2023 Whyte

T-140 RS 29er

Can Whyte’s do-it-all trail bike really do it all?

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Whyte’s new T-140 RS 29er plugs a very obvious mid-travel, big-wheel hole in the range of the UK brand. And it does so with an outstandingly sorted, ‘favourite from the first ride’ feel that’s up there with the very best full-suspension mountain bikes, especially if you’re really into technical trail riding. Need to know New, 29in version of Whyte’s popular T-140 trail bike Frame travel is 135mm and all models run 140mm forks, hence the name Whole ride feels absolutely spot on straight away with a tenacious yet flowing trail connection At 15.3kg (33.7lb) it at the heavy end for trail riding Three sizes only; so no XS or S sizes in 29in Now if you’re wondering where this bike has been, it’s not because Whyte was late to the 29er party. Au contraire. Its original T-129 was a genuine cliché-deserving game changer when it was introduced a decade ago and the S-120 was arguably too early for the ‘down-country’ boom. Yes, a faster rolling, bigger wheel version of Whyte’s multi-MBR test winning T-130 and T-140 trail bikes has definitely been missing for a while though. And with the brand largely caught up in corporate cost saving exercises, ahead of a sale that got sorted last year, the project got delayed. Covid wasn’t the best time to develop a new bike either. But it’s finally here and while the alloy front end looks similar to existing Whyte frames it’s totally fresh, the most obvious difference being the sleeker, straight top tube and external seat collar. The back end shares dropouts with the T-160 but again it’s new, the T-140 sporting a bridgeless seat stay design to keep the chainstay length well under 440mm. The addition of weather sealed cable/hose entry points, super wide main pivot and lifetime warranty on the pivot bearings will also allow you to sleep easy, even when the rain is bouncing off the roof. Whyte retains its signature four-bar linkage/ shock-yoked suspension, where the switchable ‘Shape.It’ shock chip knocks 0.7º off the head angle and 8mm off the BB height in the low setting. How it rides It’s the dynamics of that linkage however, and the tuning of the Fox Performance Elite DPS shock, that Whyte designer (also two time and current National Enduro Series Champion) Sam Shucksmith spent most of his lockdown locking down. And considering how many brands have refined the classic four-bar linkage suspension layout since it appeared on bikes 30 years ago, and how good most of them feel, the fact that Shucksmith’s work makes the Whyte feel noticeably better is seriously impressive. We could – and did – pull lots of parallels out of comparable bikes from Canyon and Specialized during testing, but the bottom line is that the Whyte just feels more right, more of the time. It’s slightly more sensitive to grab grip in desperate climb and corner moments. But with a split second more advance when it deliver the power to edge you up, or out of a …Continue reading »

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The Whyte T-140 is very much the classic trail bike of the Whyte range. Enough travel to cope with most things but responsive and efficient.

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