My new (old) toy...
Picked up this afternoon. It has a history that's common to so many bikes; bought, used extensively, broken, left in shed until it can be fixed later. Cue several months/ years of playing host to spider webs and gathering dust, and then a house move, new job, or other life change comes along and suddenly it's no longer a valued possession, but a bloody nuisance that's in the way...
Still, his loss is undoubtedly my gain , I've had a hankering for one of these ever since I saw one in the window of Action Bikes on London's Victoria Embankment back in 2000 or 2001. Sadly the price tag at the time time was way beyond my reach. I think a fully spec'd one was well over £3000! :shock:
So, here it is. A Whyte PRST-4.
This was the final evolution of Jon Whyte's "Plus Fours" linkage front suspension system, a system he came up with after he stopped messing about designing Championship winning F1 cars for Michael Schumacher, but which was sadly discontinued sometime in the mid 2000's.
As a self confessed Engineering geek extraordinaire, it's always been a very intriguing beast to me. Mechanically pure, and visually more exciting than any set of tele-forks. It always brings to mind John Brittens V1000, a racing motorbike he developed from first principles in his shed, completely rethinking the way a motorcycle should be built. He designed and built the thousands of unique parts in his garage, including the engine :shock: , and the linkage suspension systems that are echoed here in the PRST. He took it to Daytona and giving the works Ducati team a massive fright, and an exceedingly bloody nose... Sadly, he died in 1995 from skin cancer, he was only 45...
Anyway, enough of "GSB's Engineering Heroes", back the bike. Considering the furore I recall around the PRST-1 when it came out, & then around the PRST-4 that succeeded it, there is practically no info at all to be found online about them, and in particular, on how to maintain them, tune them, and perhaps even improve them. I'm proposing to rectify this, and this page will play host to a detailed stripdown and rebuild photographic log of every last component, and will detail the technical specs of all the parts that are unique to the PRST, including part numbers and current suppliers, something that I've struggled with today...
This particular bike has been well used, but its straight, crack free and looks like a liberal dose of T-Cut and new fasteners will have it looking 99% factory fresh in no time. If not, then it's going to the powder coaters to be refinished in White, a colour that I think would suit this particular frame. (Or perhaps the colour of Marmite, on account if its love it-hate it reaction from most people!)
It's currently suffering from the usual PRST gremlin, as the spherical bearing in the front suspension appears to have comprehensively shat itself on its last outing. All the other bearings appear fine, but will be replaced anyway to provide peace of mind, a factory fresh frame, and of course to provide a record of how to do it here...
Should any other readers have experience with these bikes, and have any tips, please feel free to post them here.
Much more to follow, including the sale of this bikes predecessor in my stable, my much loved Schwinn 4 Banger.
Picked up this afternoon. It has a history that's common to so many bikes; bought, used extensively, broken, left in shed until it can be fixed later. Cue several months/ years of playing host to spider webs and gathering dust, and then a house move, new job, or other life change comes along and suddenly it's no longer a valued possession, but a bloody nuisance that's in the way...
Still, his loss is undoubtedly my gain , I've had a hankering for one of these ever since I saw one in the window of Action Bikes on London's Victoria Embankment back in 2000 or 2001. Sadly the price tag at the time time was way beyond my reach. I think a fully spec'd one was well over £3000! :shock:
So, here it is. A Whyte PRST-4.
This was the final evolution of Jon Whyte's "Plus Fours" linkage front suspension system, a system he came up with after he stopped messing about designing Championship winning F1 cars for Michael Schumacher, but which was sadly discontinued sometime in the mid 2000's.
As a self confessed Engineering geek extraordinaire, it's always been a very intriguing beast to me. Mechanically pure, and visually more exciting than any set of tele-forks. It always brings to mind John Brittens V1000, a racing motorbike he developed from first principles in his shed, completely rethinking the way a motorcycle should be built. He designed and built the thousands of unique parts in his garage, including the engine :shock: , and the linkage suspension systems that are echoed here in the PRST. He took it to Daytona and giving the works Ducati team a massive fright, and an exceedingly bloody nose... Sadly, he died in 1995 from skin cancer, he was only 45...
Anyway, enough of "GSB's Engineering Heroes", back the bike. Considering the furore I recall around the PRST-1 when it came out, & then around the PRST-4 that succeeded it, there is practically no info at all to be found online about them, and in particular, on how to maintain them, tune them, and perhaps even improve them. I'm proposing to rectify this, and this page will play host to a detailed stripdown and rebuild photographic log of every last component, and will detail the technical specs of all the parts that are unique to the PRST, including part numbers and current suppliers, something that I've struggled with today...
This particular bike has been well used, but its straight, crack free and looks like a liberal dose of T-Cut and new fasteners will have it looking 99% factory fresh in no time. If not, then it's going to the powder coaters to be refinished in White, a colour that I think would suit this particular frame. (Or perhaps the colour of Marmite, on account if its love it-hate it reaction from most people!)
It's currently suffering from the usual PRST gremlin, as the spherical bearing in the front suspension appears to have comprehensively shat itself on its last outing. All the other bearings appear fine, but will be replaced anyway to provide peace of mind, a factory fresh frame, and of course to provide a record of how to do it here...
Should any other readers have experience with these bikes, and have any tips, please feel free to post them here.
Much more to follow, including the sale of this bikes predecessor in my stable, my much loved Schwinn 4 Banger.