Review
Moving to Dyfi and Buying an S.200
21 March 2025
Horatio Foster is our Athy Bikes Events Assistant , If you’ve ridden with him on a demo you already know how handy he is on a bike! “H” as he’s known around here takes us through his love of New Zealand… and why he’s spending his wages on the new S.200.
HF: I’m Horatio, I’m 24 and I love all things bikes and outdoors. I love travelling (especially with my bike), I’m a big fan of dogs, love a mountain, love a good view…
It was actually two of my best mates, Laurie Tennant and his older brother Finn that first got me into bikes. There was a small forest above our kindergarten with sketchy wooden jumps and drops, we’d ride there as often as we could whilst our parents walked the dogs.
I had an old Specialized 20 inch hardtail with a grip shift so every time I landed a drop I’d change down 5 gears and the chain would fall off! Biking has changed quite a lot since then!
When I got a bit older I got into school sports – rugby, tennis, swimming etc, and biking took a back seat for a while.
Moving to Dyfi
I joined Atherton Bikes just under a year ago. It was pretty much a dream come true, as a young kid I was absolutely obsessed with the Atherton Project. I remember first seeing the job ad for an Events guy, the description looked like it had been written for me, but the deadline for application was a day or 2 away, I rushed out a cover letter and up-to-date CV and wanged it off, not expecting any response. You can imagine my surprise and excitement when Gill gave me the call to say they were keen to meet me!
I moved to Dyfi where I live in Corris, there’s riding 5 minutes from my door which is just insane. I used to live near Salisbury in Wiltshire where it’s pretty flat and all the land is farmed or private. Illegal dirt jumps were the main form of biking so having proper tracks on my doorstep and Dyfi Bike Park a 3-minute drive away has been incredible. I love it here, my favourite place on earth is South Island, New Zealand, and Dyfi is the closest I’ve found to it in the UK. There’s a slower pace of life here with a good community feel, it feels like you’ve gone back in time a decade or so, as it does in NZ. I love a relaxed vibe.
I’m definitely a jump-orientated guy. My favourite form of biking is dirt jump trails and having a fun bike has always been super important to me. I’ve never raced as I’ve always thought of biking as fun and didn’t want to add a competitive side to it; plus I suspect I'm the kind of guy to just see red out the start gate and have a big crash in my race run! Having said that, since riding Dyfi Bike Park and spending some time on the S.200, I’m keen to give a few local races a go.
I used to have a Commencal (or a “Crackandsell” as they’re known in the Dyfi). I did think it was a good bike, till I got on an Athy… Preferring the jump orientated type of riding I always wanted full 27.5 wheels, but when I got on the S-Series Atherton Bikes I realised a mullet setup can be incredibly playful. I love the S.170 but a full downhill bike is a different ball game at Dyfi Bike Park, so when the S.200 started being developed I was really keen to give it a go. I can confirm this is the bike I’ve put my name down for!
Having had a super busy summer at all the events and demos around Europe and the UK, I managed to swing January off to go to New Zealand. As I mentioned I love NZ, I spent 9 months in Queenstown 2 years ago and rarely left; it’s swiftly becoming my second home. The Kiwis aren’t workaholics like we are in the UK, they are super chilled out, and prioritise a good time over work. The landscape around Queenstown is insane, the riding is incredible, and the locals are as sound as they get. Having managed to borrow a prototype S.200 I spent just over 4 weeks riding it every single day on some of the best trails and downhill tracks in the world. The MTB scene is booming in Queenstown, and the level of tracks and riding is unlike much in the UK. I left the UK feeling like a fairly competent rider, but once I saw how good the young kids are and the scale of the jumps and tracks in NZ I swiftly realised I was well below average J Everything is just more gnarly!
Having said that, progression is super-fast when you ride every day in the terrain out there, and having a bike that ate everything up and still wanted more made the world of difference. I am convinced that 90% of being a good mountain biker is confidence. You can have all the skills in the world, but without some confidence, you can look like an amateur. Similarly, you see amateurs with bag loads of confidence who are riding tracks and jumps that strictly speaking are well above their pay grade. This is where the S.200 shines, even though the tracks and jumps were rough, gnarly and big, the S.200 always felt incredibly predictable and inspired confidence, the perfect fit automatically gets your weight distribution sorted and the team have done so much work on compliance meaning I could roll into features and jumps confident that the bike was going to react as expected.
I run the majority of the demos at Dyfi Bike Park, so I’d spent most of my time on an A.170. Whilst it’s an extremely impressive bike (I honestly believe it’s the ultimate enduro race bike), I prefer a more playful and poppy ride. I’d always loved the S.170 but felt that a full-blown downhill bike was needed to be able to ride Dyfi Bike Park to its full potential. My first lap down Dyfi on the S.200 made my decision: this is the bike I’m spending my wages on! When driving the S.200 through a lip to boost a jump it is incredibly responsive, it actually multiplies your pop and allows maximum boost out of the lip – you'll be winning high jump contests on this thing!
I’d love an A.200, it’s the ultimate but I feel the S.200 is more suited to my riding style and my skills (or lack of!) I’m keen to develop my tricks and 360s, which means lots of crashing and throwing the bike. Carbon is not massively suited to that type of thing, whereas 7075 aluminium is 60% stronger than the weldable alternatives most of our competitors use so it’s incredibly resistant to rock strikes, scratches and general abuse. It’s really a must for me. Besides, it would feel wrong somehow to repeatedly throw an A.200!
Coming from mainly riding jump bikes I prefer a smaller frame size, it’s more playful and flickable so that bit easier to spin and throw tricks on. I’m 6 foot 3 but I’ve gone down a few sizes from the fit calculator’s recommendation to choose a size 7 (470mm reach). It feels like the perfect balance between stability when I’m going fast and riding downhill, and flickability for when I’m trying tricks.
If any proof is needed of the confidence it gave me, or of its sheer dialled geometry and kinematics, I tried my first ever 360 on a big bike (having only ever there’s a jump bike) and landed it first try. I surprised myself, as a downhill bike is far bigger and longer than a jump bike, and even with the 29er front wheel the 360 came around super easily, I was stoked!
Apart from the great performance that is synonymous with Atherton Bikes, I reckon the S.200 is the best-looking bike yet! Everyone that saw the bike pulled over and properly checked it out, the main reaction being “that is a rideable price of art!”. I would have to agree, the CNC head tube lug blends into the top tube and down tube to create an extremely burly but refined looking front end. If you want to be the centre of attention in the uplift queue, get one of these!.
S.200.3
I decided to take a build 3 (the entry-level spec) S.200 to New Zealand as we hadn’t done much testing on that build and I was keen to see how it would perform. I was amazed at how well it handled everything, I didn’t find myself needing anything more. I probably put six months’ worth of riding into that bike in the space of four weeks… no problem. The Rockshox Base fork wasn’t my favourite on the big DH tracks but it was spot on for bike park use which was the majority of my riding. For my own bike I’ve ordered a build 1 with Rockshox Ultimate suspension.
Setup was super easy, the DW4 suspension platform lends itself to a comfortable and supportive ride straight out the box. I especially love how supple the DW4 is right off the top, but then it progressively gets more supportive as it goes through the travel – it really is the ideal all-rounder for downhill and jump use. I’m so hyped on this bike.
The engineers have nailed it (as usual). Working for Athy Bikes of course you’d expect me to wax lyrical, but I genuinely love the S.200 (enough to put my money on one!) and would in all confidence recommend it to anyone that wants a fast bike that also does fun really well. If you’re a downhill racer on a bit more of a budget, or a park rat that loves boosting lips, this is the one for you.