Strengths: Light weight, quality kit, good fit, looks fantastic (acid green limited edition). Excellent ventilation. Protected my head in more than one fall.
Weaknesses: None
Overall: It's a top of the line helmet so expect it to be pricey, I had mine for 4+ years and only a stupid North Shore fall (off a 5ft platform and head butted the ground) was enough to break the lid (hair line crack appearred). I'm going to miss it.
Strengths: Fitted easily. Stops mud flying off and blinding you, loads of clearance.
Weaknesses: Front mount broke after two rides and then the remaining rear half of the mudguard and the mounting bracketry disappearred into the night coming off Saddleworth moor.
Overall: The mounting bracket feels very delicate so you really don't want to do it up too tight for fear of cracking it and that leads it to fall out when it gets a bit vibey. The plastic mud guard mounting brackets are too thin and too rigid leading to fatigue, weakening and breakage over a few rides.
Strengths: Bright, simple to use and charge, well made. Good field of vision when used as helmet mount(not tried bar mount).
Weaknesses: Connectors are slightly fiddly to use (nit picking here).
Overall: They have opened up a whole new world of riding for me, week nights in winter. Thankyou HOPE. No more getting fat on the sofa staring into the night.
Good for about 25mph off road downhill as a guide for how fast you can go. Basically I'm at about 75-85% max daylight speed downhill at night.
'06 REVIEW..........I'D BUY ANOTHER ONE IF I EVER NEEDED TO!'
Strengths: Quality components (bar one), Fantastic ride, excellant Marin backup. Climbs, stops and drops really well. Ideal do everything bike if all you can have is one beast.
Weaknesses: Headset. Uses pre-Challenger SRB O rings for sealing. 3 months winter riding and its shagged. Come on Marin what about a sealed bearing unit next time.
TARA link has come loose a twice, no traumas as a result but a bit disconcerting. It seems OK now its done up "harrier" tight.
Overall: Dream bike, I love it. It does what I want in one bike. Smiles every ride. The Fox fork travel adjuster drops the front end and makes climbing a breeze. Full travel settings make down hills fun and it corners fantastically.
Brilliant value for money full susser.
The quality of most of the components means that when you replace anything worn out there's no need to upgrade (bar the headset).
Strengths: Fantastic suspension, the front is excellant on fast technical stuff, it generates a lot of confidence. Generally a solidly built bike with simple maintenance of the spherical bearing being much easier than conventional telescopic forks.
Despite a lack of antibob/lock out the bike is a good climber as well.
Weaknesses: It make a take a bar and stem change to get the positioning too feel right as it is quite a tall front end as stock.
Front spherical bearing and shock is very exposed to the mud thrown off the front wheel. The rubber boot mod available from Whyte is a must as is the crud guard as well. The front spherical bearing on mine has lasted 3 years and is now up for FOC replacement as it is covered by the lifetime warranty.
This is a pain as the shop has to do it with a special press but then again how many times in 3 years would I have had to strip, clean, rebush and rebuild a set of tele's.
The cane creak headset fitted as stock is rubbish and shreds very quickly. The Whyte front end makes headset choice problematic due to the steerer tube fouling tall stack height headsets like HOPE or Chris King.
Paint chips and wears very easily....I must admit to seeing it more as a charcter trait than a flaw though.
The brakes were upgraded to disks as I wanted more stopping power. The only other bits to die were a back wheel from one large whack on a downhill too many and the usual consumables like chainrings, cassettes and chains and tyres.
Overall: Not quite as maintenance free as possibly advertised and the front end takes a bit of adapting too as it can plunge on the brakes and have you over the bars on slow "dippy" technical stuff, however the same front end is confidence inspiring on faster stuff and the maintenance is easy once you get the hang of it.
The bike never let me down or marooned me despite long bouts of neglect/lack of washing and a somewhat carefree attitude to downhilling over some fine chalk downland "flint block" runs.
Always a good talking point outside the pub/cafe and you don't see many about if your after that individual bike.
Would I buy another when I break this one or it wears out underneath me. ......YES....pity production stops this year.
Strengths: Fantastic grip, I've climbed some slopes that caused my Mud Mads to spin out. Good side grip on most surfaces when traversing slopes. I've had no punctures with these tyres either (2.25's).
Weaknesses: Clog in gooey mud, but shed it easily when the going dries out. 2.25's make the steering a little bit slower. They wear fast on tarmac. £27!
Overall: Great tyre, grip well, work on most South downs surfaces. I would buy these again. Note: to all Whyte owners with plus 4 front end, 2.25's rub the fork when the suspension hits full compression, it does not upset the bike, just sounds bad. I'll try 2.10's next time.
Strengths: Had them fitted for six months now. They are very light, exceptionally cool construction, in that "techy" expensive way. Easy to fit, good instructions including tightening torques for bar ends and radiusing handlebar furniture. Crashed a few times and still not marked them.
Weaknesses: Probably not for downhill (though they are doing are sterling job on South Downs flinty "black" runs).
Overall: Blinder of a bar for XC tradionalists. It's flat, light and puts up with inept downhill attempts.
Strengths: Stupid power levels available to you once sorted, good control of the power you can apply and it looks the business as well.
Weaknesses: I can bleed motorcycle systems to perfection but this was incredibly difficult to do and eventually I gave up and gave it to my LBS to sort. Even after that the stock hope pads self destructed in 10 miles. They broke up and gave no confidence in the brake. A set of EBC greens were fitted and the problem sorted. You would think Hope would supply decent pads to start with and not the comedy efforts they seem to come with.
Overall: Possibly an isolated case of teething gremlins but annoying none the less. I would suggest getting your LBS to fit and bleed them after my experiences. I will update this page in a few months with details of the systems reliability.
Strengths: Excellant level of grip on muddy trails and grass. Front end slides do not mean a grass tasting session, if you can keep it upright the grip normally comes back. I now crash at least 15mph faster than before. They seem reasonably punture resistant.
Weaknesses: No grip on South Downs Chalk, but very few tyres do grip on this. Hard work as they grip so well in the mud, they can sap your energy. Tarmac grip is a bit iffy, you sometimes feel like using "the force" would get you around the corner safer. They only seem to clog when mud and lots of leaves are present (avoid beech lined trails, these are the worst).
Overall: If you want something you can take the p**s with on previously no go trails these are the babies. Bear in mind I do very little road work on them and if I did I would probably use something else. However, I bought them to go fast offroad in the winter and for this they are very good.
