Bike Check: Rachel Atherton's Atherton AM.200 Downhill Bike
Arguably, the biggest story from the first round of the 2023 downhill mountain bike World Series has to be the return to World Cup racing of Rachel Atherton. After Rachel's victory in Lenzerheide how could we not take a closer look at the bike she raced this weekend?
Interestingly, Rachel's bike is remarkably uninteresting which, in itself, is interesting. I know that sounds strange, but having done quite a few bike checks of World Cup riders, you normally find some crazy setup must-haves and things riders are really picky about. However, that's not really the case with Rachel and her Atherton AM.200 Downhill bike. That might be partly down to Rachel and how she is, but I'm sure it's more to do with the fact that Rachel was a big part of the development of the bike that carries her name.
Having looked at some Atherton racing bikes before, it was no surprise to me to see that Rachel's bike was a very clean build that was super quiet. There is not a rattle or a squeak coming from this bike. It is covered in nice details and some well-thought-out parts, so sit back and enjoy this look at the bike that took Rachel to her 40th World Cup win.
Rachel Atherton // Continental Atherton
Age: 35
Hometown: Machynlleth
Height: 170cm
Weight: 60kg
Instagram: @rachybox
Age: 35
Hometown: Machynlleth
Height: 170cm
Weight: 60kg
Instagram: @rachybox
Atherton AM.200 Downhill Bike
Frame: AM.200.M
Shock: Fox DHX2
Fork: Fox 40 Factory
Rims: Stans Flow EX3
Hubs: Stans M Pulse
Tyres: Continental kryptotal
Drivetrain: SRAM XO 7 speed
Chainring: FSA 36T fitted to an Ochain
Cassette: FSA K-force
Brakes: Hayes Dominion
Handlebar: FSA gradient
Stem: FSA gradient
More info: Atherton AM.200 Downhill Bike
Frame: AM.200.M
Shock: Fox DHX2
Fork: Fox 40 Factory
Rims: Stans Flow EX3
Hubs: Stans M Pulse
Tyres: Continental kryptotal
Drivetrain: SRAM XO 7 speed
Chainring: FSA 36T fitted to an Ochain
Cassette: FSA K-force
Brakes: Hayes Dominion
Handlebar: FSA gradient
Stem: FSA gradient
More info: Atherton AM.200 Downhill Bike
 | My new AM.200.M goes so well! I absolutely love this bike. Riding a World Cup on a bike that we've designed ourselves, built in Machynlleth, and tested at Dyfi Bike Park. I can't begin to tell you how special that is. |
The handcrafted Atherton frame hides its tech well, and that is for sure part of the beauty of this bike. It looks so simple, but it's anything but simple. Most people will be familiar with Atherton bikes by now, but if you're not, the bikes are built from 3D-printed titanium lugs bonded to carbon fiber tubes. Each frame takes around 16 hours to build and is made in the UK at Atherton HQ in Machynlleth, Wales.
The Atherton frame is covered in so many nice little touches, one of which is that the only threaded part of the frame is the bottom bracket. For the rest of the joints on the bike, it uses barrel nuts and standard fasteners.
Each Atherton frame is marked with its individual number on the back of the seat tube. Rachel's frame, AR009, indicates that it is the 9th frame for Continental Atherton.
For suspension, Rachel runs a full complement of Fox parts. Up front, she has the legendary Fox 40, with factory Kashima-coated stanchions, as you would expect. Rachel runs her fork at 83 psi with 5 volume spacers. Speaking to the team, they mentioned that Rachel prefers to have her suspension firmer than expected considering her size. There was no information provided on the other settings of the fork, but given the tight timeline, it's not surprising that the team isn't keen on sharing every detail. However, they did mention that they are using a brand new custom tune from the team at Fox.
At the rear, you'll find a Fox Factory DHX2 coil shock attached to the heart of the DW6 suspension linkage on the back of the Atherton AM.200. Rachel has a 475 spring fitted to her Fox DHX2 shock.
The drivetrain on Rachel's bike is a mixed bag, featuring components from both SRAM and FSA. FSA is a sponsor of the Atherton Racing team, and they provide the 36T chainring mounted to the FSA Gradient 165mm cranks via an Ochain device. FSA also supplies the cassette on Rachel's bike, with their 7-speed FAS K-Force cassette being used. As for shifting, it's not surprising to see the ever-popular SRAM XO 7-speed DH mech and shifter fitted.
When it comes to pedals Rachel uses Crankbrothers' Mallet DH pedals.
There is a set of stunning Purple Hayes Dominion brakes fitted to Rachel's bike. These are running a set of Galfer brake pads and running on a set of Galfer's Sharkfin discs. They measure 203mm front and back.
There's more FSA Gradient goodness when it comes to Rachel's cockpit setup. She uses the FSA Gradient Aluminium handlebar with a 25mm rise, which is cut to a width of 760mm. It is mounted to a FSA Gradient 50mm direct mount stem. To complete the setup, she has ODI Longneck lock-on grips installed on the handlebar.
Rachel's stem has a 5mm spacer fitted under it to ride it up and the top crown of her Fox 40 has three 5mm FSA spacers fitted under them.
When it comes to wheels, they come from Continental Atherton's long-term sponsor, Stans. Rachel's bike features a mixed wheel size with a mullet setup. She uses a set of Stans Flow EX3 rims laced to Stans M Pulse hubs. These wheels are set up tubeless and fitted with Continental Kryptotal tyres. Rachel prefers to run her tyres at 24 psi in the front and 28 psi in the rear, without any inserts.
Rachel's bike is finished off with a Prologo Proxim saddle mounted to the top of a FSA carbon KXF seat post.
A massive thank you to Rachel and the team at Continental Atherton for their help doing this bike check.
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In addition 2022 was like a blank year for trickstuff as their website have been down most of the year due to ERP implementation.
Re Dangerholm, I’m pretty sure he has a couple of sets on rotation. You never see more than 3 of his bikes in the same pic…
I don't know how it works with Dangerholm. I see an article here every now and then but I don't know what happens beside that. Does he actually ride the hell out of these bikes? I thought he just builds them up as that's what he likes to do, then returns the parts. Or at least the ones that still hold some value. As far as I've seen, he hasn't really modified a Trickstuff brake has he (aside from the obvious cutting of the hose to size)?
and/or without factory support. On top of being a good chunk of money (as you'd need loads of them) you'd risk not being able to get spares
www.bike-paradise.de/products/trickstuff-scheibenbremse-direttissima-set
If Rachel Atherton is running then I assume they must be pretty decent?
You can have sophisticated suspension to handle bumps in a certain way, but part of the design will be to respond to pedaling input by firming up to reduce bob and improve acceleration. The opposite of that is any suspension movement (esp. high speed movements) then pull on the chain.
Tends to prove that ochain has real benefits, i don't see Rachel installing it just to add some weight at bottom bracket
Basically suspension design is a game of trade-offs (namely anti-squat and chain growth) and O-chain can help mitigate chain growth issues without effecting anti-squat
The high antisquat at sag that makes DW bikes so peppy to pedal relies on chaingrowth, which the ochain negates while coasting. I see this as perfectly justified- while pedaling you have lots of chaingrowth (and therefore pedal kickback) but when coasting the Ochain hypothetically removes the kickback. So I think its justified here
If you listen to Neko explain it (much better than my thought vomit above) he basically made a mid-high pivot bike but put an o-chain on it to forgo the need for an idler (not quite that extreme).
DW does the same thing for just the first 3rd of the travel to give it great pedaling and square edge hit performance. Then, for the second 2/3 of the travel, it cuts back rather quickly to stop the high-pivot-esque chain growth. Your derailleur can handle lots of chain growth in the first 1/3 of your travel on a DW since the total growth isn't any more than a Horst or single pivot design. This does make DW designs to feel rough or skiddish over chatter & loose rocks from the high pedal kickback. HYPOTHETICALLY, the o-chain deals with this giving you the best of both worlds with the cost of super low pedal engagement
(Yes, I know the icons are visible in one picture, but so is most of the stuff noted in this "article".)
"At the rear, we see an 11-speed FSA cassette with the top two cogs removed to make it a 9-speed cassette. Chris tells us that, at home, the Athertons limit the bottom end of the cassette (remove the hardest two gears) as they like to pedal the bikes around Dyfi Bike Park. FSA don’t yet produce a 9-speed derailleur, so a SRAM derailleur takes care of shifting."
I feel like with Conti it's like "IYKYK" but a lot of people think they are average.
My experience in cars with them is they make, arguably, the best tires going. And now we see them right at the front end of World Cup DH racing.