I have spent the last few months turning a Whyte PRST-4 into a full-suspension road bike and I thought that others might be interested in hearing about how I’ve done it? Below is a tale of how I’ve ended up with this strangely wonderful bicycle and why I would encourage anyone else considering riding something a bit different to go for it.
I worked out a very long time ago that I would never be particularly fast on a bicycle. Certainly nowhere near the level where I would be a threat at even a regional level. And so I took the decision early on that, if I wasn’t going to be filling my trophy cabinet, I may as well ride some interesting bikes, even if they weren’t necessarily the fastest. So long as I could just about keep up and have some fun whilst I’m doing it, that was all that really mattered.
Now, I fully accept that an ‘interesting’ bike is a highly subjective term and will vary from person to person. But as a mountain biking teenager in the nineties and a bit of an engineering geek, I’ve always had a soft spot for the more experimental bikes from this period. Back when I was in secondary school, I had a mate whose older brother obviously had a very good paper round as he’d managed to buy himself a brand new Proflex (the very first company to mass-produce a full suspension mountain bike). I can still remember a number of my teachers coming out to see this spaceship of a bike with its elastomer driven, McPherson strut rear suspension, even if his budget only allowed him to purchase the version with the Girvin Flexstem front ‘suspension’. Ever since, I’ve always had a soft spot for a Proflex, so when I saw one pop up on eBay I started working out how I could justify buying it. The one I had seen was in half decent condition, but far from immaculate and was solidly mid-range in spec. So, far from an out-and-out collector’s item that I would feel guilty playing around with.
I’m under no illusions about the abilities of these old bikes when compared to their modern descendants (so couldn’t really justify keeping it as my go-to mountain bike), but as a potential gravel bike I thought it might have legs (I’m certainly not the first to have noticed at least a passing resemblance between modern gravel and old school mountain biking). The result can be seen below, and whilst it may be the most compromised bike I’ve ever owned, it’s also the one that, without fail, puts the biggest smile on my face. I love looking at it, riding it and the joy it seems to elicit in others.
However, the V-brakes are shocking (nothing, nothing, nothing, locked wheels – I remember them being so much better!). Plus the brakes also mean I’m stuck with 26 inch wheels. The little damping the shocks may have once had is now long gone. The front chainring is limited to a 46t (and this still required some judicious filing of the front mech to clear the swingarm pivot). And, possibly worst of all, riding no-handed elicits a compounding speed wobble from the steering that I dared not take to its ultimate conclusion as it will almost certainly result in bike and rider going their separate ways. However, as I’ve said, I love it.
So, the question that has occupied far more of my time than is probably healthy is How do I retain the joy of this bike, but iron out the issues? As I mentioned up front, after much thinking I settle on trying to reimagine a Whyte PRST-4 as a road bike. I love the back story to this bike and the fork is an engineering marvel (much like the Grirvin on the Proflex). I completely understand if you think it looks like a dogs dinner, but, in my humble opinion, if you hold this view then you are simply incorrect! After a bit of rummaging around on eBay I found a very well used frameset for just £200 plus £13 postage. But I was about to find out that these frames can soon get very expensive!
I figured that the first thing to do with a frame that is now over 20 years old is to strip it back to its component parts. This was no easy feat as information on these frames is relatively thin on the ground and straight forward, they are not. But I eventually managed to remove all 19 bearings and both shocks to leave me with just the five frame sections.
Every surface was scratched and scuffed. I could have lived with this, but then I saw another PRST somewhere on the internet that had been resprayed. It wasn’t part of the original plan, but if I was going to do this properly then I thought why not. So, after wrestling with a lot of bubble wrap I posted the frame to a powder coater for a chemical dip and a fresh coat of ‘disco white’. Although they took quite a while to do it, they did a thorough job, highlighting and addressing a couple of imperfections in the frame before painting.
Next came a full complement of bearings. Much like the powder coating, this ended up costing more than the frame itself, but, once I’d applied some fresh decals, the frame looked better than new (imho). The shocks were in a bit of a sorry state – one couldn’t even hold any pressure. A very helpful call to TF Tuned suggested that they might have the parts in a draw somewhere to bring them back to life, but it was at this point that I thought I may as well really go for it. Another quick bit of searching on eBay unearthed a pair of new-old stock 2023 Fox Float shocks in the right length and travel and, after a quick chat with myself that I was doing the right thing, they were ordered.
With the bike back from the powder coaters, a full complement of bearings and two new shocks, it was time to try to remember how it was all meant to go back together. After a little bit of trial and error, some skinned knuckles and a few wrong turns, I eventually got back to where I started with a complete frameset, only now everything was running better than new.
The rest of the build was relatively straight forward, particularly with the release of Cues by Shimano. I wanted to run a 50/34 double chainring, and this just fits with the Cues top swing front mech under the rear suspension linkages. Once I got those to play together nicely, it was all pretty plain sailing. Plus, I got to live out my childhood dream of owning some beautiful Hope parts in purple.
My Whyte PRST-RD (restomod?) is everything that I had hoped it would be. Even more amazing that the Proflex, with none of the short comings – 700c wheels, disc brakes, 50/34 chain rings, modern shocks and a lot less weight. And it’s properly fast (at least for me!).
I worked out a very long time ago that I would never be particularly fast on a bicycle. Certainly nowhere near the level where I would be a threat at even a regional level. And so I took the decision early on that, if I wasn’t going to be filling my trophy cabinet, I may as well ride some interesting bikes, even if they weren’t necessarily the fastest. So long as I could just about keep up and have some fun whilst I’m doing it, that was all that really mattered.
Now, I fully accept that an ‘interesting’ bike is a highly subjective term and will vary from person to person. But as a mountain biking teenager in the nineties and a bit of an engineering geek, I’ve always had a soft spot for the more experimental bikes from this period. Back when I was in secondary school, I had a mate whose older brother obviously had a very good paper round as he’d managed to buy himself a brand new Proflex (the very first company to mass-produce a full suspension mountain bike). I can still remember a number of my teachers coming out to see this spaceship of a bike with its elastomer driven, McPherson strut rear suspension, even if his budget only allowed him to purchase the version with the Girvin Flexstem front ‘suspension’. Ever since, I’ve always had a soft spot for a Proflex, so when I saw one pop up on eBay I started working out how I could justify buying it. The one I had seen was in half decent condition, but far from immaculate and was solidly mid-range in spec. So, far from an out-and-out collector’s item that I would feel guilty playing around with.
I’m under no illusions about the abilities of these old bikes when compared to their modern descendants (so couldn’t really justify keeping it as my go-to mountain bike), but as a potential gravel bike I thought it might have legs (I’m certainly not the first to have noticed at least a passing resemblance between modern gravel and old school mountain biking). The result can be seen below, and whilst it may be the most compromised bike I’ve ever owned, it’s also the one that, without fail, puts the biggest smile on my face. I love looking at it, riding it and the joy it seems to elicit in others.
However, the V-brakes are shocking (nothing, nothing, nothing, locked wheels – I remember them being so much better!). Plus the brakes also mean I’m stuck with 26 inch wheels. The little damping the shocks may have once had is now long gone. The front chainring is limited to a 46t (and this still required some judicious filing of the front mech to clear the swingarm pivot). And, possibly worst of all, riding no-handed elicits a compounding speed wobble from the steering that I dared not take to its ultimate conclusion as it will almost certainly result in bike and rider going their separate ways. However, as I’ve said, I love it.
So, the question that has occupied far more of my time than is probably healthy is How do I retain the joy of this bike, but iron out the issues? As I mentioned up front, after much thinking I settle on trying to reimagine a Whyte PRST-4 as a road bike. I love the back story to this bike and the fork is an engineering marvel (much like the Grirvin on the Proflex). I completely understand if you think it looks like a dogs dinner, but, in my humble opinion, if you hold this view then you are simply incorrect! After a bit of rummaging around on eBay I found a very well used frameset for just £200 plus £13 postage. But I was about to find out that these frames can soon get very expensive!
I figured that the first thing to do with a frame that is now over 20 years old is to strip it back to its component parts. This was no easy feat as information on these frames is relatively thin on the ground and straight forward, they are not. But I eventually managed to remove all 19 bearings and both shocks to leave me with just the five frame sections.
Every surface was scratched and scuffed. I could have lived with this, but then I saw another PRST somewhere on the internet that had been resprayed. It wasn’t part of the original plan, but if I was going to do this properly then I thought why not. So, after wrestling with a lot of bubble wrap I posted the frame to a powder coater for a chemical dip and a fresh coat of ‘disco white’. Although they took quite a while to do it, they did a thorough job, highlighting and addressing a couple of imperfections in the frame before painting.
Next came a full complement of bearings. Much like the powder coating, this ended up costing more than the frame itself, but, once I’d applied some fresh decals, the frame looked better than new (imho). The shocks were in a bit of a sorry state – one couldn’t even hold any pressure. A very helpful call to TF Tuned suggested that they might have the parts in a draw somewhere to bring them back to life, but it was at this point that I thought I may as well really go for it. Another quick bit of searching on eBay unearthed a pair of new-old stock 2023 Fox Float shocks in the right length and travel and, after a quick chat with myself that I was doing the right thing, they were ordered.
With the bike back from the powder coaters, a full complement of bearings and two new shocks, it was time to try to remember how it was all meant to go back together. After a little bit of trial and error, some skinned knuckles and a few wrong turns, I eventually got back to where I started with a complete frameset, only now everything was running better than new.
The rest of the build was relatively straight forward, particularly with the release of Cues by Shimano. I wanted to run a 50/34 double chainring, and this just fits with the Cues top swing front mech under the rear suspension linkages. Once I got those to play together nicely, it was all pretty plain sailing. Plus, I got to live out my childhood dream of owning some beautiful Hope parts in purple.
My Whyte PRST-RD (restomod?) is everything that I had hoped it would be. Even more amazing that the Proflex, with none of the short comings – 700c wheels, disc brakes, 50/34 chain rings, modern shocks and a lot less weight. And it’s properly fast (at least for me!).
