New Atherton S.150 launches today from £4,499

The alu atherton bikes visually look so much nicer than their carbon offerings. Odd that given so many size options and their manufacturing process, they only offer 3 stack heights though.

Mullet only? I'm out.

I'd love a test ride in the bike park ?

Odd that given so many size options and their manufacturing process, they only offer 3 stack heights though.

how many stack heights do you need? given you can adjust it by adding a spacer under your stem I don't see it as much of an issue.

how heavy is it?

Would be nice if they did a full 29'er.

Never ridden a mullet, might see about hiring one next time I'm at Dyfi.....

@nwgiles
how heavy is it?

Around 16-16.5kg apparently.

16kg according to the article on pb. I’m not sure why a trail bike needs to be built to cat 5 strength if your name isn’t atherton

@dirk - Thank you

That looks great. No problem with 16kg or so as all the specs come with good kit. I can't imagine Raaw or similar high end alu bikes are any lighter.

The alu atherton bikes visually look so much nicer than their carbon offerings. Odd that given so many size options and their manufacturing process, they only offer 3 stack heights though.

I'm not so sure (though I admit I'm a fan of the carbon bike look) I saw one on at Gee Athertons talk and initially I thought it was an early prototype of the carbon model as if they were trying to figure out geo etc. What you don't see from the photos is the bottom bracket area is very extended and square and gives downtube an odd looking angle as it floats a few cm from both the bb and headtube. In pretty much every photo, left or right, they've position the pedal to cover this area so it doesn't look as pronounced. I thought it looked 'unfinished'.

I used to be at least a little bothered about weight before. Just got a Canyon Strive, which is around 16kg (although that includes a bit of extra weight for the Shapeshifter).
This things climbs so much better than my older lighter bike it’s unreal. Made me realise that within reason, weight doesn’t really matter.

Well it certainly looks solid.

I see what you mean from the pics above. I'm sure there are structural reasons to make that area large. Also improves the space in the front triangle so guessing any shock is fine + bottle?

Is it me or am I getting old ( 47 ) all these bike basically ride the same ! They all have to be peddled and a it’s best just to ride a cheaper bike more . 2k bike would do just the same ?
sorry , bad day in the office ☺️

I can totally see the point but ultimately if you're going to ride it hard you need to build it with the same parts you would a longer travel bike, so it's going to weigh exactly the same as an equivalent enduro bike and do less with it.

In theory that ought to make it a very small niche but I reckon it probably just means that practically everyone that buys one get a bike that's way stronger than they need and heavier as a result without any benefit, and practically everyone that actually benefits from all that strength doesn't pay for it anyway. Also that a bunch of them will end up built up with lighter duty parts

I can totally see the point but ultimately if you’re going to ride it hard you need to build it with the same parts you would a longer travel bike, so it’s going to weigh exactly the same as an equivalent enduro bike and do less with it.

Same issue with the Raaw Jibb and Privateer 141 - might as well just get a Madonna or 161  for the same all up weight for equiv builds and just enjoy the extra travel

how many stack heights do you need? given you can adjust it by adding a spacer under your stem I don’t see it as much of an issue.

Yes get that, but it is more that they could offer more options given their manufacturing process. It is not like they have to make decisions on Geos to offer for the next season and order a big batch order a load of stuff from a Taiwanese builder like Genio etc. and be stuck with inventory they can't shift as they got the numbers wrong.

They offer 12 sizes which already shows that they have great flexibility offer  lots of sizes.

For me being 6'5" and of long leg I am likely higher stacks, I have found each time that the bars have gone up i prefer the ride, when i was looking for a longer travel bike I did look at the Atherton range (they will do custom for the carbon models but where not keen), would have liked to stick with Bird, but again thngs too low in XL sizes, but in the end got a Raaw Madonna with a nice 670mm stack, even then I still have 50mm rise bars and some spacers (i get i am an outlier in sizes terms) but given most people have spacers and riser bars, does sort of indicate that stack heights are generally too low across the bike options out there.

Anyway the alu Atherton's look great, and as a differentiator in a difficult market they could perhaps fully make use of their manufacturing technique to offer even greater options and without having to hold a big costly inventory.

I can understand the purpose of a lugs & tubes for the carbon frames, but am less convinced of the need for this on an all Al frame.

They offer 12 sizes which already shows that they have great flexibility offer  lots of sizes.

Is it because the angles all stay the same if you extend all three sides of a triangle together? If you want to change the stack then you need different angles, which would need different lugs. Presumably they have 3 different sets of lug sizes to cover the 3 different stack heights.

But yes they could make entirely custom geo with lugs made to measure too I guess.

I wonder if there's a reason they don't offer a longer rear on the smaller frames - as I'm sure many would prefer it.

Now that it's been pointed out the BB area does look bit strange, guess there's a reason for it. Wouldn't stop me having a test ride if got offered it.

They offer 12 sizes which already shows that they have great flexibility offer  lots of sizes.
Is it because the angles all stay the same if you extend all three sides of a triangle together? If you want to change the stack then you need different angles, which would need different lugs. Presumably they have 3 different sets of lug sizes to cover the 3 different stack heights.

But yes they could make entirely custom geo with lugs made to measure too I guess.

Yep sure they are rationalizing the type of lugs they are making.