ATB. I saw it on Pi Manson’s Instagram. If you’re on Instagram you probably did too, because I can’t imagine you’d be browsing tiny photos of bikes on your phone and not regularly stop in at Clandestine. Pi credits the idea to BikePacking.com. ATB, All-Terrain Bike. It’s a very old term, once offered as an alternative to MTB, but here, it’s being used to mean something different. Pi’s words:

“I’m pretty taken with @bikepackingcom idea of the ATB. I think it’s a more generalist, approachable kind of bike than a gravel bike or whatever…” 

It’s what I’m turning my Waltworks V1 into, and in that sense, an ATB is close enough to being a mountain bike, indeed convertible into a mountain bike in many cases, that some folks will suggest it’s being pedantic to even bother trying to crayon-in margins for the different machines, but I don’t think so. To me, MTB – mountain bike – implies a level of capability on local trails that my refreshed V1 will not have. 

*Title shot by Mr. Lungtastic

Certainly, on some level, it’s still possible to break most bicycles down into three categories – road, mountain, and commuter. And maybe ‘commuter’ is so much a use case that those bikes can be further streamed into road and mountain. A flat-bar road bike is a road bike. A slick-tired mountain bike is a mountain bike. 

Gravel-road bikes and ‘cross bikes are just road bikes that can fit big tires. Or regular tires with full fenders. Monster-cross bikes are mountain bikes with drop bars and really tall stems. My Waltworks ATB is just going to be a mountain bike (MTB) with full fenders, a sick front rack, a road cassette, and 2.6″ semi-slicks. It will be good for pavement, gravel, and light trails. I won’t ride it where I ride my Waltworks V2 and I certainly don’t think of them as the same thing or overlapping in anyway. ATB v. MTB. 

I find myself wandering down this path today because of my friend Stevel Knievel, AKA Stephen Seagull, sent me a picture of his drop bar gravel bike on what is clearly a mountain bike trail with the caption “Does this count as fully rigid riding?” Which, I mean, clearly, physically, it does. But also, as a response to my own writing about rigid mountain biking – replacing full suspension mountain bikes – as the query was intended, it does not. 

The obvious litmus test is MB-1. If Phteve, Steve-with-a-ph, was forced to sell all his bikes but one and wanted to continue riding aggressive black and double black trails with his friends he’d hock his groad bike right now. Could I see him riding aggressive trails on a rigid single-speed MTB? Absolutely. Plus he has the skills to swap parts himself, and owns a #1FG hardtail already so going between a rigid and squishy fork would be an investment of mere minutes. I think once he tried a 29+ tire in front, on a proper wide rim, he’d be running that with both setups anyways… yes… I did just realize he would have been an easier target than Ryan. 

Now if you’re wondering why Mr. Seagull would survive his gravel bike down mountain bike trails when he owns a perfectly good MTB, well I understand he wants to get out and ride the bike and there are only so many places he can take it. A picture paints a thousand words but I can’t show you what he sent me because I’d like you to come back. If you really, really, need more information just imagine a Muddhugger anti-theft device mounted on the back of a carbon Kona all-road rig. 

So I’m responding to Phteve, and I’m thinking about my renewed rigid-MTB turned ATB rig, and it dawns on me that what I need is not a way to distinguish groad bikes from ATBs but rather a way to distinguish my Waltworks V2, Larry Talker’s Unit, and any number of other properly aggressive rigid mountain bikes intended as sag-wagon replacements not ’80s MTB’s with bigger wheels. Enter the DHT. 

DHT, Double Hardtail. I’ve come around to the fact that ‘rigid mountain bikes’ sound cheap and lame and leave a lot of room for confusion. And also a lot of openings for old dudes to tell you about how much better their carbon super-bike is for mountain biking compared to the rigid Ritchey they owned in 1986. Or, for friends to troll you with pictures of their road bikes on dirt. Who needs it? 

In the same way that Pi’s explanation of ATBs makes perfect sense to me in defining a machine like my V1 compared to a groad bike, and also compared to a Shore-worthy MTB, I’m looking for a way to better define my 64° HTA rigid beast with a 480mm Reach and ~1255 wheelbase. For a medium-large. Everyone thinks hardtails sound punk rock, hard rock, alt-rock, glam rock, goth rock, rap rock, basically whatever kind of rock music they think is core and original so you know what sounds way more badass than a hardtail? A Double Hardtail!  

Thanks, Steve. 

*Parting shot by JacAttack.