2023 - What a Year!
December 28th, 2023
“Cyfarchion y Tymor” as they say in Machynlleth, or Season’s Greetings to all…
We hope that you have enjoyed this year as much as we have – there have been so many new highs for us, on the racetrack, in the business and in the media and we’ve loved having your support every step of the way – it makes a huge difference to us to read your comments, to talk to you on the sales channel or in person at races, HQ or the Bike Park…
Starting chronologically April saw the launch of our AM170 or “The best bike Dan Atherton has ever ridden”. The AM170 has already earned several fantastic reviews most notably MBR so you don’t need to take our word for just how great this bike is!!
There’s another “living proof” of this bike’s capability – we’d be surprised if any of you haven’t seen Gee’s spectacular Dolomites edit (current views have topped the 30 Million mark!) but it’s always worth a second or third viewing… Gee said “Choosing the AM170 for this edit was a no-brainer -it’s tough enough to withstand being bounced off cliff walls as we hauled it up a cliff on a rope, lighter to hike up the mountain than my DH bike, pedals super well and is enough bike to tackle every inch of the steep and rocky terrain."
Talking of Gee – more huge thanks are due to you guys for all the encouraging messages which are helping his recovery to fly by.
But perhaps the biggest highlights of the year have been on the racetrack on board the AM200 – our Rach became “the world’s fastest mum” at Lenzerheide – then nipped back to the pits to feed baby Arna!
Andi Kolb took our first Men’s Elite win in Leogang (some great fake ‘taches in the home crowd definitely helped him ride faster… as did all the miles he put in during the off season on his 150 (secretly I think this is Andi’s favourite bike!)
In August at Fort William, in the most wretched storm conditions Charlie Hatton “rode like it was dry” to take the first Elite World Champs win for a British bike brand. We always knew that our bikes and our riders had what it takes but this level of success so early in our story is mind-blowing. Silver for Andi was the icing on the cake and that moment when he saw his team mate on the hotseat will go down in MTB history …
We hope you’ll raise a glass for us this holiday… we intend to have a few days off, but rest assured, work on our brand new range is nearing completion …
See you all in the new year!!
- Athy Bikes Family