Atherton AM.130: First Ride Review

The 130mm travel Atherton AM.130 review. Diet Trail bike? Double Down Country? Just a Mountain BIke? Regardless, it’s a unique proposition.

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By ben_haworth

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I like a lot about this, but 65.5 seems a steep HA for this kind of bike. Still, £4200 for a frame (not including duty and the other Brexit nonsense) rules me out

Fortunately you can just spec a different HA if you want….

Is DW-6 essentially a DW link with an Horst Link on the chainstay?

hexhamstu

Fortunately you can just spec a different HA if you want….

Yep, but you pay even more for custom.

In the third paragraph the review refers to the AM.150 – should it read AM.130?

Also, what does this mean? Does it mean a pencil eraser?? I’m confused.

It feels like you’re riding on a really, really hard eraser. In a good way!

Soz for confusions.

AM.150 refers to the AM.150 that we did a First Ride Review of a few months ago (as stated in the paragraphs above)

Yes, eraser = pencil rubber.

Putting those brakes on your 8 grand bike is a sick joke.

Ben – I can’t work out whether you like it or are a bit underwhelmed by it.

Ben – I can’t work out whether you like it or are a bit underwhelmed by it.

i would agree on that.

A good bike feels ‘good’ on the first ride. If after 2 weeks you are still undecided, that to me means its not a keeper.

Also sounds like its set up for a racer blasting along, rather than Joe average ?

Ben – Can you make a comment on seatpost insertion? It looks like the rocker linkage location would be a serious hindrance to seatpost insertion for those of us with short legs. (They don’t publish seatpost insertion on their geometry chart. Although they do different seat tube lengths these, obviously, doesn’t move the pivot location so you’re still limited by where the seatpost bottoms out.)

So you are commenting on the DW6 link of the 150mm bike, and how much faster that bike was than it felt?
TBH it read like you were saying that about the 130mm bike and had written the name wrong, as they are weird things to be mentioning in a review of the 130mm bike (at least without drawing comparisons with the bike being reviewed).

Perhaps because I’m a skinny sort, I definitely care about bike weight. 14.5kg for a blingy 130mm bike seems an awful lot, do you have a weight for the frame or frame+shock?

weight not important… capable.. riding’s changed.. pre-empting all that bollocks they always come out with.

Soz for confusions.

AM.150 refers to the AM.150 that we did a First Ride Review of a few months ago (as stated in the paragraphs above)

Yes, eraser = pencil rubber.

Thanks.

I’m on board with weight not being that important (I ride a steel full-sus with a coil shock and fork), but £4k ain’t exactly cheap – so it better bloody well be light & strong.

PS. Do I recall the Athertons suggesting a few years ago that they were looking at affordable aluminum versions of their frames from Taiwan? It’d be interesting if they came out close to the same weight.