Recently there was another round of the Western League Summer races held at Gloucester Boating Lake on 13th June.  The prizes & medals for the previous Winter League (2011-2012) were handed out after that race and I was lucky enough to collect a Bronze medal for my efforts on the Whyte Saxon Cross prototype bike.  Many thanks to Nic Burridge (a fellow Whyte CX racer) for taking the picture.

Pat Alexander, Whyte R & D.

www.road.cc review our stealthy urban warrior, the Whyte Kings Cross.

“Whyte have been pushing their relaxed geometry across their whole range of bikes for a while now; it works well on trail bikes and it works on their flat bar urban bikes such as the Montpellier too…”

“Step aboard the Kings Cross and pedal off, and the first thing you’ll notice is that slack geometry. It makes the bike quite long (the wheelbase is 1126mm) and it’s very relaxed…”

“At £799 the Kings Cross is firmly aimed at the leisure and cycle to work market, and people who buy it will no doubt spend some time on trails and paths but in all likelihood they’ll spend most of their time on tarmac. The Kings Cross is actually quite an adept off-roader; I took it down some technical trails on its standard road tyres back when it was dry, and had no issues with the handling…”

“You can happily munch miles on it and it’s responsive enough to cope with most types of terrain, so if you’re looking for an all rounder for a bit of everything the Kings Cross can certainly handle that…”

Read more @

http://road.cc/content/review/60408-whyte-kings-cross

Survival!

Whyte Bikes 2013 demo @ Peak Cyclesport in Macclesfield.

The event will be the first dealer demo with the new range of 2013 Whyte bikes including the new 29ers as it is the Sunday (8th July) in-between our Northern and Southern area road shows. The event will have access to private trails, catering, tech support and new 2013 bikes available to ride.

Below is the advert that was in the local press and here are the website link and demo link…

http://www.peakcyclesport.com/

http://www.peakcyclesport.com/whyte_demo_day

Many thanks guys…keep them coming to [email protected]

Great report from BBF from the winning Whyte / Torq MTB team in the 12 team event.

The Ritchey Bikefest, held on the newly built trails of city centre riding hub, Ashton Court in Bristol is an excellent event with a laid back atmosphere. Racing takes place on a short, but fast lap with many sections modelled on a pump track, so rollers, jumps and berms galore…

Having taken many podiums at the event for the last few years (including taking the win ahead of some professional road rider back at the Oktoberfest  http://www.torqfitness.co.uk/news/ritchey-oktoberfest), the team always come into these events as marked riders, which does put pressure on them to perform. This year was no exception. We had entered the 12 hour with a male team of 4 and a mixed team of 4 and both categories had some strong competition.

Our main competition in the men’s team was from Cube bikes who had set up opposite the TORQ stand, with a line up including 2 national champions and a couple of professional riders from the Danish Cube team.  The mixed team category also had a strong line up with the likes of the www.XCRacer.com team, which ensured that it would be a tough 12 hours of racing.

Read the full report @

http://www.torqfitness.co.uk/news/ritchey-bikefest

Many thanks for the images so far, it’s great to see your bikes in action…keep them coming!

Remember to keep your images below 2mb and send them to [email protected]

MASTERS MEN, British XC series, round 4 Kirroughtree

Luke Smith made sure he covered all eventualities today in the Masters race after the disappointment of the previous round at Hopton Woods. The Whyte Racing rider stormed round the four laps some five minutes ahead of his nearest rival to take a fine victory and another step closer to the series overall. With well over a minute lead on a chasing Dan Wells (Cube Bikes UK) and Tony Fawcett (Blackhawk Bikes) on the opening lap, Smith was a rider on a mission and would make sure he had enough time to cover any problems encountered on the bike. Geoff Beetham (Retrobike.co.uk) was sitting in fourth spot well out of the running on the now gloopy course. Smith would increase his lead on every lap crossing the line ahead of second place Wells who in turn had managed to break the elastic to ride away from Fawcett and finish almost a minute to the good of his race rival.

Despite winning by nearly six minutes, Smith revealed after the race he was not aware of the time gap at any stage and rode to avoid any repeat of the previous round, in which he suffered a mechanical while leading.

“I didn’t realise I had that much of a gap to be honest, I wasn’t getting any time checks during the race so I just kept pushing on. I held back a little at the last round and when I snapped my chain I realised I hadn’t given myself enough time to fix it and get back into the lead so today I made sure I had given myself plenty of time just in case anything happened, I would have time to deal with it, so from the gun today I went as hard as I could. I wanted the win as well today because I was so disappointed with the last round.

“The conditions really suited me today, the bike handled brilliantly on the descents, it’s designed with the British scene in mind and it’s just perfect for a course like this. Every lap seemed different today as the race went on, it was getting really sticky towards the end and you had to get the lines right coming out of the descents otherwise you’d get swallowed up.”

Result - Full Result and lap breakdown
1 Luke Smith Whyte Racing UK 1.36.14 4 laps
2 Dan Wells Cube Bikes UK 1.41.56
3 Tony Fawcett Blackhawk Bikes 1.42.53
4 Geoff Beetham Retrobike.co.uk 1.49.00
5 Shaun Wells Team Cookson Cycles 1.50.03

http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishcyclingphotos/7393632700/

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20120618–2012-British-Cross-Country-Series-Round-4–Kirroughtree-0

Photography courtesy of Andy Whitehouse

Highland Trail 400

I’ve just returned from an excellent six days mountain biking around the Highlands. I’d got an invite to join Alan on his reccie ride of a new route which hopefully next year will become an annual Bike packing race Colorado Trail style. Speed touring is how Alan described the reccie. That turned out to mean 12 to 15 hour days with café stops and either bivy, bothy or hostel accommodation. Four of us became three due to illness, the fourth rightly gutted to miss the trip.

I’d heard of many of the Glens and passes but it was new riding territory to me. Pretty much everything went well. The route was spot on, the scenery started great and just got better and better as we went through Gleann Mor and then onto Fisherfield. The only slight disappointment was the new track serving to upgrade the pylons through Gulsachan Forest, although in its favour it meant easier riding! We found some excellent singletrack hidden away in the mountains, and some hairy descents. The weather was generally sunny. Yes, sunny whilst the rest of the UK suffered rain and wind. The heavy rain didn’t begin for a full hour after we had finished. It’s still not stopped as I sit at home typing this. Total stats were 735km and 14800m ascent in 77 hours total and 55 hours riding time. The photos were taken with my phone and don’t do the area justice. I’m already looking forward to the race…..

The gpx route can be found here.

Start planning for the race now – whether it takes you four days or eight days it will be an epic!

The trip proved to be good kit testing ground ahead of the EWE race next month. The same prototype Whyte fs 29er that I had ridden on the Cairngorm loop was a superb comfortable and fast ride. The thin walled tyres suffered with the abrasive Scottish rocks – by the end both tyres had multiple sidewall slashes repaired with various plastic bags. It reminded me why I normally ride tubeless ready and stans sealant. My tried and tested Satmap Active 10 gps once again was perfect for navigation in unknown territory. I tried an Exposure boost cable and piggy back battery to keep the Satmap charged which worked well. (It could also be used to charge my phone). Another item I wanted to try was a tarp, having not really bothered before. However, I’m still not convinced.  A waterproof bivy bag seems altogether simpler than a tarp and lightweight bivy bag combination – final decision for the EWE yet to be made.

- Steve Heading