Last Saturday was my 5th London Bike Show anniversary (If there is such a thing). In my opinion the show has changed a bit and I am not sure yet if for the better or the opposite. What I still really much enjoyed was to have the chance to “touch” products you have so far just seen on social media.
This year I pin pointed exactly one brand that I wanted to learn more about…Atherton bikes.
I heard the Atherton’s were in town to display their new family brand. Especially the fact that metal 3D printing plays a large center point in the production of their bikes has sparked my curiosity! How is this going to look like!?
I am not an avid downhiller myself. I love riding off-road and I don’t fall off going down hill in a – let’s say – controlled speed. However I really enjoy watching other riders racing and I have a tremendous lot of admiration for the achievements of Rachel, Gee and Dan. This does not count just for the competition results as such, it is so much more that this family has achieved. To me they are basically the perfect picture of a very well functioning team, like a swiss clockwork. Working together to support one another, at the same time encouraging others to pick up the sport, waving the flag high for down hill mountain biking in a road cycling dominated cycle society and now starting their journey to disrupt the bike building industry with a technology known from aerospace and Formula 1.
I spoke to Ben Farmer, one of the co-founders of Atherton Bikes about the combination of an additive manufacturing process and carbon tubing and how you could build every bike made to measure for every rider due to the way these bikes are built.
If you are into this kind of technology you might have come across more technical articles about the process of Atherton bikes already. So please find below some of the shots I have taken at the London Bike Show of Dan Atherton’s P4.0 to add a bit of colour to the technical words you might have read already elsewhere.
Thanks again Ben and Dan for answering all my questions, walking me through the process and being utterly helpful. See you soon.
More about Atherton bikes can be found here: https://www.athertonbikes.com/
and here:
https://www.instagram.com/athertonbikes
