• Whyte 46 Mk2
• £2,695; Alpine Link £49.95
• Whyte Bikes
• 01424 753566

The limited-edition Whyte 46 was released last year to widespread approval, and with good reason. It was, and still is, a staggeringly capable bike. All 500 of them were sold (pretty impressive for a £2,700 bike) and for 2005 Whyte has released a Mk2 version.

The other development is a retrofittable suspension link that relaxes the geometry of the bike to make it more suitable for long, high-speed descents. Called the Alpine Link it’s aimed primarily at riders taking trips to the eponymous mountain region but may be of interest to anyone regularly riding in certain parts of the UK.

We’ve been riding the 46 Mk2 in standard and Alpine Linked form (although disappointingly not actually in the Alps). It’s sufficiently similar to last year’s bike that it’s well worth reading the original test if you haven’t already, just to save us repeating ourselves.

Frame

Following the well-known mantra “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, changes to the 46 frame for 2005 are really just tweaks and refinements. It’s basically the same shape, but the most obvious difference is that the top “tubes” are lower across the sizes. It’s still a big bike – that’s a Medium with the seat adjusted for a 6ft rider in the pictures – but the improved standover makes it feel smaller and adds a degree of confidence. Rather than rely on super-long seatposts, the top of the seat tube is where it used to be and a gusset has been added between top and seat tubes to add some support.

Also revised is the swingarm. It’s now got panels stamped in it, for which the engineering justification is added stiffness. More importantly for most riders, the freshly-profiled swingarm looks a lot less slabby than the original model.

Tucked away at the back end of the shock is another little tweak. Rather than the conventional arrangement of DU bushing and aluminium spacers to mount the shock, Whyte has used pressed-in “top hats” containing actual proper bearings with actual proper rolling elements inside. It’s a heavier solution but they should last a lot longer. And when they do pack up they should be somewhat easier to replace.

The changes have certainly improved the look of the 46. We liked the appearance of the original model, but the new one looks more compact and purposeful thanks to the smaller main triangle.

Components

There wasn’t anything in the spec of the original 46 that we’d have been tempted to change, and indeed almost nothing has for 2005. The Maverick DUC fork is still present and correct, brakes are Hope Mono M4s upgraded with Goodridge braided hoses, transmission is Shimano XT (still with a conventionally-sprung rear mech). The wheel package combines Maverick front and Hope rear hubs with Mavic 717 rims shod with Conti Gravity tyres. We feel that these tyres work better on slightly wider rims, but there seems to be a gap in the market where a wide but still lightweight rim ought to be.

The only real spec change is the rear shock, which is now Fox’s new RP3 model with three-way adjustable ProPedal. Whyte has done a lot of work with Fox to tune the shock to the Quad-Link suspension design and it’s paid off. Although you can’t actually turn ProPedal off completely, the “minimum” setting on the 46 might as well be off – it’s very plush. At the other end of the scale, maximum ProPedal isn’t actually locked out but on smooth surfaces it’s near enough for those who like that sort of thing. The middle setting is a happy compromise between small-bump sensitivity and stable pedalling. Who’d have thought it? The 46 is a stable bike under power anyway, but it does feel more sprightly and only slightly less supple in the middle setting.

Alpine Link

We’re not going to discuss the ride qualities of the 46 again – you can read the Mk1 review rather than us repeating ourselves. There’re a couple of minor differences, though. We never really found the back end of the original bike to be significantly flexy, but the new one is even less so. And the lower top tube manages to make the bike feel handier and more compact (even though all the contact points are in exactly the same place), encouraging you to chuck it about.

In standard form the 46 is a fast-handling bike given its travel. This is great for large parts of the UK – it’s happier in twisty stuff than most big bikes and holds a line up hills without early recourse to the fork lockdown. But riders in bigger terrain who tackle long, fast downhills may find the stock bike a little tall and fidgety. This is where the new Alpine Link upgrade comes in.

The Alpine Link replaces the bottom link in the Quad-Link suspension system. It’s slightly longer than the stock item, which results in the bike sitting slightly lower at the back. The bottom bracket drops 10mm (or just under 1/2in in old money) and the frame angles both drift back by about a degree.

That doesn’t sound like much, and to be fair it isn’t, but it’s enough to give the bike a bit of extra high-speed stability. It doesn’t turn it into a downhill bike, just a slightly more relaxed trail bike, but it means that it’ll find its own way a little better. Inevitably the Alpine setup isn’t quite as point-and-shoot up hill as the standard arrangement, tending to wander slightly more and requiring you to get your weight further forward, but the Maverick fork’s lockdown feature comes into play and sorts that out a treat.

It actually feels like it could go even slacker without becoming a complete pig on climbs, but the Alpine Link is as long as it can be. It’s easy to fit (just pay attention to the instructions – there are lots of spacers and washers that need to go in the right places) and, at fifty quid, a worthwhile extra if you’re spending a lot of time in big hills or mountains. It’s not just for the 46, either – it’ll also fit Marin TARA bikes.

Positives: A gently improved version of an already superb bike

Negatives: Could it actually be too good?

We’re a bit surprised that there aren’t more bikes like this on the market in 2005. Sure, there’re plenty of long-travel trail bikes out there, but most manufacturers seem to have settled on 5-5.5in for that style of bike. Partly, we think, this is down to the forks on offer, but whatever the reason it means that the 46 is still in a very, very small class of 6in travel all-round bikes. And fitting the Alpine Link, while not a Jeckyll-and-Hyde transformation, gives the bike a reassuringly relaxed feel for those epic ski-area descents.

Performance: 5/5
Value: 5/5
Overall: 5/5