2000 Whyte PRST1 - Only 10 miles from new!

[mheywoo1]

Following the recent departure of the "not the size it was advertised as" Marin Team Marin last month, I have just become the owner of another "it doesn't look too good with slick tyres, high-rise stem and a rack on those eBay photos" immaculate classic in the form of this Whyte PRST1.

I know there is very little that splits opinion like Preston but personally I love the way it looks. As an automotive engineer, I figured that a fellow automotive engineer would never design something this ugly without good reason!

I've been idly searching eBay for the past few months, just to get an idea of condition and price and when this one came up, only 20 miles from home I knew I would never have such a good opportunity again. My wife was unlikely to agree!

The owner stated that he bought it new for £2695 in 2000, rode it once for 10 miles on the road, didn't like it, put a cover over it and left it in the garage. He admitted he knew nothing about bikes so there was no mention about what kit was on it but it looked like XTR with Middleburn cranks and Hope brakes. A few emails later and he confirmed this dream spec so whilst my wife was with my 3 year old daughter at a birthday party, I took my 18 month old son for a look!

Now, I was wondering how many people could afford to spend £2695 on a bike, not like it and then forget about it but that was answered when I pulled up to a massive house with a Range Rover and Aston Martin in the drive.

It was all I hoped it would be - immaculate other than one garage induced scrape on the driveside chainstay, locked brakes, flat tyres and a bit of dust!

A quick hour or two last night changing the stem and saddle, removing the rack, pumping up the tyres and adding some more air to the shocks (amazingly both still showing over 100psi after 12 years of storage!) and cycling the brakes and I took it for a quick spin around the block. It felt pretty good.

This morning I gave it a wash and took it for a bit of a longer ride around the block, including down some steps and it felt even better. Can't wait to fit some modern knobbly tyres, get the gears working and taking it for a proper ride!

More photos to follow:

 

[lowslowandold]

I love the look of these bikes, nearly bought one as well, what's your plans for it?

 

[mheywoo1]

Not planning to change too much. The spec is bang on as it is.

I stuck the Ritchey stem on becuase it was all I had lying around. Having Easton carbon Monkey bars, Ritchey stem and USE seatpost does not meet my "two out of three must match" criteria but I think the colour matches the Plus Fours really well so it'll stay until I can find a nice, cheap EA-70.

I may well put XTR cranks on. Not sure the Middleburns look quite right - and they will look perfect on my Pace............. I have some M952 cranks kicking around. They are not as perfect as the rest of the bike so I might keep an eye out for some better ones.

I'll be taking off the XTR cassette and storing it away - XT is good enough for riding.

The seat QR and brake bosses are ugly and I'm not convinced the 140mm rear rotor is going to provide much stoppage but for now, I'll be doing nothing more than sticking some Rocket Ron tubeless tyres on, some paint protection and taking it out for a ride.

 

[mheywoo1]

cc

 

[mheywoo1]

zz

 

[unkleGsif]

I was a gnadges whisker away from bidding on this.... glad I didn't now, she would have chewed my veg off and spat them out

V jealous, but great score
G

 

[mheywoo1]

I've been waiting ages for the local trails to be dry enough to take this out for a proper ride. I'm not precious about my bikes but as this was essentially new, I didn't want to wilfully degrade it by riding through oodles of gloopy mud.

The only changes from the previous photos were to fit some Rocket Ron 1.95 tyres and a gorgeous Easton MG60 stem.

I got my opportunity before going on holiday about 3 weeks ago and was very pleasantly surprised at how it performed on a 20 mile ride consisting of a flat but bumpy disused railway with some nice, smooth Land-Rover ruts, a tight and twisty forest trail and a 5 mile road section.

I was half expecting it to be a horrible wallowy old thing but with 100psi in each shock it performed very well - reminding me of a plusher version my 2004 Santa Cruz Blur. Sure, when I got out of the saddle the suspension bobbed but all full-sussers without VPP, stable platform or lockout (or combination of the 3) do that and at least with this one, the front and rear moved in synch. Sitting in the saddle it just absorbed the bumps allowing me to ride fast and efficiently and there was zero pedalling feedback even whilst spinning on the road.

After cleaning off the dust, it went back in to the garage and has left me pondering ever since. Will I use it on my local trails this summer (would be sacrilege to ride it in the winter)? Am I really going to take it on a decent rider to Cannock or Wales rather than my 29er when doing a big pre-race training ride? Or, more likely, is it going to hang in the garage looking pretty?

As a result of the latter looking the most probable, I've decided to sell it on so if you're interested please see my "For Sale" post I'll be adding in the next day or two.

For now, enjoy the photos with the new stem and tyres (3 dirty post ride and then 3 clean)

 

[mheywoo1]

Thought include some photos of the original sales invoice and owners manual cd.

Original sale date from Noah's Ark bike shop was 16/11/00

 

[AdamAsh]

Love it.

Proper timewarp bike