Windy got a new bike.
It’s a medium 2018 Whyte S-150 S. The decision to get this bike was based primary on the modern geometry and, in this case, the ability to switch from 29″ to 27.5+ wheels. While the ability to use the big tires wouldn’t normally be a thing where we live, our goal was to deliver a bike to Windy that would be a useful suspension bike in normal riding where her hardtail leaves off (29″) and to have something super confidence inspiring for when we go to the chair lifts and extreme trails (27.5+). Hopefully, this does that. This is her first full suspension bike so we wanted it to be nice and work well.
We’ve got a trip to Whistler planned for the summer and a few days up at Northstar to get ready. This will come in handy for that. Last summer, she rode a few days at Angle Fire, Downiville, and Northstar on her hardtail. She did well but it was hard on her. That wasn’t going to go over well again.
Of course, it’s been modified a bit. Revive 185mm dropper, Onxy rear hub, and a well fit cockpit. A 34t chainring replacing the stock 32t and a leather re-covered WTB saddle. A DT 350 front hub with Torque-caps and fancy SRAM 180f/160r rotors. Metal pads in place for the win.
The wheels are pretty slick with the amazing Onyx hub and giant WTB i40 Scraper rims with the Maxxis DHF/DHR 2.8″ tires. This is some crazy fire power to bring to the trails. Heft.
Fork damper fluid swapped out for some Red Line Like Water, which may be a little too light. It may get exchanged for Extra-Light. Volume spacers have been removed. We’re trying to get this fork moving while Windy learns to smash harder.
Cool things to note are the use of the SRAM Force rear flat mount rear caliper. Go fast shit. The bike had come with an adapter from FM160 to PM170 for the post mount Level caliper but I decided that I couldn’t let this nice hack go to waste. It looks super clean compared to the stock setup, and it’s right.
As the bike rides a bit low with the 27+ wheels in place, I actually ended up with a special headset fit to the bike to help it out, along with the fork stroked to 160mm. A shame this didn’t make the clean photos.
Below is the print for the bike as it sits with the 27.5×2.8″ tires, +25 head cup, and 160mm, fork.
