Tweet

Whyte E-120 XT

The Whyte E-120 platform goes into it’s third year pretty much unchanged. Sharing the Quad-link 2.0 suspension system, it’s a sort of carbon cousin to Marin’s alloy Mount Vision series. With two years of price increases across the bike industry, and due to its Carbon monocoque construction being expensive to change but easy to reproduce, Whyte have stuck with the original geometry. The once super-bike price tag is suddenly looking very good value indeed!

The E-120 is offered in three flavours: the totally uncompromised, superbike-specced, limited edition XX model (£5499), the XT tested here (£2999) and the entry level S model (£2699). The middle XT model offering the best value for money and you get a lot for the extra £300 over the S model. It’s also offered up frame-only at a stunningly good value, £1499!

it’s an impressive chassis and worthy of superbike status...

The Whyte is billed as a bit of a do it all bike from XC-race, to trail, and everything in between. It’s very light but certainly not XC-race light in this spec - the potential to go sub 24lb is there though. It was a full 2lb lighter (26.5lb w/pedals) than the near-as-dammit identically specced Mount Vision 5.8, and almost as strong and stiff feeling to ride. It’s an impressive chassis and worthy of superbike status. Even if it doesn’t have the superbike price tag by today’s standards!

The E-120 looks like an incredible piece of engineering. Construction is carbon monocoque for both the front end and the swingarm. There are carbon linkages in the Quad-link system too, and it's held together with titanium bolts to further trim weight. The headtube is grossly oversized and reinforced, and features an integrated headset. The frame profile flares and bloats in all the right places, and all but total traditionalists will love the looks.

Small but useful engineering touches are everywhere. The bespoke Whyte seat-clamp is a work of art. A chunky alloy collar and oversized lever feel good in the hand and it holds the seatpost very securely. It never requires massive amounts of tightening and it doesn’t suffer in bad conditions as it’s slot free - and it probably goes a long way to stopping accidental frame damage from over tightening.

and lifetime warranty on bearings make for a bike you can ride regardless of the conditions...

The Whyte also features its own Big Gripper dropouts allowing for all manner of axle and hub standards, and any wheel can be upgraded to fit! In practice it was a touch more awkward in use than say a Maxle rear end though.

Being UK-designed, the E-120 is no born-on-dusty-trails piece of exotica that you save only for nice days. The previously mentioned slotless seat tube, bags of tyre clearance, full cable outer, and lifetime warranty on bearings all make for a bike you can ride regardless of the conditions.

Geometry-wise, the E-120 sports a relatively steep head angle and slack seat angle compared to a lot 5” bikes this year. It provides for a bike that feels nice and roomy in the cockpit but is quite short and nippy feeling due to the shorter wheel-base. The bottom bracket is quite high, giving good pedal clearance in technical sections. But the roomy, low-slung top tube stops you feeling too perched up on top of the bike, and it also has the added bonus of giving bags of standover clearance.

the Whyte is a place to spend miles, and as many as you can manage...

In riding, the Whyte makes its weight (or lack of) immediately obvious. Right from the off you get this feeling that the Whyte is a place to spend miles, and as many as you can manage. The tight, stiff chassis puts power down brilliantly, yet there’s a wonderful damping quality to the carbon – it’s stiff but wonderfully quiet (most of the time) and comfortable.

Climbing performance is, for the best part, a forte of the E-120. The quad-link 2.0 system serving up great traction and tautness under power and the roomy top tube letting you get your head down and go for it. With the light-weight build, you’ll find yourself mashing some surprisingly big gears on the ups. The relatively slack seat-angle does mar climbing performance slightly when the going gets particularly steep and technical. There’s a feeling of being sat off the back of the bike a bit at times and you’ll be reaching for the pro-pedal to try and prop yourself up a bit. It's not a huge deal, and unless you regularly head out to climb the unclimable - it probably won't bother you too much.

The Whyte isn’t just a light-weight, whippet climber though. In singletrack, the shortish wheel-base, light-weight, and instantaneous power deliver mean you’ll be chucking it around really twisty sections with ease. Point it downhill and the Whyte is far more composed and calm than the head angle might suggest. Stiffness across the frame, the oversized head tube and sensible width bars all combine to give fast but predictable handling and responsiveness.

Big rock gardens are more about keeping your cool and crafting the tidy line, rather than deliberately picking the worst line for kicks, but there’s little the Whyte won’t have a go at. And it always delivers you out of the rough stuff safely with minimal drama. Things do start to get a little bit noisy as the descents get bigger and angrier, with general trail noise being echoed throughout the carbon monocoque in an assortment of knocks and clunks. It’s a little alarming at first but you soon get used to it, the Whyte is as tough as old boots! 

the carbon Whyte just seems to dissipate the big hits nicely...

Suspension setup seems a little less tricky than on the Mount Vision, and we think the Carbon chassis might be adding a little here. Accidentally set the rear shock up wrong and the Carbon frame seems to provide its own extra little bit of damping. Whether the shock is too soft or too firm, the carbon Whyte just seems to dissipate the hits nicely and it makes for a forgiving bike when you do go beyond the limits of the travel.

Spec-wise you get an almost full XT groupset, including the excellent and light-weight M778 wheelset. The wheels are shod in 2.2 Continental Mountain Kings - they keep the weight down and keep things feeling fast. They aren't an all weather option though, best used in dry and intermediate conditions. And they are a little fragile/nervous for more hardcore riding. Stopping is done by the hugely powerful Avid Elixer CRs, and even on 160mm rotors, the Elixirs are almighty brakes! Suspension is handled both ends by Fox with the proven and popular RP2 at the rear, and an F120RL up front with the stiff and light 15QR axle.

the Whyte has a nice custom, hand-specced feel to it...

In terms of finishing kit, the Whyte has a nice custom, hand-specced feel to it. A Thomson inline seatpost, Fizik Gobi saddle, Easton EA50 stem and Monkeylite XC bars are the sort of kit you’d probably hand pick if you were speccing it yourself. And it all adds up to a bike that just looks and feels like a class act from the off.

Although unchanged for a couple of years now, the Whyte still feels like a state of the art machine. It’s light and tough and it’s really good value. Whyte have only slightly increased the price since ’08 and the spec hasn’t really suffered either!

It's a truly great all rounder and if you’re looking for a high-mileage, uncompromising, go-anywhere, do-it-all bike, it makes perfect sense. If you measure your weekly distance in hundreds of miles, not tens – and you’re after a handsome, reliable, light and strong machine – the Whyte could be exactly what you’re looking for!

Great value, do-it-all, carbon trail/xc machine.

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus