded in that they delay the adding of the tax on until they scan the goods at the till. So in this case I think it's appropriate to call it a totally retarded taxation system.
I guess every country has its little idiosyncracies. Gotta love them.
That kind of dumb value judgement happens at the LBS all too often as well. Case in point, my wife was in a bike shop a few years ago on her old commuter bike, because at the workplace she was at that day there's a communal bike room where bikes all get leaned up against each other. Pimply teenager on the floor looked at her bike then proceeded to ignore her, talking to some other pimply teenager looking at random MTB parts they probably couldn't afford. Had shop boy not made this value judgement, he could have sold a $6k road bike...which she now rides to work on the days she's working at the private hospital where she can park it in the specialists-only tea room.
He doesn’t have any pics of his own yet, but the athertons confirm he owns the frame
It is still an amazing product, and the idea of being able to fairly quickly get a custom full suspension frame of this caliber is amazing...
Still it's friggen expensive! Previous articles over the years made it seem like the Athertons themselves were reaping that benefit building up custom frames, riding and learning what they could and then "growing" a new one. But the team riders seemed to just get the "hand me downs"? Even this article, "She wasn't too sure about set up numbers", kinda makes you wonder how a "custom" frame finds itself in the hands of a team rider who doesn't know whats custom about it? Seems an odd thing?
Obviously there is a market for this, but it is kind of a bummer when you consider how easy it was to ride the "same" GT or Trek the Athertons took to so many victories!
Forbidden just has an Asian company do a traditional layup of a high pivot trail bike frame with a unique suspension design for a few hundred each.
Id bet profit margins are similar but only one of them is doing the actual manufacturing of the product, and as a result its going to cost more.
Bike is sick.
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I recently got on the case of Allied Bicycle's pricing because their MSRP is ridiculous. The frameset (fork/frame) is $4200. Made in Arkansas. Owned by an investment group. Utilizing typical hand-layered carbon matte.
By comparison, you can get Titanium (Sklar is $4800) and Carbon (Appleman is eye-watering $6k) hand made bikes with custom geo for nearly the same price (and far more interesting features) from some of the most renowned bike builders in the USA and you'll fund the welder/builder directly, no profits siphoned off for debt or investors.
Now, I have no issue with carbon bikes. I ride one (Guerrilla Gravity, manufactured in Colorado, $2200 frame only). I do have issues with "luxury pricing" masquerading as "innovation." I also have issues with companies who use more of their revenue to advertise, market, sponsor, etc etc etc...but don't offer any value to the customer. It's like "hey give us your hard earned dollars for this product that's really no different than other so we can sponsor our race team and pay our owners a nice profit." Now, in the case of Atherton, how much of that $4000 is going to the race team, to the owners, to the actual people building your bike? No idea - but none of it matters if you can't even sell the product because it's too expensive.
Back to Allied - they had to lay off quite a few staff over the last year, and they've to a small location. All signs of twindling sales. Meanwhile, Guerrilla Gravity still has like a 3-month wait for it's frame because it can't make them fast enough to sell to all the people who want them.
It does certainly prove the point that value does matter. Atherton is using some cool technology that could make frame production faster and less expensive...but they've got a race team to fund and all that investment capital to pay off. Allied has got owners who want to see a profit and very expensive molds to pay off. Both are produced in countries with better labor laws, environmental protections, etc. These companies have "brought manufacturing back" - but at what cost to the consumer?
Forbidden is outsourcing manufacturing, making frames people can afford, and growing their business.
Innovation is no long about doing something different (Atherton), or doing something locally (Allied), it's also about doing something that is sustainable for your business - making a product locals can afford.
www.athertonbikes.com/technology
PB Comment Engineer: "You can't put mounts on since the tubes are prefab and cut to length."
Craig Calfee: "Oh really?"
All of that said, as long as it’s fast and holds up to the kind of abuse it’s riders put it through, who gives a flying fark about the tube/lug interface