Innovation - 14 March 2025
Episode 2: A.200.G Gates Belt Bike, Prototype Development Ahead of Schedule
The Atherton A.200.G (Gates Belt Drive) Project is moving forward fast!
In late January, Atherton Bikes introduced their new, belt-driven bike to the world and only a few weeks after that the Project Team (CEO Dan Brown, riders, designers, engineers and mechanics) made the decision that Charlie Hatton’s prototype bike was already very close to meeting their objectives for this new race machine and was ready to move forward to Phase 2. Charlie’s flawless performance at Red Bull Hardline Tasmania sealed the deal.
Atherton CEO Dan Brown shared that the company’s biggest learning from the first prototype tested was that the rear chain-stays used were too stiff for this new configuration. Atherton’s lug and tube construction gives them huge flexibility to adapt and iterate designs quickly so by the end of Hardline week, several months ahead of schedule, Charlie had a new prototype to test complete with new, more flexible chain-stays.
The prototype bike that Charlie took to Red Bull Hardline in Tasmania had the same thicker carbon chain-stays that are found on the A.200. Still, Atherton had introduced an adjustable brace which allowed them to tune the compliance much more easily. The fast, dusty conditions at Hardline demanded a fairly stiff rear-end but the team were very aware that back home in the Dyfi mud they’d be looking for a lot more flexibility to enable the rear of the bike to move around a little bit more and find the grip.
Dan said “We know that compliance on the rear-end is vitally important to how our bikes perform on track and we’ve worked on it a lot over the last five years, particularly with Charlie who has a great feel for this; swapping the chain-stays was the one change we made to the next prototype frame we printed, we used trail-bike chain-stays with a thinner carbon wall which makes the bike’s rear-end more compliant. We added the bracing, and if and when we needed more flex, we took it out. This gave us a much more workable compliance window, and we’ve been able to experiment a lot with some very positive outcomes.”
Charlie said “Taking such a new prototype to Red Bull Hardline was obviously pretty risky, with such a brutal track and the whole biking world watching us but it was also really informative; no problems with the bike at all, but we did have a problem with the shock bolts bending which just shows how much force is going through the frame. It’s been so interesting playing around with that compliance window; too far one way or the other and you very quickly know you need to move back a bit. During this process I’ve learnt that “comfortable” isn’t always the best for speed. I judge my race bike by different criteria to the A.170 or the S.150 for instance…testing at Dyfi Bike Park I’ve found that the A.200.G feels better in some sections than others and that’s OK; when you’re racing you have to forget what feels most comfortable and run what makes your bike fastest, the clock doesn’t lie!”
Next...
Stay tuned for Episode 3 where we explore new suspension from Fox and potential changes to our kinematic…