We got the lowdown on the Whyte E-Lyte 140 Works e-MTB prototype and it looks insanely good

Whyte revealed the prototype model of its E-Lyte 140 Works electric mountain bike at last week's Eurobike show. The award-winning British bike company which has been at the forefront of making some of the best mountain bikes for over 22 years, says the production E-Lyte downcountry e-MTB is expected to arrive later this year. 

There were plenty of lightweight electric mountain bikes around Eurobike including the Scott Dangerholm Lumen, which weighed in at a staggering 12.9kg, and although the E-Lyte 140 Works hasn't had the Dangerholm 'shaving' it comes in at a claimed and a very respectable sub 17kg, which is pretty feathery as far as competing with the best electric mountain bikes that are commercially available goes.

I joined Matt Skinner, Marketing Director of Whyte on the Goodyear tires stand at Eurobike, where the prototype E-Lyte 140 Works was on show, and he talked me over some of the exciting features of the new bike.

Matt was keen to point out the all-new Bosch lightweight Performance Line SX motor that had only been announced a few days earlier by Bosch telling me that... 

"Whyte has collaborated closely with the team at Bosch to package the newly launched Performance Line SX lightweight system into our completely new fully carbon, full-suspension e-MTB chassis. The design also packages and positions the new Bosch PowerMore range extender as low in the frame as possible, which is aimed to avoid any negative influences of the extra mass on the all-important centre of gravity.

"The Bosch’s all-new Performance Line SX packs 650W of peak power with 55Nm of torque, powered by a 400Wh internal battery and the 250Wh PowerMore range extender. The range extender also comes with a bottle cage adaptor, so you can run a 750ml bottle in the PowerMore's position straight out of the box with this bike."

"We could have gone lighter but we've specced parts that will perform on the trail without compromising on performance. So the E-Lyte runs four-pot brakes front and rear for the most effective braking, a full-drop dropper post, 800mm wide bars and SRAM XX AXS T-Type Transmission. The only parts not to make it to the production spec are the wheels on this prototype, the production bike will have a slightly lighter wheelset along with a different stem. It currently weighs in a sub 17kg, so we are pretty happy with that and confident it'll hit the market around that weight or lighter..."

The Whyte E-Lyte 140 Works as mentioned comes with an all-new carbon frame with the option to run cabling internally through the headset, or externally and then into the frame. The suspension comes from Fox with a 140mm fork and 130mm of rear custom-tuned travel.

Other features come with British weather-ready protection. A fully sealed seat clamp with a gaiter to prevent water intrusion, the charge port is also positioned at the base and front of the seat tube, again to keep it out of the way of water spray. The suspension yoke also has a gaiter to prevent sand, grit and debris from getting behind the suspension yoke. The pivot bearings are phosphate-coated and marine grease-packed with a lifetime suspension pivot bearing warranty.

Currently there are no pricing details, and the Whyte E-Lyte 140 Works is due to release in late 2023. Details on the full Whyte range can be found at Whytebikes.com.