Atherton AM.150.1 first ride review

I don’t think anyone really needs to hear again about how Atherton bikes are fabricated. The tech-y description of the 3D-printed titanium lugs with carbon tubes has very much been the focus of most stories about Atherton bikes.

If you want to hear again about all that stuff, click the link at the end of this review to our 2019 feature about the launch of Atherton bikes. Perhaps the most illuminating point to get across is that the bike you see here is the result of over twenty(!) prototype test rigs over the past few years.

This first ride review is going to deal with how one of the brand’s bikes actually rides. Namely, the 150mm travel Atherton AM.150 in its .1 build (there is a AM.150.2 build at £6,700).

The AM.150 is labelled as the Atherton enduro bike but it’s better approached as a trail bike. Enduro bikes are now sporting 170mm or more travel and sprawling geometry numbers. The AM.150 is a regular, 150mm travel, modern trail bike.

At first glance, the suspension design looks like ‘just’ a regular DW Link bike with a pair of shortish links mounted astride the seat tube. But look a bit longer and you’ll spot a pivot placed on the chainstays. That’s a Horst link that is. I’m pretty sure that makes this bike a 6-bar design.

This means that although the overall aesthetic and silhouette of the AM.150 is arguably a bit ‘old fashioned’ (whatever that means), there is some very modern suspension stuff happening under those retro looks.

Unique aesthetic

While we’re talking about the relative-tastic aspect of how a bike looks, I actually quite like the looks of Atherton bikes. Especially since they made the lugs black as opposed to that glaring grey.

Although the bike’s profile may not yet sit well alongside the carbon super swoopers of the elite brands, I reckon things are swinging back round to the straighter-line aesthetic and Atherton have done well sticking to their function-over-form guns.

Does a bike’s looks affect how it rides? No. And yes. A bike’s looks can certainly prejudice how a bike is expected (by a person) to ride.

I’ll confess to assuming that the Atherton AM.150 could be a flexy ride (dinky pivots/rocker and boring round tubes) with a finnicky, weird-feedbacky pedaling feel (some DW bikes of yore). I also assumed that the bike would be a bit of work-in-progress as regards finish things like cable routing.

I’m happy to say that none of these assumptions proved to be correct. Provided you don’t go overly sag-happy with the rear shock (and there is no reason to do that) the Atherton AM.150 rides incredibly… normal.

And the bike is immaculately fabricated and thought-through. It wasn’t just the suspension kinematic being worked out across those twenty-odd prototypes. Everything is neatly executed.

Gosh it is hard to review bikes that just ride normally (if you have any specific questions, ask away in the comments section below). Bikes that ‘just’ do what you want, when you want, are almost invisible. Wholly forgettable, in a good way.

What not

It’s almost easier (and more illustrative) to go over what the bike isn’t.

It’s not harsh.

It’s not twitchy.

It’s not dull.

It’s not a bikepark brute.

I suppose I could crowbar in some sort of phrase like ‘it’s a downhill racer’s trail bike’. Which would be a legitimate claim actually.

I can well imagine a DH racer not really wanting a super-stiff stable-to-the-point-of-tedium bike for their trail bike. They have a DH race bike for that. Their trail bike should be for having fun on, with no stopwatch ruining the vibe.

With 22 sizes available – plus the option to fully pretty much fully bespoke your geometry – it’s arguably not worth talking too much about the geo on the bike I had a go on! Suffice to say, it was a standard ‘480 – Regular’ (kinda like a Large). I could have gone with a longer reach model for a bit more plough-ability but instead opted for the more agile nature of this ‘480 – Regular’.

Great build

For once, I will spend a bit of time going through the bike’s spec. Mainly because I feel it is indicative of the no-corners-cut attitude of Atherton bikes.

I don’t think there’s really anything I would change in a hurry, if at all. Maybe I’d change the 35mm standard stem and bars to a 31.8mm setup but maybe not; the Renthal 35 bars are nowhere near as harsh as other brands’ big bore bars. I was even perfectly happy with the 50mm length stem (I’m normally a 30-35mm dinky stemmer).

The Fox 36 Factory GRIP2 fork and Float X2 shock are sterling performers. Both units offer enough in the way of adjustment to satisfy riders of varying velocities; they can be set to be cushy and fun for calmer cruisings, or firm and fast for aggro blasting.

The Stans Flow MK3 wheelset was great. Nice pick-up. Good feel. The tyres were Continental’s new Kryptotal front and rear. Which, while confidence inspiring in terms of all-out traction and clout, were perhaps a bit on the slow-rolling side. It felt like a whippier set of rubbers would eke a bit more freewheeling fun out of the AM.150.

What else? The SRAM gearing worked great. The brakes on my test bike were a set of amazing Trick Stuff Diretissimma. The usual AM.150.1 build comes with SRAM G2 brakes.

The Trick Stuff stoppers undoubtedly had a positive effect on the overall experience of the bike. With so much power on tap, delivered so controllably, the ride was significantly less ‘clenched’ and draggy than it otherwise may have been. I can imagine DH racers not wanting anything less than the very best brakes on all of their bikes: downhill, enduro or trail.

Elephants

The elephant in the room then. Is there any practical benefit to the way Atherton bikes manufacture their bikes? Sure, it’s a cool tech story and 3D-printing is fascinating currently. But is it all worth the considerable price tag?

I am absolutely going to duck the question.

Mainly because it is impossible to answer. You’d have to back-to-back test a bike with exactly the same suspension layout, geometry and general spec to find out anything conclusive.

As regards the shifting target subject matter of value on a mountain bike, again, impossible to answer. Aside from the fact that no mountain bike costing more than say, £3000, is ‘good value’.

High end mountain bikes are not, and never have been, ‘good value’. They are expensive toys. A £700 bike can be good value. A £7,000 bike cannot.

And do you know what? If you just want to get an Atherton because you’re a fan of the Family Atherton, or you simply like the whole idea of a 3D-printed-in-Wales mountain bike, go for it. There’s absolutely no need for any more justification. Get whatever bike you want. You don’t need to explain yourself. Mountain biking is hardly a logical pastime at the best of times is it?

Is it any good?

Anyway. What I can quantitatively comment on is whether the AM.150 is a good mountain bike. And it is. It’s a really impressively good mountain bike in fact.

It’s a bike that rides in no way how I thought it would do from my prior on-paper assessments.

It’s a bike that once again reminded me that bikes cannot be boiled down a couple of geometry numbers and a leverage curve. Bikes are a system of seemingly infinite variables.

Look at the geometry chart. The bike is clearly too short and too steep. Except it isn’t. Because it isn’t. The proof is in the riding and the riding is really excellent. There is something about how the geometry interacts with the suspension design that just plain works as trail bike.

It definitely helps that here’s loads of standover. Which is an oft under-appreciated thing in modern mountain bikes, especially on longer travel machines with their tall top tubes.

And that 6-bar DW Link design is really rather special. Firm under input without being skittish. Supple without being soggy. Not overly progressive; it’s generous with its bump swallowing. But neither does it bang through to its stops when landing to flat from six feet.

I would say that the bike’s deliberate lack of progressive rate suspension counts against it slightly when it comes to slamming berms and popping lips in a bike park (which is not ideal if you’re riding it at the Atherton’s Dyfi Bike Park!). To be fair, the Atherton AM.200 downhill machine is an amazing bikepark smasher.

Where the Atherton AM.150 shines is on more natural terrain. I don’t mean mellower terrain. The bike enjoys its tekkers. Roots, rocks, unpredictability… loves it. I hesitate to say ‘off piste’ trails because I didn’t ride it anywhere that wasn’t technically manmade (DanMade?) But still. Anything loose, rooty, slippery, janky, sketchy… that sort of thing. Well good.

The AM.150.1 gets up, down, around and along anything you want it to. And it does so in a very engaging manner. It does things with you, not for you.

Overall

I’m sure there are faster bikes out there. There are more capable (whatever that means) bikes out there. There are prettier bikes out there. But I can’t really think of a bike that’s as beguilingly calm yet readily responsive as the Atherton AM.150.

Maybe it is something in the way it’s put together…