Whyte’s aluminium hardtail – the 905 – has won a head to head with a Stumpjumper in the March edition of MBR magazine.

The 905 scored a 9 pointer – two full points clear of the competition.

What did they say about the Whyte? “This bike could actually convince us to mothball our full-suspension bikes in the winter!”

“Ride quality is streets ahead!”

Visit the MBR website here. Or Find your local Whyte dealer here for a test ride.

The Test

The 905 is made from hydroformed 6061 series aluminium. It gets a zero stack headset which means riders can not only run the bars lower, but increasing the diameter of the head tube allowed Whyte to weld on a bigger 51mm diameter down tube for greater stiffness and impact strength with mounts for direct Crud Catcher attachment for 2010.

Down the back there are shaped and curved seat and chainstays for compliance, cold forged and CNC dropouts and a nifty QR seat clamp which interlocks with the frame.

Whyte specs a 120mm travel RockShox Reba SL fork, which gets motion control damping and a Maxle Light QR 20mm thru-axle. To keep the bike under £1500, Whyte runs a Hope hub at the rear but an unbranded20mm up front. The end caps float slightly, so the hub doesn’t seat very easily in the fork dropouts making it a pain to get in and out.

The Whyte has a better Shimano SLX crank than the Specialized but the cheaper Deore shifters don’t have the fine tune adjustment on the Sram X-7s so when we ran them outboard of the levers they overlapped the grips. It’s a set up issue but it’d be sorted if Whyte had gone up a group level and specced Shimano shifters.

Fizik redesigned the GobiXM recently and, while it’s stiff and slim, it’s much more supportive than the Phenom on the Spesh and didn’t catch on our shorts when riding off the back of the saddle. We also didn’t seem to feel the rear end battering us on this bike although it shares the same seatpost diameter as the Specialized. The 905 also has an EA MonkeyBar fitted and while it’s a bit of an odd shape, the 658mm width is spot on for trail use. Reach adjustment is much easier on the Hayes Stroker Trail brakes and they are more powerful due to the 180mm rotor up front and the 160mm at the back. However, we’re not big fans of the Torx bolts on the levers.

The Ride

You don’t have to compare the two bikes to see that the Whyte has a slacker head angle, longer wheelbase, and, due to the longer travel fork, a higher bottom bracket. The geometry is close to the e120 but the 905 is more stable and planted on steep ascents. It was more fun on the icy singletrack with rider weight well centred and it actually inspired confidence which isn’t something we normally say about Whytes or hardtails. On technical trails it left the Stumpy for dead.

If you are looking for a hardtail you can ride all day or hammer for an hour in the woods with confidence the Whyte 905 is a class act. The ride quality is streets ahead.