Atherton Racing mechanic Polish Pete built up the first of the team's GT Fury DH bikes at their winter training spot in Southern California yesterday. Check out this video of the build by Pinkbike Video Guru Aaron Larock and listen to Pete talk about the bike and the parts the team will be running this year. As Pete says this is a pre-season bike and all parts and graphics etc are subject to change before the beginning of the World Cup race season.



For the 2012 race season the Atherton Racing team of Gee, Dan and Rachel Atherton and Marc Beaumont will be running a stock GT Fury frame. The bike is white for now while the team graphics are being finalized, but we can expect to see something different once World Cup time comes around. This bike has an Ultegra 11/21 9 speed cassette with a 36 tooth chainring up front that will probably remain standard through the season, and they've been working with Continental and Stan's on a tubeless setup that is pretty much dialed now. More information on the GT Fury can be found here on the GT website

There will be a few little details that will help to adjust the geometry of the bike. The team will be using a slightly shorter than stock shock, as well as offset bushings and an FSA Orbit Option headset. This will get the headtube angle to 63 degrees, and the bottom bracket height close to 13.6"

The team will be running the Shimano Saint group the same as last year, with a few proto bits here and there, such as these brakes with an XTR style lever and a prototype Saint Caliper. PRO is working on a new Atherton line as well so we'll probably be seeing some new parts from them soon such as this 800mm PRO Atherton bar. Gee is running one a little bit shorter than the full 800mm.

The bike is built up with an E-13 SRS Plus chain guide that the team will be using this year.

For 2012 the Team will be running Fox Suspension the same as before. Everything will be fairly standard, with a few details such as a slightly shorter than stock shock, and a custom race tune. This bike has a normal spring on it right now that will be replaced with a Ti one as soon as possible, and this seatpost will be swapped out for a new PRO Atherton one as soon as they get them.

The Atherton Racing team is sponsored by One Industries for clothing this year, however the team kit is not quite done yet, we'll have details on that as soon as they're available.

Atherton Racing Q&A Session

Pinkbike's Aaron Larock will be doing a video interview with Gee and Dan later this week, what questions would you like to ask them? Write them below in the comments and we'll get them to answer as many as possible in the time we have.