We spent the day in Afan Forest last week riding the new Whyte S-150. We posted our first impressions of the 29er here, but today we can also release details of another feature this carbon framed big wheeler boasts.
The Whyte suspension range had previously been made up of Trail bikes and Gravity bikes, hence the ’T’ and ‘G’ used for those model numbers. So you can imagine that we were pretty intrigued as to why the new bike gets an ’S’.
And now we know why…
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It turns out that ’S’ stands for Switch and the new Whyte S-150 is designed to run either 29in wheels or 27.5in x 2.8in tyres. What’s impressive here is that the switch to different wheels only requires the fitting of the new wheelset, there’s no need to flip a suspension chip or add a spacer beneath the lower headset cup as seen on some other bikes.
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Whyte’s head engineer, Ian Alexander, explained that the difference in actual physical size between the 29er wheels and large volume 27.5’s is so minimal that the only difference the wheel swap makes is a 6mm change in bottom bracket height. That difference is in the un-sagged position by the way, so it doesn’t take into account how much difference there is in sag between the 29er tyres and 27.5 plus tyres.
While the wheel switch feature doesn’t have an adverse effect on the geometry it does give the bike different trail characteristics. We got time on both wheelsets and from our short time on the bike, we can see that both options certainly have their place and open up different possibilities. What really struck us though was the amount of grip and surprisingly low rolling resistance of the 2.8in Maxxis High Roller II.
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To make the switch from each wheel size as painless as possible, Whyte has put together a couple of aftermarket wheel kits that included everything you need for the switch with at competitive price points.
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Each wheel kit comes with hand-built wheels with rim tape and valves pre-installed, a set of Maxxis tyres, front and rear disc rotors, a digital tyre pressure gauge, chain whip and SRAM Eagle cassette removal tool i.e everything you need to quickly and easily switch wheels around (except the cassette itself).
Two levels of wheel kit will be available ranging from a £1299 carbon wheelset hand built on Hope Pro 4 hubs, to a more affordable alloy kit based on Raceface ARC-35 welded rims and Whyte hubs for just £599. Full specifications of both wheelset below;
Whyte Carbon Wheelset
- Rim // Carbon Whyte 35mm rims
- Number of spokes // 28
- Spokes // Sapin spokes
- Hubs // Hope Pro 4 hubs
- Manufacture // Hand built
- Disc rotors // Centreline rotors
- Front tyre // Maxxis 3C High Roller II 2.8in front
- Rear tyre // Maxxis Rekon 2.8” rear
- Sealant // Whyte Seal.it tyre sealant in 160ml fill bottles
- Included tools // Digital tyre gauge, Chain Whip, Wrench
- Extras // Wheel bag
- Price // £1299
Whyte Alloy Wheelset
- Rim // Raceface ARC-35 welded rims
- Spokes // DT Swiss Comp spokes
- Hubs // Whyte Hubs
- Manufacture // Hand Built
- Disc rotors // Centreline rotors
- Front tyre // Maxxis 3C High Roller II 2.8in front
- Rear tyre // Maxxis Rekon 2.8” rear
- Sealant // Whyte Seal.it tyre sealant in 160ml fill bottles
- Included tools // Digital tyre gauge, Chain Whip, Wrench
- Extras // Wheel bag
- Price // £599
The Whyte S-150 and optional wheel kits will be available from July so keep posted as we hope to receive a test bike as soon as one is available.
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Decent rims on own brand hubs for *only* £599? Thats not a good deal.
^ with tyres, sealant and tools though?
So you did get a ride, any good? Or not allowed to say?
@alanclarke yup, rode it in both 27.5 and 29er. It was only a few runs on both as there were other things to test on the day too. The grip is immense on the 2.8in Maxxis and although you can monster truck over a lot it still feels agile.