Knolly Endorphin

Fox Vanilla 36 fork, Fox DHX rear shock, medium frame

Smooth tracking on climbs, excellent response on downhills, more compact geometry

Designed as a larger travel bike, running it with my preferred setup doesn't take full advantage of the bike

City Park (on a very wet morning)

Initially, when I started riding the bike, it felt far too flexy, not laterally, but in the bob department. It took some playing with the rear shock to get it dialed into the stiffer ride that I like. I believe that this is a bike designed to be more of a downhill bike, so running it as an XC bike doesn't really take full advantage of the full range. However, you don't really compromise anything, just the potential. It's in the same weight class as other 5" travel bikes in its class, so you are not paying a weight penalty because most of that weight is coming from your components, not the frame.

The seatpost is misleading, from the pictures it looks like it is much slacker than it really is because it tracks differently from the seat tube. The frame was nice and compact, and despite having a 5"+ travel, it was riding lower to the ground. I am assuming that the bottom bracket is lower than the Turner, but above the Hammerhead.

Surprisingly, it climbs well. I found myself powering up rocks that normally present a problem. Despite very slick conditions at City Park, the Knolly just ate up the wet rocks and roots. I noticed that the rear end tracked well on the climbs, so I always had a full contact with the ground. While the rear suspension is a bit funkier than I would generally prefer (multiple pivot points) once I had the rear shock dialed in it worked well. The bench climb at CP (if you start all the way at the bottom, with the 2 little climbs before the left hand turn and the long climb) was a piece of cake. Normally the 2 bottom sets of rocks give me problems because of the angle and the line, but the Knolly just powered right over them.

Descending is an area that you would expect the bike to do well, and it delivered all I was expecting - and more. The suspension just consumed rocks on the downhill runs without pushing the bike to either side. The stem was a bit longer than I prefer, it was a 120mm and I currently run a 90mm, but I believe with the right stem the bike would perform even better.

Stability was outstanding, and acceleration from a standstill was not an issue at all.

Climbing:  9 out of 10
Descending:  8 out of 10
Handling:  9 out of 10
Geometry:   9 out of 10
Weight:   7 out of 10
Overall:   84

Copyright 2009, John Fruehe