Review
Tech Meets Trail: An Engineer’s Take on the A.130
04 August 2025
Chris Payze is an engineer from Bristol and the go-to guy if you want some help with your suspension set up! He loves his A.130 for its unusual aesthetic and the interesting engineering behind it… and was drawn to the brand by the fact we’re as keen to talk tech as he is!! Chris is always looking to push himself on a ride and loves the added confidence the A.130 gives him. Read more about Chris’s experiences out on the trails…
CP: "I'm an engineer for a job, but I've been a mountain biker since I was a teenager, buying MBUK and Steve Peat was winning races on a rigid Kona!
Honestly, I think I like the suspension tech as much as the riding, I'm always fettling and my mates often ask me for setup tips! Me and two schoolmates mates I used to ride to Clipstone Forest (now Sherwood Pines), and if we were lucky, one of our parents would take us to the Malverns, Wales (when Coed-Y-Brenin first opened) and once, a week before the Grundig DH round, caravanning across to Kaprun with our bikes. I took my first trip to Morzine in 2000 and bought my first disc brake for the occasion (only a front, mind!).
I live in Bristol, so I'm lucky to be surrounded by South Wales, the Forest of Dean, the Mendips and the Quantocks. There are a few of us who ride together in various combinations, all of us the wrong side of 40, but there are some good riders in the group which always challenges me to ride more difficult stuff. Mainly, we like the natural, steep, techy stuff; none of us is that fussed by a jump line! I mainly seek out more natural trails, and I like a day out on the hills, or at a trail centre, as much as Enduro laps.
Bike Park Wales gets a few visits a year. And I've been lucky enough to ride abroad in the Alps, Andorra and Finale. I did race one or two NPS DH rounds when I was at uni, but I'm nowhere near competitive, never have been!"
"As an engineer, my interest was piqued by the prototyping-turned-manufacturing approach and the 6-bar linkage. But it was when the A.130 came out that I started to get interested. I chatted with the Atherton team a lot through 2023, and they seemed as keen to talk tech as I was, which was great!
I test rode the A.130 and A.150 back to back at Dyfi and was instantly struck by their calm nature without losing the playfulness (my previous bike was a Santa Cruz 5010, so playfulness is a trait I like). I always prefer being under-biked to being bored/sluggish on the mellower trails, but the A.130 was a step up on the descents compared to my old bike, whilst still feeling urgent enough on the climbs. The A.150 was 'similar but more' on the downs, I could ride faster, especially as things got rough, but ultimately with a similar 'feel'.
But on the ups, I felt like the 'lively and more urgent' feeling of the A.130 was more my style. The worst thing, for me, is getting to the end of a big day ride and feeling like the bike is a drag, and I go plenty fast enough to scare myself on the A.130! I still manage the odd black run at BPW, just at a slightly slower speed, and with more satisfaction having not crashed on a trail bike! I'm not racing, so fun is more important than ultimate speed. More speed = bigger injuries, and I've already had my share of those! Even after only a couple of rides, my mates spotted that I was riding steeper, techier stuff more smoothly and with more confidence on the A.130 compared to my old bike.
I eventually placed my order on April 24, when I decided not to get a new car!"
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Chris's Perfect Fit
FRAME: A.130, 470 Regular, Size 10/22
"I'm just shy of 5'10" (177cm), but with slightly long arms and slightly short legs! I deliberated around the 460 and 470, and around the low and regular sizes and eventually went for the 470 regular.
I couldn't be happier with it. I can JUST fit a One-up 210mm dropper reduced to 200mm in the frame, which suits me nicely.
I like a lot of room to move. I hadn't previously got on with the 29ers I've ridden, but with the Atherton, I haven't found it a problem… and it picks up speed so quickly!
This is the first bike I've bought entirely new since my Raleigh Max when I was 14! It's a 10-year bike for me, so I custom specc’ed it with my genuine 'dream build'. I took a day off work in the September sunshine and built it from scratch on my decking."
I’ve got a lot of hours in on the bike, plenty of trips to various areas of FoD, Cwmcarn, Risca, etc and a brilliant trip to Sierra Nevada for some epic natural trails. Bike Park Wales recently really let me compare some familiar, quicker (and drier) trails for the first time. The bike felt great. I’ve taken it to Cwmcarn Cafall, to Dyfi Bike Park, to Finale Ligure. This bike gets used for EVERYTHING! Trails to the Bike Park blacks. It is my only bike other than a commuter, and the only bike I need! I suppose I'm a bit old school.
I prefer tech and the rough stuff to jumps, but I'll happily hoon a flow trail too. And I still like a day out in the hills as well as a session winching up fire roads and seeking out the enduro lines. I've skied a bit, and I'd liken moving to the A130 to moving from old-fashioned skis to 'new' carving skis. I say 'new', because most people probably never experienced the old long planks in the 90s/00s!
There's an excitement around the Atherton brand. Even friends of friends had 'heard I was getting one', and the first few rides started with everyone having a look. People out of the trails are often interested to see it and ask how it rides, and I do get a few 'nice bike mate', especially from younger riders/teenagers! A few have heard a little about them and want to know more - which I'll happily geek out about until they're bored! I've started to notice that there's a bit of a community around the brand, too. If there's another on the trail, they'll often stop for a chat.
One main reaction at a bike park is their surprise that it's not the A.150 ot A.170 I’m on. They think I'm doing well on the short travel bike, until they realise my mate is on his hardtail (he's a bloody good rider)! I took the bike to Sierra Nevada; A mate of mine has been riding there for years, but I've never managed to go with him. It's properly up the end of a valley, no villages beyond and some great trails around (We pedalled up some, and did some van-based uplifting too).
There’s a lot of variety across the area, from sand, river beds, loam, trees, rock, etc. The food is decent, too! Would recommend it! Other than a couple of local rides, it was the A130’s first big outing. The guy I went with (Alex) is usually slightly better and more confident than I, but the bike certainly helped me keep up, and on one occasion, even ride a steep section that he rode around. I noticed how quickly it picks up speed on the descents, fewer hang-ups on the rough stuff, etc.
My Santa Cruz 5010 had coils front and rear(Push ACS and elevensix), and the A.130 has an air shock, so it's particularly amazing how plush, calm and composed it is by comparison.
The sweet spot in terms of weight distribution is so much larger, too. It gives me confidence to push it through corners, knowing it's going to drift evenly if I push too hard.
I love to fettle suspension, and despite not being a pro rider, I do seem to feel small differences. I'm the same with my car on track days. I'm an engineer, so I love to analyse it and understand how suspension but this bike confused me. Not in a bad way though… It works so well, it's difficult to know what to tweak! I've moved the pressures and damping settings around a fair bit and found it has never become bad! Yes, its character has changed, but the sweet spot seems to be huge. Even with what I now know to be way too low pressure in the shock, it still didn't bottom out harshly. I'm not sure I've ever genuinely felt a bottom out. The hardest thing has been getting my forks to feel as good as the rear end. I've re-valved them twice, and I think I'm finally there.
I hate feeling suspension sapping my energy at the end of a long day, so I've always loved a pedalling platform for this, and also to make a bike playful on smoother trails. But I've barely used the pedal switch - only when getting a lick on along the towpath, road, etc.
For me, MTBing is one of the few sports that combines being out in the countryside with keeping my attention and adrenaline up. I just don't get on with road riding. I always want to improve and ride more skilfully and confidently. I'm lucky that most of my riding mates are better than me, so it means I'm always pushed. I love the A.130 for the sleek but utilitarian aesthetic and the fact it's a little unusual, as well as the interesting engineering behind it. Calm, composed, capable. But crucially, not 'dead'. Still playful and lively. I have noticed that I've 'found my flow' more often on this bike. It's cheesy, but it's true. It's the closest I've come to feeling something close to like we all wish we could ride - in the pro videos!