Why the Whyte S-150 is one of the most exciting bikes of the year

Jamie Darlow

29in wheels, 150mm travel, big sizing, nuff said.

whyte s-150

The Whyte S-150 is a 29er trail bike, with 150mm travel front and rear and a carbon-fibre frame. It’s a sort of natural progression from the T-130.

Whyte S-150 need to know

  • New S-150 carbon trail bike with 29in wheels takes the venerable Whyte T-130 to the next level
  • Long, low and slack: 65.5° head angle, 335mm bottom bracket and 1212mm wheelbase in medium
  • 150mm travel front and rear, with a new custom Pike fork with 42mm fork offset and a metric rear shock
  • Big sizing: the medium S-150 measures up to a 19.5in Trek Slash or Large Evil Wreckoning

As we say, it’s a natural progression for Whyte, taking the T-130’s looks, modern geometry and suspension design on to bigger 29er wheels and longer travel.

It’s great timing for Whyte too, big wheels are stepping into enduro and downhill racing and 29in trail bikes are better than ever.

whyte s-150

Whyte S-150 details

Whyte’s designer Ian Alexander told us the bike had been designed to work with a short stem, the length built into the bike. “It’s a homogeneous unit that performs unlike anything else with 29in wheels,” he said.

As you’d expect they’ve kept much of the design that we liked about the T-130, like the single-chainring only design and modern geometry. But they’ve added something new too — a RockShox Pike with 150mm travel — if you’ll remember, SRAM said the Pike’s travel in 29in would stop at 140mm, so Whyte have gone and got themselves a specially made fork with longer travel.

They’ve also got Pike forks with a special fork offset. Almost all 29er forks come with increased fork offset figures of 51mm. Whyte have got Pikes with 42mm offset. This is a good idea.

Read this – Fork offset: what is it and how does it affect your riding?

We said earlier that the S-150 is a trail bike, but that’s not how the Whyte Gravity Enduro Team is seeing things — Martyn Brookes has just won the 2017 British Enduro Championship at Graythwaite on the new bike.

It’s got the geometry for it, if Whyte’s figures are right, because these new bikes are large with a capital L — the size medium matches up closely to the winning enduro bikes from the April issue (Evil’s Wreckoning and the Trek Slash) and they were size large bikes.

How much and when when when?

Pricing isn’t ready yet, but the T130 RS was £3,500 with Pike forks, carbon frame and SRAM X1 drivetrain. You’ll be able to but one by the end of July.