9 Bike Questions with Gee Atherton

Things got a little TMZ-ish last year. Rumors had been making the rounds for months that all three Atherton siblings had signed a three-year contract with Trek as the title sponsor of their team (the Atherton's retain ownership of the license and management), and that was confirmed with a December announcement that turned out to be just one of a handful of major team movements within a few months time.

Now, three months after the news that the Athertons and Taylor Vernon will all be racing aboard Treks, we caught up with Gee to ask him some follow-up questions about his new Session while the team was in Spain for a testing camp and to shoot with Anthill Films for Not2Bad.





Mike Levy: The Trek Session and your previous race bike, a GT Fury, are both top tier bikes, but they're also very different in how they work. What would you say are the one or two most noticeable differences between the two?

Gee Atherton: Well, the very first thing that we noticed, even when we were unpacking the boxes, was the weight. The Session 9.9 is so light! The next thing that we noticed is harder to quantify, but I think the best way to describe it is that there is a real precision about the Session. It's obvious, even at a glance, how well thought out the bike has been.



Levy: Were you on a production Fury frame, and are you on a production Session frame? Was it a matter of transferring bar height and reach numbers from one to the other in order to duplicate your previous setup, or have you made changes in that regard?

Gee: The GT Fury frame I rode in 2015 was custom sized for me, and it took a while to get it right, to be honest. I tend to like my bars at 790mm wide. That’s the same, and I don’t expect it’ll change. Bar height we’ve replicated as far as possible but there are some differences in how the bike works and rider position, so we’re still experimenting.





Levy: You've tended to run coil-sprung shocks for a lot of courses while some other pros are starting to run air suspension more often. Have you spent much time on the Float X2, and do you see yourself using it more on the Session than the coil X2?

Gee: We’ve tried and tested both and I just prefer the feel of the coil - it seems more responsive. Some riders chose air because of the leverage ratio of their frame; that’s not necessarily an advantage with the Session.



Levy: How much does your Session weigh?

Gee: Late 34lbs or a shade under 35 depending on the build.






Levy: You were a bit coy back in November when I questioned you about if the team will be using Bontrager tires... so, will you guys be using Bontrager tires? And if so, do you see yourself on the G5 for the majority of tracks?

Gee: Yeah, we’re running Bontrager G5 or G-mud, we haven’t had as much time on the G5 as we’d like yet - even when we got to our training camp in Portugal we chose the only week with snow in a year!



Levy: How long does it take you to get used to a new and completely different bike? Are we talking a handful of rides, or is it a longer process that involves testing and changing settings and parts until you feel up to race speed?

Gee: It's an evolution. You can have an initial feel you think is right, but until you’ve tried and tested other things, you never know. It was great to have the guys from Trek with us for some crucial moments; they showed us a lot of shortcuts! This week with Fox has seen huge progression, as usual. The expertise that team bring is awesome.






Levy: With so many big names changing teams, 2016 is going to be an exciting year. Other than the obvious answer of winning everything while on your Session, what sort of results are you going to be happy with?

Gee: Yeah, there’s been a lot of changes! But I try to think about my own game rather than speculate too much about what anyone else is doing. I can’t tell you that I’ll be happy with anything but wins! Last year was hard for me, chasing points the whole season after that practise crash at Lourdes. A lot of people have asked if being on a new team adds to the pressure, but nobody could put me under the pressure that I put myself under and historically I’ve always reacted well to change. I’m so stoked with the Session; I can’t wait to hit the track.

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