For almost 20 years as they travelled to World Cups our CEO Dan Brown, Athy, Gee, Rach and their mechanics dreamed and planned for the ultimate DH bike to take to the races, often talk turned towards a belt-driven gearbox bike, until in 2024 the opportunity arose to partner with Gates Carbon Drive to make the dream a reality.
Our Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology is perfect for allowing us to test and improve things really quickly, so driven by the passion and commitment of Dave Weagle, Rob Gow, and our designers Scott Aisthorpe and Will Carne we have a pretty good first prototype within months.
This candid film documents the start of that process… from build plate to the first week of testing, we’ll continue to develop and iterate as we get closer to the season. See our social posts, our website blogs and SUBSCRIBE to follow along
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UK Patent Application Number GB2400886.4.
46 Comments
That was interesting, may earn you a 100lk. Now make an eeb and make millions.😊
If you want high pivot use Effigear & lose the stupid tensioner. Cavalerie Anakin is currently the best gearbox bike.
Interesting that other brands have been touting gearbox bikes for a while now but somehow now Atherton are releasing something it seems more real and something to be excited about.
Such an awesome looking bike can't wait for the day I'm good enough to need / justify such a machine but great to see a British company at the cutting edge AND actually winning, here's to 2025
A big reason gear box bikes are only now being accepted as the best solution in an off road environment is the massive industry behind drivetrain parts, Shimano and SRAM do not want you to severe your dependance on them, otherwise they both would have had their own by now (oil bath and proper machine cut gears, not an ‘internal derailleur system’).
Finally some real innovation RIP the derailleur & chain
Please do it on the all range of atherton bikes !!!
Cmon! I thought I just bought the new shit! Lol
This will be a perfect trail bike in Florida
I love the engineering and behind the scenes looks into what you guys do. Makes a Gear Nerd like me happy!
I would like to see belt drive for revers recumbent trikes. It's just a mater of belt length and a center jockey wheel to Carrie one or two belts what ever would be the best application.
this going to be the net forced change like udh
Amazing to see it finally starting to happen!
Looking very good.
Do ya’ll test it up against competitor bikes as well? I would think it could be beneficial to try and figure out what feels better on other bikes and how stuff is in general there, to know what you want to try and achive with this and not just sim for «better than A200M but mostly shooting in the dark. Phoenix, V10, Supreme and/or G3 perhaps?
RAD on !!!!
Love to see a s170g currently use my s170 as park & freeride jump
Interesting you never mention Zerode.
Says a lot really.
Show some respect.
What does Rachel think?
I have the Priority 600HXT which they market as their Hardcore Hardtail MTB. Would be interesting to see how is compares with the Zerode !?!? I am a senior and purchased the Priority as my keep fit and “smell the roses” instrument.. love this machine. For the serious youngsters out there the 600HXT would no doubt be better if it was titanium or carbon. My opinion (pun intended), Priority bikes with Pinion gearboxes and Gates belt drives are pioneering belt driven machines and the future of off road cycling.
The thought of never having to degrease a chain has me reflexively tapping my wallet pocket. Looks mean too.
Centralization of mass…. Physics. More dependable, lower maintenance transmission.. why is this not the standard? Planned obsolescence?
Wicked! My son just got a Zerode taniwha and the handling with the lower unsprung mass really is superb. Atherton bikes are tasty! Hope they follow through on this project.
track id at 17.36 please.
Exciting times! The silence of the ride and clean looks really appeal to me. Have been drooling over Zerode for a couple years but great to see there will be many other alternatives around the corner… Including British made ones! ❤🎉
If you already have Continental as a sponsor, why didn’t you take a Conti belt for the driveline instead of one from Gates?
I didn't know the dh bike had both a seat tube and a seat post. Any reason why the seatpost doesn't go straight into the lug? Could probably save some money and weight there?
Yeah. Us mtb'ers are pretty much sick and tired of using the same drivetrain as the Wright Brothers. SERIOUSLY!!
Atherton; Bikes for dentists.
Wow, that was so interesting, can we have more, please?
Would love to ride it! 🤙
Alan Milliard Built some Gearbox bikes in his Shed For his Son to do Downhill Racing.Single sided swingarm,enclosed drive train and gearbox , He even built his own dampers !One Man With No computer Design in a Shed !!!!!!
What you have Done is Fit a Gearbox Bought in and Just Fitted it to a Frame all Done With a Big Team and CAD,So Not that Clever.
What are the percentage drive train power losses associated with a belt drive compared to the stock chain drive? Chances we will see this on the enduro and trail offerings?
So nice to see hodor found a career after GoT.
How soon are you going to have that ebike gearbox version available to buy
13:07 🎉 When you see riders of this pedigree swing through one after the other on a section like this, even watching you can see what’s going on. That A200.G looks like the next step up at the back end (which is where it’s all happening in bike development just now). Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant 🎉
Huge kudos to Atherton bikes for being so open about this project. I think we all are excited for this project to succeed!
An old vs new bike weight comparison would be cool too
Imagine producing your own 3D printed titanium hub
Well done chaps! Now let's invent a thing to stop all the muck spreading itself all over the rider and the bike…
Fascinating how much these guys can feel what the bike is doing.
I wish I could afford an Atherton bike an enduro model but i have a mortgage to pay 🤷🏻♂️
Great insight into the development of this new rig.
Looks really good.
I hope the 2025 season brings more wins for Atherton Racing!
Sick bike…sick DnB music…sick sick ..
Going back to sleeve assembly sounds vert old tech, lazy sollution.
Given the strength of 3D printed plastic vs molded one, and molded metal it-self being weak compared forged one,
no way I would buy that heavy brittle stuff for racing !
The only point is prototyping speed and INCREASE MARGINS
gearboxes are the future of mtb and im totally here for it i dont see the need for a chain derailure and cassette when you can have less maintinence and better center mass with belts etc.
Makes me want to watch next season just to see them win some races on it.
I have wanted a Zerode Bike ever since coming across them. Putting the pennies aside for it as we speak. So this is super exciting to see the gearbox is catching on.