Innovation - 17 January 2025
The Ultimate DH Bike? Our Gates Belt-Driven A.200.G
Travelling to races in 2006 Dan Brown, Athy, Gee, Rach and the mechanics Stanny and Ed Haythornthwaite dreamed of the ultimate DH bike and more often than not the topic of a gearbox bike reared its head...
Dan Atherton said “Gearbox bikes were already there in the early 2000s, Greg Minnaar, Brendan, Matti Lehikoinen were all on the Hondas, they looked awesome, they didn’t go into production though and that project fizzled out. But we always talked about how cool it would be to design our own. It’s a big undertaking for us, partly because of the change in the distribution of weight, partly the added complexity the packaging brings, but Additive Manufacturing (AM) is great for letting us test and improve things quickly.”
“By 2019, we had our bike company, a passionate Head of Design in Rob Gow, and those conversations about how to build the ultimate race bike continued over pints and grub in “The White” all through the 2020s, there were lively debates, and notes scribbled on anything that came to hand, until in 2024 the opportunity arose to partner with Gates Carbon Drive to make the dream real.
Rob said “The new mid pivot suspension platform gives us our optimum racing performance. Using a belt and gearbox drive system allows us to execute the mid-pivot system with a simple single-idler arrangement. This gives us the best performance in the simplest design package.”
It was a huge commitment to go from drawings on paper to first prototype but we have the huge advantages of AM, we can achieve things in a matter of months rather than the years it would take with a traditional manufacturing process. That is if you have designers that don’t mind putting in the work! A massive shout-out is due to Dave Weagle, Rob Gow, and our designers Scott Aisthorpe and Will Carne, it was their drive and commitment to the project that massively accelerated progress, we have an amazing first prototype but we’ll continue to develop and iterate as we get closer to the season.
The A.200.G is an all out race bike. Dan Atherton said “It’s a bit heavier than the A.200 but the weight is more centralized, traditionally the mech puts quite a bit of weight on the rear axle; unsprung weight is lighter so the suspension can move more freely. It creates a planted feel to the bike, not super playful but still dynamic enough to go fast. If I’m riding at the park I’d still choose the A.200, there’s no plans for this bike to replace it but for Charlie at a World Cup track he’s going to see a lot of benefit from this belt-driven version, he’s loving it already.”
Rob Gow said, “We already had a lot of confidence in the A.200; we’ve refined it over five seasons of racing with some great results and loads of detailed race team feedback. It was a great platform to start from, with lots of commonalities for our new version of the race bike, the two big changes we made were replacing the derailleur system with a belt and gearbox and moving from a traditional linkage set-up to a mid-pivot system, still using the DW6 kinematic. Both of these changes carry their own design, engineering and manufacturing challenges… Building the prototype has been a massive passion project in the company…everyone got involved: the Athy Bikes crew, Charlie Hatton, race team manager Lloydy and Head technician Ben Lovell all played a part in assembling the prototype.
First Ride
The first ride day came around quickly – on a damp day at Dyfi Bike Park, Charlie headed to the top of the mountain. The objective of the day was simple “Make sure that everything works and that nothing falls off!” With such a new design there was going to be a massive learning curve; we had a great team, all the right people around us to make this new race bike insane … but still, it was very early stages and there was quite a bit of apprehension… It didn’t last long, Charlie completed his first run grinning from ear to ear…
“I kept saying to myself it’s the first run, slow down, make sure nothing falls off but it just wanted to go, …I don’t want to speak too soon but it feels F+++Ing amazing.”
We’re going to be sharing loads of insights into the development of this bike as we build to the first World Cup and beyond so for those techies out there or if you’re into innovation or behind-the-scenes drama keep tuned to our channels for more…