Atherton Bikes Launches First Aluminium Bike: the S.170 Is Available Now 8

Atherton Bikes have unveiled a brand-new aluminium bike which builds upon the learnings from their award-winning Additive Manufacturing Series. The S.170 is a hard-hitting, big-mountain enduro bike that mirrors the lug and tube construction of the brand’s world-beating Additive (A) series. Strength and perfect-fit remain central to the brand’s efforts with 12 standard sizes on offer. The S.170 has a mixed wheel configuration and 170mm rear travel with 180mm upfront and shares geometry with the award-winning A170. Dave Weagle’s DW6 suspension platform gives way to the simpler DW4 in keeping with the new model’s everyday, “chuck it in the van and go” vibe.

The S170 is constructed from aluminium 7075 using subtractive manufacturing. Custom drawn 7075 aluminium tubes are joined to CNC manufactured lugs using insanely strong double lap shear joints. Because Atherton bond rather than weld their frames they can use 7075 aluminium which has 70% higher fatigue performance and 70% higher ultimate tensile strength (UTS) compared to weldable alternatives (i.e. 6061 aluminium).

The young Atherton brand stamped its authority on the 2023 race circuit with World Championship victory for Charlie Hatton (the first Elite Worlds’ medal for a British bike brand) and World Cup wins in Men’s and Women’s elites for Andi Kolb and Rachel Atherton. The design freedom and speed of innovation associated with additive manufacturing means that valuable race learnings could quickly be applied to the A.170 which launched in April 2023 to series of rave reviews and in turn to the new S.170. The S.170 is the first of a planned S-Series however no timelines are available on other models at this point.

From the day the brand launched in 2019 the team have set out their ambitions for a more affordable bike that would allow them to support grassroots riders like the people that they ride with every weekend.

Gee Atherton said “We had to be as excited to ride this bike as our A.170 and that’s a huge ask… The DW4 comes with the top-notch performance that our customers demand, and frame compliance and geometry are direct descendants of the A.170 for that playful ride character that we love.

Dan Atherton said “I’ve put in a lot of hours on this bike and can say from experience that it’ll take everything you can throw at it. It’s made from a different material but we were determined that it would feel like an Atherton. We will only ever produce bikes that we’re proud to put our name on the downtube”

Atherton’s Head Designer Rob Gow said “There’s nothing radical in any of the separate elements of our new manufacturing process but we’ve brought them together in a combination that is genuinely unique. And we’ve used established technologies but taken some innovative approaches only made possible by close collaboration with our technical partners. We knew we’d only discover our limits through the most rigorous testing, luckily we have the perfect testing location and the perfect testing crew..."

Exhaustive testing in the field at Dyfi, Queenstown and more was followed by brutal testing in the lab. The S.170 has passed EFBE Tri Test Cat 4 (Enduro) and Cat 5 (Downhill) meaning that Atherton can offer a lifetime first-owner guarantee wherever you ride.

Atherton Bikes CEO Dan Brown said “Producing affordable bikes in the UK clearly has its challenges, especially for the design and production teams who were pushed to the edge on this one! But regardless of the drop-in unit price there will be no compromise on Quality Control. From the beginning of our brand this more affordable bike has been the dream, delivered with the same uncompromising attention to detail of the A-Series. Although we’ll outsource some of the manufacturing processes, we will still bond all of the frames in-house in Machynlleth. Fans of our A-Series shouldn’t worry, it’s not going anywhere, in fact we’re working hard to offer even more customisation options.”

Sizing and Geometry

Builds and Prices

4 options will be available at launch, with first deliveries expected in April 2024.

Frame-only - Fox DHX2 Coil - £2799/ €2729*/$2985*
Build 1 - RockShox Ultimate Coil and SRAM X01 - £5999/€5849*/$6399*
Build 2 - FOX performance and SRAM GX - £5499/€5359*/$5865*
Build 3 - RockShox Domain and SRAM GX - £4799/€4679*/$5119*

• Unlike A-series these builds are fixed, no custom-build option
• All sales through our website
• Euro and USD prices exclude tax and shipping – conversion rate varies

For more information: www.athertonbikes.com.

UK Patent Application Number GB2400886.4

View key specs, compare bikes, and rate the new Atherton S.170 in the Vital MTB Product Guide.