Less than a month after we first reported that the Atherton bike brand would be releasing an e-bike in 2026, the first batch of what we now know to be S.170E’s are ready to be pre-sold via the Atherton website. Prices start at £6,999 with three build options set to be available for pre-order.
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A deposit of £1,000 secures your bike, and only 50 bikes are able to be pre-ordered within this pre-sale window. That’s a lot of ‘pre’ there… but luckily, we’ve got a bit more information from the bike brand to lay any ambiguity to rest.
The Atherton S.170E: what do we know?
Thankfully, there will be a lot less guesswork from us in this story, although we are pondering how they plan on getting a full-sized battery in the downtube from the pictures we’ve seen so far… but I digress.
We know the new bike is called the S.170E, and it takes a familiar form to that of the aluminium S.170 with 170mm of travel, 12 frame size options starting from 415mm of reach. We also know it’s a full-powered enduro e-bike, with an Avinox drive system. Which was apparently chosen as it allowed the Atherton engineers to maintain their geometry, chassis proportions and kinematics “exactly where they wanted them, without compromise.”
And that bodes well for fans of the analogue Atherton bikes, hoping that the same ride quality would be transferred to an e-bike. According to the brand, the bike will run a full-sized internal battery within the downtube, which means it’s not a quick-release (Atherton says that it is removable, just not quickly) battery system. Although, how many times have you actually had to remove the battery trailside? Actually, don’t answer that.
We haven’t got full Wh figures just yet as the battery tech is still technically under embargo, but we know the bike has been ridden up “1600-2000 metres of vertical” in the Dyfi Valley.
Geometry and components
You might wonder why it’s taken so long for the Atherton brand to come out with an e-bike, particularly when other bike brands have had generations of models come out in the time Atherton has released its analogue catalogue. But for Atherton, it’s never been just about picking up on the latest geometry trends.
The entire reason the Athertons started the brand was to build bikes they wanted to ride and race on. So it’s fitting that they waited until a suitable drive system became available, and allowed them to continue to utilise their knowledge of weight, balance, and how a bike handles, even when loaded up with an e-bike motor.
The S.170E still uses Dave Weagle’s DW4 suspension platform, offering 170mm travel front and rear. The idea being the bike still offers a supportive ride with the addition of a high-torque motor to get more out of your runs.
We won’t go through all the geometry details, but the key takeaway figures are that the bikes will use a 64º head angle and 77º seat angle. This is in keeping with modern enduro bike geometry, with a steep seat angle for climbing efficiency and a slack head angle for more confidence on steeper, techy riding.
The frame itself is to be made from Atherton’s S-range aluminium platform, with bonded tubes and subtractive-manufactured lugs from 7075 aluminium. The brand believes it’s this platform that can provide the stiffness and compliance required to enhance the ride feel of a full-fat e-bike.
S.170E builds
There are three builds up for grabs, with all options coming with Hayes Dominion A4 brakes, Continental Kryptotal tyres and Mavic E-Deemax wheels. Build 1, as it’s fondly named, is priced at £8,999 and uses Fox Factory suspension, a SRAM X0 Eagle Transmission and FSA Gradient carbon bars.
Build 2 uses RockShox Ultimate suspension, FSA Gradient alloy bars and a SRAM GX Eagle Transmission for the price of £7,999.
And the cheapest of the lot, Build 3, comes in at £6,999. It uses RockShox Select suspension, FSA Gradient alloy bars and SRAM Eagle 90 Transmission.
For those interested in getting hold of an S.170E, a £1,000 deposit is needed to secure one of only 50 bikes being pre-released. More bikes will be released at the official launch date, which is set to be around April/May.
Those who do secure a presale bike can expect their bikes to be shipped around that time, also. And, orders can be cancelled prior to production if you change your mind. The second episode of the Atherton EMTB development story is also now live on YouTube, which dives into more of the details behind the development and component decisions on the S.170E.
