Why Mountain Biking And The Athertons Are Synonymous

In July 2009, British Cycling announced the full teams for the Mountain Bike World Championships which are to be held in Canberra, Australia from 1st to 7th September 2009. It is no surprise to see the Atherton family featuring in the announcement with the two boys in a variety of categories riding commencal bikes.

The mountain biking category is one that has won the hearts of youngsters and the not so youngsters in Britain. This culture seemed to take hold in the early 1990s although the bikes from this time look a little dated by today's standards. With big design improvements by 1997 the mountain biking culture had really taken a grip in the UK.

Today it is proudly represented by people such as the Atherton family. They make up the Animal Commencal team which was formed back in 2007 with three of Britain's hottest DH riders, Dan, Gee and Rachel Atherton, signed up. Back then the team piloted the Madison distributed Commencal Supreme DH Team bikes which were kitted out with plenty of Shimano components, DT Swiss wheels and Fox forks.

The years that have followed show that the Atherton family have come up trumps in racing and are also ideal as they have been superb at presentation. Their story started back in a small Devon village where the two brothers, Dan and Gee, and sister, Rachel, spent their earlier years riding bikes of all types. The three of them shared a mutual taste for speed and adventure.

The family moved in 2000 to North Wales to find more suitable terrain, which turned out to be a good decision with the two brothers being National Champions in 2004. The three of them since then has gone on to win World Championships, World Cups and also European titles. The Athertons have fans whom follow them all over the world.

Rachel became the first woman to win the Elite Women UCI Downhill World Championship in June 2008 aged only 20 at the time, and with an impressive margin of 12 seconds. She also won the BBC Midlands Sports Personality of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year 2008.

One of the newer design elements to help bikers such as the Athertons is the PST concept of Commencal which came about, as often some of the most important things in life do, from a simple observation. PST stands for Perfect Size Tubing.

A bike rider's weight will increase according to their height, which means that extra stress is caused from a rider's weight are higher on the larger sized frames. On these larger sized frames tube deflections are even more important because of longer tube lengths especially on the front triangle. This becomes even more significant on the seat tube and top tube as they are in a direct relationship with 2/3 of the rider's weight through the seat.

By using this concept for new commencal models such as Meta 4 and Meta 5 frames, the set and top tube diameter have been increased and as well so have the seat post diameter for the large and x large frame sizes. PST greatly improves load distribution which leads to increased stiffness, comfort and efficiency.