Atherton Bikes AM.150 First Ride Review

THE DIRT

Due to the sheer demand of the AM.150, I was only able to steal it from Atherton Bikes for a 3-day test period, during which I took it on an enduro shakedown ride followed by two days lapping Dyfi bike park. A packed schedule over these three days meant the time to experiment with the suspension setup was minimal, and though I managed to get a serious amount of descending time on hugely varied terrain, any opinions formed shouldn’t be taken as gospel. I set up the bike with the 25% sag at the shock that Atherton recommended, with the fork set at the upper limit of the air pressure for my weight according to the Fox set up guide, which is always a solid start. From the get-go, the high stack height and riser bar produced a serious “in the bike” feeling, with the 490mm reach that sits towards the upper limits of my comfortable range giving a commanding position over the bike that felt nicely centered in between the wheels when standing. Given the relatively burly build provided, with Continental’s new Kryptotal DH tires and a Stans Flow wheelset, the weight was impressively light and suggests the overall frame weight is low.

Climbing on board the AM.150 was reasonable, though the geometry on this older version tested placed me quite far off the back of the bike even with the saddle slammed forwards. This undoubtedly affected my influence on the suspension when pedaling seated, as my weight was acting on a longer lever than the steeper seat tube would produce. This meant that it didn’t feel incredibly efficient overall, but on the few technical climbing sections I faced over the short test period it offered a satisfactory ride. My bike was provided with a 150mm travel Reverb dropper, leading to me running it high out of the frame at minimum insertion for the climbs and having to pull out the hex key to slam it for the descents. It’s good to see they’ve moved to a steeper effective angle for future models and have adjusted the lug on the seat tube to increase insertion depths, which should allow for longer drop posts to be fitted and produce a more centralized climbing position.

What felt like a particularly low BB turned out to be quite reasonable on the trail, and I didn’t have any issues with catching pedals throughout the weekend. Lower down the cassette, when hammering hard on the pedals on the descents, the AM.150’s setup of the DW6 platform didn’t feel overly efficient either, certainly not exhibiting the same firm nature as your typical DW link bikes. The flip side of this was the ability to pedal through rougher terrain, such as root-infested straights, without the same level of jarring and deflection as you might expect. All in all, its light overall weight was offset by a slightly less efficient pedaling platform than I had expected, which when combined with the burly and sticky Continental Kryptotal tires meant that it didn’t have the peppiest nature, but it’s certainly not a slouch that I’d be scared to take on an all-day pedal epic. Suspension setup and tire choice can seriously impact the riding characteristics of a bike, and I’ve no doubt that efficiency and snappiness could be improved.

When the trail started to go down, the stand-out characteristic initially was the serious “in the bike” feeling produced by high stack height and reasonably low bb. This gave a reassuring feeling position on bigger jumps and in the steepest terrain, putting my weight nicely behind the front wheel in the “safe zone”. The drawback of this was the requirement for some suspension tweaking and body weight adjustment to get front wheel grip fully dialed in, but thanks to the slightly steeper head angle than some, the tendency for the front wheel to wash out on the flatter turns was reduced. Thankfully though this didn’t result in a front wheel that was eager to tuck, with minimal issues through steep corners or when hitting the anchors at the last second whilst initiating a turn on a blind track. Hitting the hundreds of varied berms in Dyfi bike park, the AM.150 loved to carve a turn hard, with the stout rear end of my version giving a highly connected feeling to the rear wheel and the mid-length wheelbase happy to tip in and carve a relatively tight radius. I’d be very interested to test the more compliant frame structure that will feature on models sold going forward, to see where in the range of stiffness they choose to go with it and the resultant effect on the character.

25% sag at the shock felt good from the get-go and left enough travel in reserve to handle big hits like Dyfi’s Oakley Icon Way without any discomfort. Atherton Bikes have managed to produce an impressively bottomless feeling that was only overwhelmed by some slightly short landings on the biggest hits in the park. The sensitivity off the top was stellar too, especially given the slightly reduced sag compared to the 30-35% go-to on most enduro bikes, giving plenty of grip and comfort through the rough stuff. The mid-stroke was a touch wallowy, contrary to my expectations of the relatively short travel enduro machine, and so it wasn’t quite so keen to pick up speed through hard pumping efforts as some – I’d like to give one some more trail time to play around with the setup and see if this could be improved. Predictability and confidence were plentiful though, encouraging the brakes to be let off and the roughest and rowdiest terrain to be attacked. Aside from slightly more agile steering than some in the class, the AM.150 truly is a downhiller’s enduro rig.

Other stand-out notions on board the AM.150 were the relatively quiet overall ride – even more impressive considering the thin rubber protection fitted – with a lack of excess chain noise or cable rattle. Unfortunately, on the bike tested, it was necessary to have the multi-tool at hand often, with the frame pivots seemingly keen to come undone every few runs. Granted, this was a well-used bike, but it was still a bit of a shame to see. There’s a lot of hardware on the frame, which all vary between a 4, 5 or 6mm hex key, and the lower link has some hardware that needs the shock to be compressed to get access, so it’s quite an unfriendly bike to diagnose a rattle. Atherton was keen to point out that the pivot bolts might have lost the locktite they would come with from the factory, and so frames going out to customers will likely not suffer from this issue, but it’s worth noting the drawbacks that a multi-link suspension design carry compared with a simpler platform.

The Wolf’s Last Word

Overall, the “first ride” was incredibly promising on the Atherton Bikes AM.150, proving that they’ve put together a real ripper of a bike. At £4,000/$4,500, it’s no small amount of money for the frame, and I think you’d really want to buy into the technology to build it from the ground-up, but the full builds seem more reasonable and it’s certainly a bike I felt sad to give back so soon. I’m looking forward to seeing some of Atherton’s big plans come into fruition over the coming months, and to hopefully getting on board their machines again for some more trail time in the future.

Price: £6,700/$7,593 (AM.150.2) – £7,750/$8,783 (AM.150.1)
Website: Athertonbikes.com

ATHERTON BIKES AM.150 SPECS

CHASSIS
Frame: Titanium 3D printed lugs, Carbon fiber tubes; 150mm DW6
Fork: Fox 36 Factory Kashima 160mm Boost 15mm Grip 2
Shock: Fox Float X2 Factory Kashima 2-Position 205x60mm

COCKPIT
Brakes: SRAM Code R, 200F/180R Centreline rotors
Handlebar: Renthal Fatbar Carbon 31.8mm | 800mm| 30mm Rise
Stem: Renthal Apex 31.8mm | 50mm Length
Headset: FSA Semi Integrated
Seatpost: RockShox Reverb Stealth 150mm
Saddle: WTB Volt

WHEELS
Wheelset: Stans Flow MK3, 30mm, 110/148
Front tire: Continental Kryptotal Fr, Downhill, Supersoft, 29″ x 2.4″
Rear tire: Continental Kryptotal Re, Downhill, Supersoft, 29″ x 2.4″

DRIVETRAIN
Bottom Bracket: SRAM Dub Threaded
Cassette: SRAM XG 1295; 10-52T
Cranks: SRAM XO1 Eagle Carbon, Boost, DUB, 32T, 170mm
Shifter: SRAM XO1 Eagle; 12s
Derailleur: SRAM XO1 Eagle; 12s