ATHERTON AM.130.X

The first family of downhill serve up a shorttravel trail ripper in a smorgasbord of sizes

£7,300 • 29in • athertonbikes.com

Before we dive in, I want to get my bias out in the open as it may cloud this First Ride. I’m a big fan of the Athertons. There, I said it. I don’t really know them, other than to make polite conversation, but I’ve always admired their approach. And not simply because of their impressive race results, it’s more about their attitude and process that makes them standout.

As world-class athletes, they have never been afraid to invest in themselves, and like all true professionals they surround themselves with the best people to improve their odds of success. It should come as no surprise then that they have adopted a similar strategy with Atherton Bikes, enlisting the help of Dave Weagle, an independent suspension engineer.

Weagle’s designs include Dw-link, Split-pivot and Delta Link to name a few. And unlike most suspension engineers who claim that their design is best, Weagle is somewhat agnostic to the specifics; Dw-link is a twin-link design, Split-pivot is a single pivot with a floating brake mount, Delta-link is a variable-rate floating shock design, all with specific strengths and weaknesses.

The latest addition to Weagle’s suspension portfolio is DW6 and currently the Athertons use it on all of their suspension bikes. As the name suggests, it’s a six-bar design, but there’s virtually no information about how it works or what advantages it brings.

On the Athertons’ website they go into depth on the 3D additive construction process used to make the titanium frame lugs that are bonded to the preformed carbon tubing. There’s a distinct dearth of information about the workings of the suspension though. No anti-squat or anti-rise curves, not even a simple graph for the progression rate. In fact, the whole suspension part on the website seems fluffy, descriptive and vague. Maybe that’s the price you pay for outsourcing the design to a third party?

That’s not going to stop me inferring the possible benefits from what I know about other six-bar designs though.

The main advantage being that the suspension engineer can achieve more consistent anti-squat across the entire travel range, if that’s what they want. On a traditional four-bar design, if you want 120% anti-squat at sag, it will probably start out around 140% at full extension then once you pass the sag point it keeps dropping. With a six-bar design you can achieve a flatter anti-squat curve throughout the initial portion of the travel for more consistent pedalling characteristics, then reduce it deeper in the travel to limit pedal kickback. All the while keeping the anti-rise lower overall.

A six-bar configuration also gives the frame engineer more flexibility with pivot locations, which can make it easier to build stronger, lighter frames and even accommodate simple things like longer-stroke dropper posts into the overall design.

So DW-6 sounds great, right? But are there any drawbacks? Well the obvious one is that the more links/bars you have, the more bearings and pivot hardware you need, which in turn increases weight, complexity and maintenance. The AM.130.X that I rode weighed 15.07kg, so not the lightest for a highend trail bike with 130mm rear travel.

And while the suspension seems cloaked in secrecy, the 22 size options, with reach numbers that stretch from 410mm to 530mm in 10mm increments, are there for all to see. You’d think that would be enough to cover 100% of the population, but Atherton Bikes go one step further;

Reach numbers stretch from to