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EWS Bike Check: Martyn Brookes’ Whyte S-150

It’s clear that Whyte Bikes takes racing seriously, and often their race team are trialling something new. We spotted Whyte’s as-yet-unannounced S-150 long travel 29er at the PMBA Nationals and brought you all the info we could. We spotted the bike again in Ireland for the EWS, so thought we would pop over and see how team racer Martyn Brookes sets his up.

The Whyte S150 has still to be officially announced, but we think it looks great. At 185 cm Martyn runs a size Large, showing Whytes dedication to proper sizing.

Whyte S-150 Suspension Setup.

At 76 kg, Martyn runs his suspension firm and racy, and seeing as his ‘real world’ job is a suspension engineer for Bentley Motors, he is fastidious about his setup. His Whyte S-150 is running on RockShox suspension, a new 150 mm RockShox Pike with Charger 2 damper on the front and a Deluxe RT3 shock on the rear. In testament to his speed and riding style, Martyn likes to run a very progressive setup with just 71 psi in the fork and the low speed wound fully open. To ensure the fork ramps up well over big hits, Martyn runs 4 tokens in the air chamber. On the previous Pike fork, Martyn would remove the delta shim for a lighter low-speed compression tune, but has found on the new Charger 2 damper it’s not required. The stock RockShox Deluxe also has the lowest low-speed compression tune available, with one volume token inside to increase the progressivity.

The rear RockShox Deluxe has the lowest Low Speed compression tune, with one volume token running 170 psi.
On the front run Martyn runs 21 psi on the front with a Maxxis High Roller II EXO.
To help with the rocks in ireland, Martyn runs 25 psi in the rear tyre with a 29 x 2.3 Maxxis High Roller II DD and a Huck Norris inside.

Martyn Brookes EWS Ireland Setup

For the tough rocks and high-speed trails of Ireland, Martyn was running 21 psi in the front tire and 25 psi in the rear. His tire of choice was the legendary Maxxis High Roller II with a lighter EXO sidewall up front and a burly DoubleDown on the rear. Inside the rear tire, Martyn was running a Huck Norris to fend of the square edged hits. Martyn chooses to run his brakes very close to the handlebars, perhaps due to his trials background, with a balanced 180 mm rotor on the front and rear. Martyn chooses to use organic pads for increased bite and bleeds them prior to practice. Bars are cut to 760 with a 40 mm stem and a 10 mm riser bar.

A 40 mm stem keeps the steering precise and accurate, with a 10 mm riser bar. Marytn is obsesed by loading the front axle properly.
In the RockShox Pike Martyn runs 71 psi and 4 tokens, at 76 kg. He runs the low speed compression fully open, with a stock damper.
The bearings used in the S-150 are larger than those used in previous bikes, and we like that they are all the same size.
Martyn uses a bar cut to 760 mm, with 5 mm overhang from the grips.
Martyn Brooks, on his way to 52nd place.

We now have an S-150 in the office so will bring you a full review as soon as we can!

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