The Atherton Bikes project seems to be cantering along nicely as we already seen nine prototypes of their downhill bikes and now Rachel is showing off the trail bike too. We got a glimpse of the frame
part way through manufacturing recently but it seems that the bike has since been deemed trail worthy and is being put through the wringer by one of downhill's greatest ever racers.
Rachel snapped one very dark picture from the top of Cadair Idris and one of the bike lying down in the snow so there's not a huge amount we can tell at the moment but the bike seems to be very similar to the downhill bike, with additive manufacturing and a DW6 suspension system forming its core.
With Rachel staying tight lipped on Instagram, we have very few other hard facts but the photo above suggests it's a 160mm travel platform and we suspect it will be a 29er too.
With the rate the team are pumping out new bikes, it may not be long before we have some more info on their enduro platform. We'll update you as and when we get it.
Update:Thanks to
@EuanLyons for these screenshots from Rachel's Instagram stories:
www.pinkbike.com/u/dagingerstevie/album/pvc-bike
Get it before it disappears.
www.pinkbike.com/news/robot-bike-co-r130.html
It is a new company as well, rather than a rebrand.
www.pinkbike.com/news/robot-bike-co-r160-first-look-2016.html
Totally true! BUT the geometry was already custom. That was the point of Robot and the technology behind how these bikes are constructed. And the linkage was already DW. For sure they will be "tweaking" it to taste. And the Athertons know how to ride. But there are probably other riders/racers just as accomplished that would "tweak it" differently. Plus lets be honest, your average "trail" rider would probably not want their suspension "tweaked" by a lot of racers...?
It will be interesting if they do a line of bikes that are "not" custom. Mass produce the parts all the same so they can reduce cost and attract more buyers. (I've read about much larger printers/sinters/etc now, perhaps they can print a whole batch of frames at the same time and lower costs??) OR perhaps they will just go on the way Robot did and cater to the custom/high end rider.
“More cheese with your whine young sir’s?”
Heck, Downieville has over 5k of decent in a single "trail".
Trail bikes should be a product of where you ride. Similarly an all mountain ski should be a product of where you ski.
www.pinkbike.com/news/interview-the-athertons-atherton-bikes.html
However if you have gone to the expense and effort of requesting custom geo then most would probably be too proud to admit if it didn't feel and ride great, the prestige of having something custom would be more important!
id hate to work in the bicycle industry in anything like a design capacity if this is the kind of welcome that "one of our own" gets when they actually try to do something really cool and its not like rachel isnt doing great things in the community or womens progress and shes clearly not doing this to get shit rich overnight...
www.pinkbike.com/news/robot-bike-co-r160-custom-review-2016.html
Race bike are proven at races, who is gonna race the Enduro bike to the top of Enduro....
From what i can see the only thing that matters is whether its any good?
That's all pretty cool IMHO.
Unno looks like every other carbon bike in terms of build. Really nice but not THAT different looking to every other carbon bike minus paint. Having seen one in the flesh I have a hard time shelling out for one.
GG are sweet and interesting too and got a lot of coverage /hype. They still look like a standard carbon bike too though.