We have it and building it up for a customer and it's absolutely stunning!  I don't think words can really describe it.  You really have to see it in person to appreciate the colour, detail and all the things that make this bike what it is. 

It's being built with Knolly's Pony Boy (SRAM X01) build kit and with upgraded Industry Nine Pillar Carbon wheels.  Doesn't get better than this. 

For seatpost duties, we chose 9Point8 Fall Line dropper because it's an amazing product, so simple, nothing to bleed, no cartridge to blow up and it's so good that Easton/Raceface has licensed the design for their own dropper post.  Nuff said. 

I've build up some nice bikes in my time but wow this bike is something else.  I don't know what more can be done. 

Spokewrench

The review is HERE! 

Review of 2014 Knolly Warden

By David Llewellyn for Spokewrench.com

This year’s test bike was ready a little later than normal.  That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  While we missed most of the prime riding season, when the trails are in top shape, we got to test it out in more challenging conditions.  Ontario had a pretty awful, wet fall this year, which actually made for pretty good testing grounds for 27.5” wheeled bike with knobby tires.  I’ve been riding the 2014 Knolly Warden through fall 2014 and winter 2015.  I’ve put quite a few kms on it, on varied terrain and trail conditions (though very rarely dry and grippy). 

Spoiler alert:  I can comfortably say that the Knolly Warden is the most versatile and intuitive mountain bike that I have ever thrown a leg over! 

But before we go into how it rides, I want to touch on the high (and low) points on the different parts that make up this awesome machine. 

Shifting

The bike came with mostly Shimano XT, in 2x10, with a Race Face crank.  Shifting was practically perfect with nary a missed shift or dropped chain, even without the rear derailleur’s clutch engaged.  I continue to love the double-downshift option on the right shifter. 

One gripe is that the shifters were mounted to the same clamp as the brake levers.  While this reduces handlebar clutter (and a few grams), the relative rotational positioning of these controls is fixed, which I

feel compromises setup.  Further, while there is some lateral adjustability of the shifters relative to the brake levers, it was not hardly enough for my tastes.  Being a 1-fingered braker who usually mounts the brake levers substantially inboard of the shifters, I found it quite cumbersome to move the shifters as far outboard as possible.  The shifter perch mounts to the brake lever clamp using a nut and bolt and then the shifter mounts to this perch with another bolt.  None of these fasteners are easy to reach with tools, especially when the shifter is pushed to the outboard position. Moreover, I still had to reach/reposition my hands to shift…hardly an optimal setup, especially when shifting and braking concurrently.

It took me some time to consciously understand why I was struggling in some places to push the same gear combinations as I do on my own bike.  In particular, the 32t front X 34t rear (which is my normal ‘bail-out-gear’) was noticeably taller with the larger wheels.  As a result, I found myself having to drop into the small chainring on some not-so-hard climbs.  This was hurting my (apparently) fragile ego until I realized I was not getting old and weak, rather I was getting old and dumb.  With 27.5” wheels, the final drive (ie. circumference) is about 12% greater than with a 26” wheel.  Duh.  Still, it stings a little to have to pop in into the small ring on climbs that I habitually ride in the middle. 

Good things come to those who wait!  Our Warden frame is in and we can't be more excited.  The Warden has been an amazing bike for Knolly and for good reason.  The reviews have been amazing and demand has been crazy.  Ours is here and we'll have it built up for Dave to test it as soon as possible.  In the meantime here are some pics to give an idea of what the frame is like.  The frame as you can see has our favourite Cane Creek Double Air and will be built with an XT kit.  All the specs and kit information can be found on Knolly's website Knolly Warden

We're taking orders for 2015 so email us for more information!

UPDATE: Dave is testing the bike right now so we'll just have wait to hear what his thoughts are on the bike.  As soon as the review is available, we'll post it up.

That's right, we got ouselves a Knolly Endorphin!  One of the very first I imagine.  And it's in Day Glow Yellow.  The frame is beautiful and the yellow really stands out from the crowd.  The bike was delivered to its happy owner and built up it was ~28.5lbs with pedals.  The build kit is very nicely speced from Knolly with SRAM, Avid, Fox, Thomson, Shimano, Hope, Raceface, all the stuff anyone would spec on their own bikes.  If you were sitting on the fence about this bike before, these photos should convince you that you can place your order today :)

Team Spokewrench

There are some really cool things coming from Knolly for 2012. We've always been big fans of their bikes since our review of the Endorphin and Delirium. Well now for 2012, the Chilcotin is available. This is their 6.3" All Mountain Freeride bike. The interesting thing about this bike is the number of available rear shock options. You can order this with the Fox RP23, Cane Creek Double Air or Cane Creek Double Barrel! We've reported seeing the Cane Creek Double Air at Interbike 2011 and now you can order it with your Chilcotin frame! How cool is that? Noel from Knolly has been testing the DB air and has been very impressed with its performance and range of adjustability. Look for a review from us on this rear shock this season as well.

An e-type direct mount front derailleur lets you run HammerSchmidt or guide without any clutter, and ISCG05 tabs let you mount up either easily. Rear axle is the all-new Syntace standard 12x142mm, and Knolly uses durable 3/8th thick dropouts that should take any abuse that you can dish out. There is clearance for massive 2.7" tires, but this also means that you won’t be clogging up with mud when using more common 2.3" – 2.5" rubber. This 6.3" travel frame weighs in at 7.5 lb with an air shock... light enough to build up a sub-30 lb all day bike, but burly enough that you won’t be giving a second to sending that back country gapper.

We've been antiously waiting for Dave's review of the Knolly Endorphin and here it is! Just a few quotes from this review..."This is the best pedaling full suspension bike I have ridden...", "This is the most silent bike I have ever ridden, total stealth..", "This is the stiffest bike I have ever ridden, resulting in awesome, confidence-inspiring tracking.." and "It is the best pedaling, non-XC bike I have ever ridden."  Now onto the review!

It was with great anticipation that I finally took delivery of the Knolly Endorphin to thrash.  Knolly has gained quite a reputation in a short time period for making fantastic free-ride bikes and fully supporting their customers.  They are probably the best-known Canadian maker of boutique full suspension mountain bikes.  Check out the Knolly forum on MTBR.com and you’ll get a pretty good idea of the general vibe surrounding this company and their bikes.  All 3 of the frames in their lineup get perfect scores in MTBR.com’s consumer reviews section.  The Endo is the shortest-travel in their 3-bike lineup, geared towards the epic riding, all mountain, and pedal up as well as down category.

The Endo was all black (my favorite bike color), hard-anozided beauty outfitted with a large volume Fox RP23 shock and a 36 TALAS RC2 fork and a Cane Creek 110 headset.  Shifting was handled by SRAM X9 with an XT front derailleur and cranks.  The new XT brakes with Servo-wave handled stopping duties (7” front, 6” rear).  Thompson looked after the stem (100 mm) and seatpost, while I used my own preferred seat, handlebar, pedals and grips.  The bike came outfitted with an Atomlab DHR wheelset (Formula front hub, Hope Pro II rear) shod with my current favorite tires:  2.35 Kenda Nevegal Stickies with a Kevlar bead.  As delivered the bike weighed a hair less than 34 lbs, which is respectable but a bit heavier than I had hoped for my type of riding:  fast and technical trails with lots of climbing.  After a couple of rides to dial things in, I swapped the wheelset for Mavic Crossmax XL’s and converted the tires to tubeless using Stan’s.  This shaved darn near 2 pounds off the bike, making a huge reduction rotating mass and vastly improving in climbing.

The bike is visually striking, although the ‘4x4’ linkage design looks complicated and, dare I say it, almost flimsy.  I was quickly proven wrong though, this bike has the stiffest rear end of any full suspension design that I have ridden, it tracks beautifully and is totally silent.  Cable routing is a little funky on this bike, favoring guides for full housing over the traditional housing stops on most bikes.  Sure, full housing increases friction a little bit, but it also helps to keep the cables free of contamination.  It also permits more swooping cable routing which reduces sharp bends and eliminates the potential for the suspension action to cause ghost-shifting.  Despite the full housing, this bike had the best, snappiest shifting I have ever experienced (front and rear).

I was very excited to try the new XT brakes.  The reach and contact point adjustments worked flawlessly, making it very easy to quickly set up the brakes according to rider preference.  Unfortunately, the brakes never quite lived up to my expectations.  While offering great modulation, they never quite had the top power that I expected.  In addition, applying the brakes in rapid succession (ie. less than 2 sec. between applications) caused the engagement point to move earlier in the lever throw.  Perhaps not a big deal for most, but I found it disconcerting to have such a significant change in lever feel.

The Endorphin has been built up and it looks great.  We'll be delivering it to Dave so that he can try it out.  The build went very well and we did not have any issues.  As with the Delirium-T, the bike is very well made and the quality and attention to details shows.  In general, full length cable routing is the best way to go and especially more so for this type of all day, go anywhere in any type of condition freeride bike. 
We speced a Fox 36 Talas RLC fork for it because we figure that this bike is going to be used on different trails and having the option to adjust the fork travel will help Dave adjust the bike to suit the trail.  It's heavier than the 32 Talas but the 36mm is stiffer and suits this build well.   The rear shock is a Fox RP23 and matches the front fork.

We put on a Cane Creek 110 headset and we're really amazed by this headset.  It's not like us to be impressed by a headset as it's not something most people talk about when talking bikes but it definitely rivals Chris King and we feel in some ways is better than CK.  It doesn't have as many colour options as Chris King but there are certain design features and attention to detail and overall quality that we have no problems recommending this headset to anyone. 

For this bike build, braking duties are handled by Shimano XT.  We saw the changes to the XT line and we've been very impressed.  The disc brakes have been getting very good reviews and Dave was keen on trying them out so we went ahead with them.  We're trying to get a 7" rotor/adapter for the front as that's probably better suited for this bike but we'll start with the 6" for now. 

Thomson looks after the stem and seatpost.  That's the defacto industry standard.  No fuss, no complaints, no brainer.   What's better than a Thomson Elite seatpost?  The Thomson Masterpiece seatpost.  There are others of course but are you getting more?

Shifters/derailleur is a mix of SRAM x.9 from our last project and an XT front derailleur that is on loan.  Cranks are also from our previous project.  Really no complaints here.  The integrated cranks/BB works well, stiff and reliable.  So reliable that Chris King's BB is Shimano compatible. 

Just a note on cable routing as that seems to be a common question when people ask about Knolly.  There are a lot of cable guides on the frame and the frame uses full cable housing (thank you) so there are a number of ways to route the cable.  Play around and see what makes the most sense.  It's fairly intuitive and usually common sense and just the natural way the cable bends gives you an idea of where to route it.  And the nice thing is if you don't like it after setting it up one way, just cut the zip ties and do it a different way.  The only concern(?) I have is the small loop that results beneath the BB because of the way the front derailleur cable is routed.  Now this doesn't seem to have caused any issues thus far but I would suggest keeping an eye on the cable to see any signs of rubbing or damage on the housing after a ride.  

Also, a note on the front derailleur.  Using the Shimano XT front derailleur, we did notice that with a 2.35" Kenda Nevegal tire, there was a bit of rubbing of the cage and the knobs so we adjusted the front derailleur just ever so slightly.  The shifting is fine and there are no issues but there isn't much clearance and something to be aware of.  Now we've been told the SRAM front derailleurs may not have this issue.  

The overall weight of the bike with the heavy wheels from our last project is 34lbs.  Now with lighter wheels (Dave has since replaced the wheels with Crossmax XLs with Stans), he managed to save 896g or roughly 2lbs.  Now that's a huge difference when it comes to rotating mass so immediately acceleration and climbing is going to be better.  

Here are some initial thoughts from Dave and it's very positive so far!

"My overall impression was very good, though i was riding pretty tame terrain. The most outstanding feature was how incredibly well the bike pedalled, especailly out of the saddle. The EG was pretty smooth pedalling in the saddle, and it would climb anything, but it there was a lot of wallowing/bobbing which robbed energy and forward momentum. This Endo seems to still follow the trail pretty well, but when out of the saddle, every pedal stroke literally shoots the bike forward! Very much like a hardtail. Its certainly the first full suspension bike where i have looked forward to just standing and hammering up steep pitches. This bike is as heavy as my Stinky (and the EG) but it pedals as well or better than my Epiphany, I hardly notice the extra weight. I know its only been one ride, but with the adjustable travel TALAS, this is the closest i have come to riding the 'one' bike...extremely versatile. All you'd need to go from cross country to all- mountian/ light freeride is 2 wheelsets" - Dave

Mark compared the Titus El Guapo and the Knolly Delirium-T last fall and here are some of this thoughts of the 2 different bikes.

This comparison is for the two bikes as built with the EG weighing about 34lbs and the DT weighing just over 36 lbs.

Both of these bikes are aimed at the "all mountain" category and both can do it all but you might not want to do it all on a regular basis using just one of these. If you were to draw a line bridging the gap between cross-country and freeride, the EG would lean toward the cross-country side and the DT would lean toward the freeride side. Yet, there would be a good bit of overlap in the centre. If you want a bike that you can ride cross country (for all but racing perhaps) yet still be able to do some occasional light freeride, the EG, as built, is a good contender. It is more versatile with two wheelsets. If you want a bike leaning more toward freeride (as I did) the DT is a better choice. However, these two bikes (again as built) are more alike than they are different.

Although I did not ride the bikes back-to-back, my memory of the EG was that it was heavy but not inordinately so. This is the same feeling I get from the DT.  The difference in the weight is where I felt it. My impression of the EG is that the wheels were heavy and slowed the bike down almost as though you were riding through loamy soil - not quite like mud but there was a definite drag. I felt that if the EG had a lighter wheelset, it would run like a dog unleashed. By comparison, the DT just feels generally heavy. The weight feels centered and there is not the feeling of pent up power I got from the EG. Perhaps because of the centered feeling, I didn't always feel the weight of the DT. In fact, the only time I felt like I was paying a price was on gradual inclines - the kind that on a lighter bike you can just spin a bit faster to keep up your speed. On the DT, extra effort was noticeably required. Interestingly, the DT did not feel heavy on flats or declines. The heavy wheels on the EG felt heavy even on flat ground. On stronger climbs, both bikes felt heavy but both pedal so efficiently that there does not seem to be a weight penalty. Further, the suspensions on both keep the rear wheel on the ground which makes both bikes climb well on technical terrain. The DT does get floppy in the front end with the fork in the 6.5" setting and benefits well from an adjustable travel fork.