74 -AMB
TESTED
axle is in front of the steering axis or the steerer
tube. In the case of the S-150 the fork crown has
less forward sweep, 42mm offset, compared to
the standard 51mm offset you will find on your
average 29er fork. This gives you a better and
more consistent contact patch with the trail, for
ample amounts of traction. When coupled with
the long front triangle and slacker head angle
(65.6 degrees), it offers a calmer approach to the
steering. In many ways it’s a more centred ride
and makes you feel as if the front wheel is almost
beneath you in some way, becoming more central
to the steering. On the trail it offers more traction
by allowing you to keep a better contact patch
with the front wheel and therefore enabling you to
hold a straighter path and have increased control
through the gnarly stuff.
Geometry and innovation are a hard balance to
get right but it’s something that Whyte have nailed
here. From the moment you throw a leg over, the
bike feels balanced. I instantly felt at home here
and it wasn’t long before I was up to speed. The
slightly longer chain stays (compared to other
29er enduro bikes) at 425mm and long front end
ooze stability. Before long you will be railing turns
and finding that perfect line of carve to dance
down the trail. I wouldn’t necessarily call this bike
flickable, it has an ability to pick a line through
tight and twisty corners like no other. In the rough
it is planted and while 29” wheels have the well
known ability to roll over anything, this bike truly
has an element of fearlessness.This S-150 begs for speed - keep your cadence up
and the trails become a blur. For a bike of this size
it’s an exceptional pedaller, but at times it can
still feel slow, particularly on tight flat trails. And
this isn’t a bike that likes too much cross-country,
which you would imagine would be the case in
an enduro bike. But the more I rode it the more it
seemed a simple spec change would do the trick.
Some have pointed out the weight of the entire
package at 13.5 kg, but there are plenty of ways to
bring that down. For me, a lot of it seemed due to
the tyres. Up front we have the Maxxis Highroller
2.3” and in the rear a Minion SS 2.3”, which are
both excellent tacky fast rolling tyres for descents.
However, I was unable to find the edge of grip
around the trails where I ride. If I had extra time
I would push for a more trail spec just to keep
everything that little bit fast rolling - although that
is purely down to the geography of where I live.
For the truly mountainous regions of Australia you
wouldn’t want to change a thing.This is a bike that just wants to go the moment it
get’s a whiff of a descent. And with the geometry
the S-150 has, along with its custom offset, it
seems you can push that little bit further on grip
before you run the risk of sliding around.AND SWITCH....The ’S’ in S-150 stands for ‘Switchable’. When
the S-150 arrived I was also given a set of 27.5
plus RaceFace ARC 35 hoops, complete with
Whyte hubs, a pair of 2.8” Maxxis tyres and a set
of tools to switch over the cassette. The result
is an invitation to hit the trails with a completely
modified steed.There are quite a number of big name brands
that offer this sort of adaptable bike, but more
often than not one option is better than the other.
That wasn’t so with the S-150 - the 27.5+ tyres
accentuated the classic leanings of what I think
is Whyte bike’s hallmark trait: cornering. The
2.8” tyres scream grip and that’s what they give
you, a metric tonne of it. It’s a lot of fun, but it is a
different style of riding. They say it takes an extra