Whyte Suffolk 105 review

We've tested the Suffolk 105 from Whyte. It's an aluminium framed bike with hydraulic disc braking. But how does it shape up out on the roads?

Cycling Weekly Verdict

A quality aluminium road bike from Whyte, with nice spec and some good features. It rolls well and is stable but is no lightweight

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Quality spec

  • +

    Nice wheelset

  • +

    Locking wheel nuts

  • +

    Stable ride

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Quite heavy

Whyte is better known for its mountain bikes than its road range, but nevertheless it has quite a stable of dropped bar road bikes, starting with the £799 Somerset. The Suffolk 105 is top of its aluminium offerings and comes with hydraulic disc brakes.

Frame

Whyte’s alloy frame comes with a longish wheelbase of over one metre. Frame angles are quite steep though at 73 degrees, so it’s not quite the stable cruiser which you might expect. All cables and hoses are routed internally, including the front brake hose which disappears into the fork crown.

Frame includes mudguard and rack mounts

Frame includes mudguard and rack mounts

It looks neat, although the cables running into the down tube bow outwards quite a lot and I found that they rubbed against my legs when I was out of the saddle.

>>> Endurance bike buyer's guide

Specification

The Suffolk 105 comes with 105 11-speed shifting with a broad range offered by the 11-32 cassette coupled to the 50/34 compact FSA Gossamer Pro chainset, so you’ve got the crawler gears necessary to tackle steeper hills.

Shimano hydraulic disc brakes provide good stopping power

Shimano hydraulic disc brakes provide good stopping power

It also benefits from Shimano’s BR-785 hydraulic disc brakes. They’re effective although the lever hoods are quite wide, so they might be a bit uncomfortable for those with smaller hands. Fortunately, Whyte’s own-brand alloy bars have a flattened top profile to make up for this.

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Wheels have reflective logos

Wheels have reflective logos

The wheelset is Whyte own brand, with sealed bearings for low maintenance and quite deep rims for an all-rounder. At 32mm they give the bike quite a sporting look. They also come with locking quick releases which need a special Whyte pentagonal key to unlock. It’s a nice touch which means that you’re unlikely to come back to your bike and find that a wheel has gone missing.

Watch: Cycling Weekly's  tips for commuters

Ride

The Suffolk feels lively enough that you can hum along nicely on back lanes on a longer ride and it can cope well with the stop-go of urban traffic. Its 28mm tyres grip well and provide extra comfort over broken road surfaces. They’re also a bonus when descending, giving some additional confidence, while the hydraulic brakes have good modulation as well as outright stopping power.

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There's plenty of gear range and locking quick releases

There's plenty of gear range and locking quick releases

You can feel the bike’s overall weight once the road heads up though and I found I was making full use of that wide gear range. If you’re happy to sit in and spin, you will get to the top soon enough; it’s just that you can feel the effort involved more than with a lighter bike.

>>> Cannondale Synapse Carbon 105 review

Value

At £1300, the Suffolk is right on the money, with a quality spec and finish. There are some nice touches too, such as the orange highlights and reflective logos on the wheel rims.

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Paul Norman

Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.

He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.