Whyte has long been at the forefront of trail bike design with its T-series models, and now there’s a relaunched T-140 RS trail bike with a sub-£3k price tag and upgraded spec for the money. The refreshed model comes with the same frame design we heaped praise on the last time we tested it, but with a parts hop-up, including a full SRAM GX 12-speed drivetrain. It tops the T-140 range, with the T-140 S sitting below it at just under £2k.

The T-140 RS is a bike that “attained trail bike excellence” according to our review back in 2022, so hopefully Whyte has retained the same playfulness and superb suspension setup as before.

The frame may be the same but the price certainly isn’t.

Whyte T-140 RS need to know:

• Same 6061 aluminium frame frame as before, but with a boosted spec for under £3k
• Fox Performance suspension front and rear
• 140mm front and 135mm rear travel making it a solid trail option
• Upgraded groupset to SRAM’s GX Eagle 12-speed (from NX/GX mix previously)
• 29in wheels as standard but can be run with MX setup

The new gloss white and black colour certainly stands out, but will it stay clean for long? Our guess is no…

Whyte T-140 RS

So it’s not a new bike by any means, but it is a new spec. Not a massive overhaul of components, but some subtle upgrades that make the bike more worthy of its price point – as well as reflecting the current state of the market.

The T-140 RS is an out-and-out mid-travel trail bike, and the popular frame is now equipped with a full SRAM GX 12-speed mechanical groupset, with a 32T front chainring and 11-52T cassette. The 6061 aluminium SCR frameset hasn’t been updated since 2022, but it’s still a pretty forward-thinking geometry, and comes with Boost dropouts and a flip-chip for those who want to run a mullet wheel setup.

The previous Whyte T-140 received plenty of praise when we tested it.

From the box, however, it comes set up with 29in Race Face AR-30 wheels front and rear, a front Maxxis Minion DHF tyre and Maxxis Dissector at the rear. Suspension-wise, the T-140 RS is sporting Fox’s Float 34 Performance Elite fork and a “custom-tuned” Fox DPS Performance Elite Evol LV shock.

With 140mm travel up front and 135mm at the rear, it’s firmly in the trail/downcountry category, but it’s not lightweight by any stretch of the imagination. The previous iteration weighed 15.3kg and the upgrades haven’t been significant enough to reduce that weight dramatically.

But what has reduced dramatically is the price. Back in 2022, when we reviewed the Whyte T-140, it was on sale for £4,099. The new price of £2,999 is pretty damn good for basically the same bike. And as Whyte looked to continue to refocus its priorities and somewhat reduce the range of bikes it offers, it bodes well that the brand is keeping the T-140 RS (for now at least), and at a very competitive price.

whytebikes.com