Interested in a Whyte 19 carbon frame, however it's got a BB30 bottom bracket shell.I know absolutely zilch about the BB30 standard, other than I read somewhere it does away with a BB and uses an oversize axle. Is my M970 XTR chainset compatible with a BB30 shell and if so what extra parts will I require ?

No it's not directly compatible. You'll need a convertor kit (don't know if Whyte do them, but Cannondale certainly do) to shim down the oversized press fit shell to a standard BB thread so you can put your regular external bearing BB cups in.

I think you can fit an XTR chainset to that frame, you need one of THESE

Not sure about the 19, but the E-120 comes with a shim already fitted to allow the use of "standard" BBs.

Well mine did anyway 🙂

Thanks for the info, very helpful, Cheers.

try this…

http://wheelsmfg.com/content/view/785/54/

Whyte 19 frames should come with the adapter (my Ti did).
This is what I'm using though.