Gee Atherton’s “The Slate Line Project” Downhill Bike

It’s a mullet so it allows me to get off the back more easily on the super steeps which means that the bike can move around more. Something that loads of our first customers have said is that the frame gives you confidence, and that’s definitely true for me; when I’m taking on these projects the frame’s strength needs to be an absolute given, The Ridgeline had already proved how tough the bike which was a brilliant piece of evidence to have in the back of mind when I was up on that hill waiting to drop in!

The DW6 suspension platform makes sure that I’m totally connected to every tiny contact point I can find in the trail but I still have the support I need for the massive hits. We’ve tested 12 iterations of DW6 Downhill bikes in the last year so we were really able to fine-tune the suspension and geometry. That level of testing and tuning in a short period of time is nearly impossible in other frame and suspension architectures.

Most of the time for racing I’ll run an air shock but to optimise small bump sensitivity for this line we softened the rear with a 525 lb coil shock, I like my suspension quite firm and we increased the high speed compression to hold her up in the bumps. Fox 40s on the front.

I guess the biggest difference to my race set up is tyre pressure. There is hardly any grip to be found on that loose slate, as soon as you set off, the whole surface is moving underneath you, trying to carry you down the mountain. I needed the tyres to have as much compliance as possible so we ran them ridiculously soft, sometimes as low as 18psi. The tyres were Continental Kaiser prototypes with Stans sealant and hubs and the slate was so sharp it was literally cutting the knobs off. Unbelievably in 7 days of intensive filming and at such low pressures, I finished the week with the same set of tyres I’d set out on.