www.road.cc review the Whyte Montpellier
by Keith on Jan.31, 2012, under Whyte R7, Whyte Reviews
http://road.cc/content/review/51315-whyte-montpellier
Whyte Montpellier @roadcc “All in all it’s an excellent ride”…”well built and enormous fun to ride”.
“First impressions are that this is a light bike. It’s not 16lb like the original Montpellier was, but it’s still sub-20lb and it shows”.
“What is noticeable is the slack geometry, and not in a bad way. It’s a lovely stable bike, which goes where you point it. I was worried that the head angle would make the steering feel a bit mushy, but there’s none of that. Even with the amusingly named Ultra Narrow bar – ‘only’ 58cm wide – the steering feels direct and responds well to your input. The upright position means that there’s not a lot of weight over the front wheel, but even so the front tyre grips well and the bike never feels vague”.
“You could ride this bike all day, no trouble at all. It’s comfortable, efficient and easy to pilot. The transmission is excellent, with well defined shifts and good feedback. The frame is exceptionally stiff through the bottom bracket and chainstays so you never feel like you’re wasting your input”.
“All in all it’s an excellent ride. There’s lots to like about the Montpellier and if you’re in the market for an expensive urban bike then I can recommend it. Admittedly that’s a bit of a niche but equally, this bike would do for a light tourer, or a flat-barred ‘crosser if you’re not a serious racer. It’s a pretty versatile platform. The main reason not to buy one would be that you can have the next bike down, the Stirling, for £600 less, and at £999 it sneaks under the cycle-to-work limit too. Okay you’ll have to make do without your Hope bits, and it’a a bit heavier overall, but I can’t shake the feeling that if it was my money I’d be hard pressed to justify the extra expenditure for what is, in nearly every sense, a very similar machine. I’m guessing they’ll sell a lot of Stirlings and the Montpellier will remain a low volume range topper, albeit at a lower price and higher volume than the previous year. That doesn’t make it a bad bike though, it’s very well built and enormous fun to ride”.
Read more @
http://road.cc/content/review/
-
Welcome to Whyte World!
Thanks for dropping by! Feel free to join the discussion by leaving comments, and stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed. See ya around!
