Video: Chris Akrigg Signs For Whyte Bikes
Press Release: Whyte Bikes
We are delighted to announce our sponsorship of the legendary Chris Akrigg!
Chris is a former 6x British Bike Trials champion and one of the most technical bike riders on the planet. He's well-known for his jaw-dropping riding videos, such as Five, As It Lies, A Hill In Spain and many more. He has the ability to jump on pretty much any bike – be they hardtails, road and gravel bikes, BMXs, rigid trials bikes, trail full-suspension, fixies, DH rigs and many more – and make them sing to his unique tune.
To celebrate Chris joining Whyte, we’re releasing a short film - Going Beyond, Episode 1 - in which you can see Chris riding and learn more about what makes him tick.
Whyte has been engineering award-winning bikes that perform without compromise and, much like Chris, doing things differently since the day we started some 22 years ago. Our first breakthrough bike (the PRST-1) rewrote the rules. And we continue in that spirit; relentlessly seeking and developing the next big performance and reliability advantages with pioneering innovations.
This is what bridges look like when you're Chris Akrigg
No doubt scheming his next line
One of Chris's other passions is Ford Anglia shaped
Chris's custom E-160 RSX
“E-bikes are one of the most exciting things,” Chris explains of his passion for embracing electric. "Once I jumped on one for the first time, I was like ‘Wow! They’re really good fun.’ But then you get to, ‘Right, what can this help me do? How can I make this my own? And how can I push it and make my bike do what other people can't?'"
Alongside the E-160 RSX, Chris is also riding our 629 trail hardtail, T-140 29er trail bike, and Gisburn gravel bike, so expect to see them all being fully Akrigg'd soon.
Chris's athlete page on whytebikes.com
Film/Edit: Will Evans
Photos: Roo Fowler
IG: Whyte Bikes
IG: Chris Akrigg
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106 Comments
Whyte bikes are pretty good value for money and correct me if im wrong - isnt it the dude who designs/designed Marin bikes?
Whyte have had a different designer for years - marked by having decent suspension designs.
I have many friends on e-bikes and many on pedal bikes. We all ride together. It’s all about about getting out and riding with some friends and enjoying good times.
Also that 180 hope to rear at 1:35 is next level.
2) Even it outwardly presented itself as true, you need to consider that it's their job to help their sponsors sell bikes.
You can think of a handful that don't like them? Do share.
No one signs a contract with a bike company out of the goodness of their heart. Marketing departments’ jobs are to make sure that we either:
A) hear great things about motorized bikes, or
B) hear nothing at all.
Fact of the matter is that the cycling industry dumping these things into our laps and uh to to the trails without doing one iota of advocacy for them with land managers, and now expect all of the mostly volunteer trail non-profits to do that for them.
i disagree with you here, it's our job to do the advocacy, it's their job to make us stuff we want.
where does it end? do you expect say wao to come down to new zealand to argue for greater access into craigieburn to extend trails there? should they be in south africa doing the same?
have you thought this through regarding the costs involved (staff, travel, time etc) for the company and the follow on increases in retail prices to accommodate this? this would affect all their products not just ebikes
i kinda suspect this has nothing to do with access, you just don't like ebikes and haven't thought through the consequences of your post.
don't get me wrong, it's totally fine to not like them. just like i think telemarkers are just plain weird.
Any pro or seasoned rider is going to have fun on an Ebike - but I do bring up my 'social' circle since I do get a more intimate view into the heads of what some industry pro's ride and the majority are on the Ebikes (and moto for that matter) bandwagon...
"Dave Alden, a professional snowboarder on the Burton team during the 1980s, recalls his father, Paul Alden, and Jake Burton calling up insurance company representatives. After making their pitch for snowboarding, the insurance company representative “revised their policies to allow boards and allowed the ski areas to do what they wanted.” Paul Alden, an executive in the snowboard industry, was the driving force behind many of the larger ski areas allowing snowboarders on their slopes, and was a “catalyst for all things (for the snowboard industry), and instrumental off the snow.”
www.summitdaily.com/news/snowboardings-beginnings-the-struggle-to-allow-snowboarding
More to the point -- lobbying private industry is different than advocacy work with (typically) public land managers. Ski -> Snowboarding and Bikes -> eBikes are a bad analogy. Snowboarding never threatened access to mountains for skiers.
"Fact of the matter is that the cycling industry dumping these things into our laps and uh to to the trails without doing one iota of advocacy for them with land managers".
it's not their job. we decide where we ride our bikes not the manufacturer.
when have bike manufacturers done any land advocacy? so considering it's been riders advocating for access not manufacturers why should they for ebikes.
like i said, if we want to ride in areas currently not allowed it's up to us to cajole the owners into allowing it.
The point is they haven't, nor did burton. yes they approached the insurance companies that affected a small section of colorado and only those that the ski fields in colorado were using. thankfully it snowballed to other areas (pun intended). if they didn't there's a good chance there'd be no burton gear today.
we may be at odds for no reason though as we have different laws regarding bikes, ebikes etc so i may be missing something you guys have to deal with.
private land is still private land though, whenever we want to ride back country we go ask the cocky (farmer) can we ride there. most of the time they look at us like we're idiots wanting to ride up the side of a sodding mountain but a respectful and polite approach usually works (except lambing, don't want to interfere with the ewes). also taking half a dozen in the car as a thank you is a real winner.
oh boy didn't mean to end up writing a darn essay.
1) Don't ever apologize (to me) for fleshing out nuanced thoughts (re: "darn essays"). I'm not terribly familiar with NZ landuse and land access policies, but I get the impression it's very different than here in the US. Specifically in Northwest Oregon, we have to fight tooth and nail for 5 - 10 years to get access to highly constructed, multi-use green trails. Near Portland, a regional government purchased some former timberland, and wants to turn it into a park and build family-friendly hiker-biker-equistrian trails. The fact that they included bikes in the proposal nearly killed it. The county board just *barely* approved the landuse change (from commercial forest to park), but recommended bikes stay out *due to environmental concerns*. Literally, the anti-bike crowd was making the case that it would be better for local amphibians if the property remained a commercial forest.
2) In light of my first point "it's not their job. we decide where we...." I'm going to respectfully disagree there. I think it is their job. At the very least it's in their best interest. If they don't start stepping up more, I'm concerned there are certain spots where even non-motorized bikes might become harder to sell.
generally on most of our major dual use tracks there's a separation, for instance the Queen Charlotte and Heaphy are closed to bikes between 1st dec to 28 feb due to the many hikers, check these pics out:
www.google.com/search?q=queen+charlotte+track&sxsrf=AJOqlzVWnSvKsxBwa15ClWir-yctX1PTPw:1678308769654&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9pKewm839AhUrAbcAHWAzAWsQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1280&bih=881&dpr=1
www.google.com/search?q=heaphy+track&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiv7Jqym839AhVG23MBHYUnDyUQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=heaphy+track&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQ6BAgAEEM6BwgAEIAEEBg6BggAEAcQHlC6CljXGGC9H2gAcAB4AIABxAGIAZEKkgEDMC43mAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=pfUIZO-FJ8a2z7sPhc-8qAI&bih=881&biw=1280
whereas tracks like the Old Ghost Road and Paparoa are open all the time - disclaimer - also depends on the weather.
Craigieburn is closed in the winter due to it being partly on a skifield.
For the rest if it's crown land there are some local restrictions but in general open to all and sundry.
btw the car is amazing
Can you please explain why people like you continue to feel like we all need to hear your opinion on ebikes? I don't want to hear it man, I'm not interested! Seriously at this point is there not a "we hate ebikes" forum so you can tell each other just how much ebikes are ruining the sport and leave us in peace?
Whyte bikes are really good, but they somehow lost momentum, maybe because of Brexit... Still own (my wife's) a g160, it's is absolutely NOT a bike for jibbing, but a great great enduro bike.
You bored this morning?
Go ride yer bike
No snow in Squamish 2 weeks ago when I was there (first time, spicy as frig, loved it)
I guess you maybe mean that riding ebikes isn't proper mountain biking? Because of the cheating due to the mechanical assistance, right? Kinda like using a chair lift? That's definitely a good criteria. Really logical, not based on unfounded prejudice at all.
On another note, l can't wait for this year's trip to the Whistler mountain not-a-bike park to mountain not-bike with my mates. Also pretty excited for the world not-a-bike champs at fort bill, can't wait to see Bruno ride a not-a-bike in person.
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