Athertons Reveal Their Own Bike Brand

Rumours of a new bike brand have been slinging around for a while now but they seemed to be far-flung. Chatter about Merida, Marin and others involving the Atherton Racing program for 2019 started back in September last year. Then there was the parked athertonbikes.com domain, adding suspicion to the mix. 

Now it's official. The Athertons are indeed starting their very own bike brand, Atherton Bikes. They will spend 2019 and beyond racing and developing them, and they'll be manufactured in the UK with the help of former Robot Bike Co. founders, Ed Haythornthwaite, Ben Farmer and Andy Hawkins. They've also sided with industry mountain bike suspension legend, Dave Weagle. Will we see an updated version of the DW-Link, a Split Pivot, or will they use the new Orion suspension design? 

It's a massive move to not only fund your own team but also build a bike brand. The Athertons have sided with Piers Linney, an entrepreneur from the Dragon's Den TV show. Linney will join as a co-founder and together they aim to have the first bike, a trail bike, available to the market in 2019. Expect to see everything from DH race sleds to e-bikes from the brand in the future. 

Exciting time in bikes and racing! Full release below.

Dan, Gee and Rachel announce the launch of Atherton Bikes 

Dan, Gee and Rachel Atherton are excited to announce the launch of their new bike brand, Atherton Bikes. The siblings will partner with renowned suspension designer Dave Weagle and utilise ground-breaking additive manufacturing technologies combined with carbon fibre tubing to “create our ultimate range of bikes.” Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Piers Linney will join as a co-founder of the newly formed company with the introductory Atherton Bikes range scheduled for sale in 2019.

The Atherton Bikes brand has been a lifetime in the making with Dan building his first bike in 1992 when he was just 10 years old. But in recent times the family’s dream of pushing bike development as hard as they push their riding has become irresistible.

Dan Atherton said, "It’s always been a dream of mine for us to ride for our own bike company. We’ve ridden for some great brands and we’re proud of the part we’ve played in the development of DH bikes from the Commencal to the Trek Session and trail bikes like the GT Sanction. We’ve always really enjoyed the process, from working with the designers on the early stages through to testing and refining prototypes on the World Cup circuit. But because of the way that the sponsorship system works we’d soon be starting over with a new brand." 

Gee continues “We will start with what we know best, focusing on high-level product designed to be ridden aggressively! For 2019 we’ll race our own prototype bike and we’re planning to bring that DH bike to market, along with a range of trail bikes. We’re working with some amazing guys formerly of Robot Bike Co., and they’ll be an essential part of our start-up, they are as passionate about the technology and its potential to disrupt the industry and shake-up the large corporates as we are.”

The Athertons met Ed Haythornthwaite, one of Robot’s founders, when he was Dan’s World Cup mechanic in 2006 and their ongoing friendship was the catalyst for this venture. Ed’s understanding of what works on a bike and his passion for improving a rider’s experience underpins the development of the entire range.

Ed’s co-founders, Ben Farmer and Andy Hawkins both come from an aerospace and Formula 1 background. They are experts in composites and additive manufacturing (metal 3D printing) which allows for full customisation of every bike frame.

Rachel said “The dream has always been to race our own bikes, and the additive manufactured bikes are so exciting and ground-breaking—the ultimate bike! Through our entire career, we’ve been proud to represent our country and support the next generation of bike riders, so the fact that we can deliver our new brand through a UK based company is just incredible and the icing on the cake for us!

We all believe that having the right bike for you and the stage you are at with your riding can transform your experience. Our big goal is to see kids, all mountain explorers, bike park shredders, racers and e-bikers enjoying our bikes—just saying that sounds mind-blowing! 

This is a genuine start-up business that we are building from the ground up, it’s going to be a huge undertaking to bring our bikes to market, even with Piers on board to help us. Our learning curve is steep but the dream of bringing Atherton Bikes and our love for riding to everyone is about to be very real!" 

Piers Linney said “As a rider myself I’m extremely excited to be working with the Athertons to deliver a new product range that meshes my enjoyment of MTB with my passion for new technologies. Exciting times ahead.”

More announcements on our race team, line-up and key partnerships in the coming weeks, follow Atherton Racing and Atherton Bikes on social media for all the latest. 

Website: https://www.athertonbikes.com

Instagram: @athertonbikes

Facebook: @athertonbikesco 

Twitter: @atherton_bikes