Knolly Warden
A funny thing happened to me whilst out test-riding the Knolly Warden, and not just once. Every time I rode past an assembly of teenage mountain bikers they cheered, and it wasn’t just the usual ‘nice bike, mate’, but full on whooping, whistling, and yelling.
I should be very clear that their unrestrained enthusiasm was for the bike rather than the rider, and it’s something I’ve never encountered before. So why is it that a small brand with no World Cup podiums, no Redbull Rampage wins, and in reality a very small presence in the mountain biking scene can provoke such fervent passion? After spending a few months on Knolly’s latest offering I’ve perhaps gained a little insight into that question; a sneak peek into the ‘Knolly Knation’ as it’s known, and here’s what I’ve learned.
If you’re not already aware, Knolly is a small, rider-owned company from British Columbia. Their proximity to the famous (and sometimes infamous) riding areas of Vancouver’s North Shore, the big mountains of Whistler, and numerous other world class riding areas in BC, has undoubtedly played a pivotal role in shaping the bikes they design and build.
Instead of focusing their efforts on the elite racing scene Knolly’s bikes, and the people who ride them, are more about the thrill of riding challenging trails, travelling with friends to explore new MTB possibilities and generally pushing the boundaries of mountain biking in every possible direction. The term ‘freeride’ might have dropped out of favour in the last few years, but Knolly riders like James Doerfling, Ryan Berrecloth and Garrett Bueller epitomise what freeride has become; riding big, riding fast and riding hard, riding for the sheer love of the challenge and to share that experience with good friends.
Knolly’s bikes are made for riders such as these, and there’s perhaps none more capable and versatile than the new 150mm-travel Warden. It’s available in Australia either as a frame-only or with a range of complete build kits featuring other Canadian brands like Race Face and Chromag. Built with high end components like our test bike, it’ll set you back $6,950. Alternately you can purchase the frame for $3,250 with a Cane Creek DBAir. We’re not going to pretend that this is cheap, however for a high-quality boutique brand it mightn’t be as much as you’d expect. The weight of 3,612g with the 500g DBAir shock is competitive for a solidly built aluminium bike, and our test rig came in over a pound under the magic 30lb (13.65kg) mark at 13.16kg with a dropper post (but without pedals).
Despite being a totally new design and the first Knolly bike with 27.5 wheels, the Warden still looks unmistakably like the rest of the Knolly family. The full-length, straight and heavily raked seat tube has long been one of their signatures. This allowed you to slam the seat completely out of the way long before dropper posts existed, while the raked back angle provides a comfortably stretched riding position with the saddle at full height. There’s also the instantly recognisable ‘Four by 4’ suspension linkage, but we’ll come back to that in a little bit.
The heavily manipulated aluminium frames are now manufactured, impeccably I might add, in Asia, but Knolly claims to custom design every single tube on every bike rather than buying off-the-shelf parts. They also custom design their own titanium pivot hardware and all of the torque specs are listed on their website. Colour choices are mostly bright, but the graphics are clean and classy enough to prevent you feeling like you’re riding a fluorescent advertisement—the unique appearance of the Warden is something that definitely grows on you.
Knolly bikes have earned an enviable reputation for reliability, versatility and ease of maintenance. Rather than following current trends, they use design elements that prioritise function over fashion. The well thought out full length external cable routing is one such example; it might not look as tidy as internal routing but it’s much faster and easier to service and is completely rattle free. There’s provision for either an internally or externally routed dropper seatpost, and if you’re running a one-by drivetrain, the cable guide for the E-type direct mount front derailleur can be completely removed to provide a clean look.
Of course there are ISCG tabs and mechanics around the world will collectively rejoice that the Warden uses a threaded bottom bracket rather than the harder to service press-fit style. The rear brake uses the older ‘international standard’ mount; it’s marginally heavier than a post mount setup but it eliminates the chance of stripping a thread in the frame. All these little details show that Knolly aren’t just jumping on the latest bandwagon; they’re happy to adopt new standards, but only when there’s a perceived functional benefit.
KNOLLY KNOWLEDGE
Geometry, not suspension travel, is perhaps the single most important factor in determining how a bike rides, and here the Warden again shows Knolly’s desire to forge their own path. As the push for longlow- slack bikes continues, we’re starting to see head angles on many of the Warden’s competitors pushing into 65-degree territory. That’s all well and good when your sole purpose is to go downhill at breakneck speed, but it definitely compromises low speed manoeuvrability and climbing precision.
Knolly completely avoid using the ‘E’ word to describe the Warden, and I suspect it’s on purpose. In theory at least, enduro bikes only have to pedal up relatively smooth and not-too-steep trails in order to access descents that wouldn’t be out of place on a World Cup DH course, and it’s the descents that really matter in gravity enduro racing. As a result, enduro bikes are often single-purpose winch and plummet machines. The Warden, on the other hand, is designed to get you up or down just about any trail you can imagine riding.
The 66 or 67-degree (adjustable) head angle strikes a good compromise between the conflicting requirements of climbing and descending whilst still being plenty slack enough to not induce puckering when speeds and descent angles increase. Likewise, the bottom bracket height (also with two settings) is 5-10mm higher than many of the competitors. It’s still low enough to feel stable at high velocity but with enough pedal clearance to get you back up the same trail for another run.
Our local trails are steep with an abundance of rocks and roots. They are also tight and I actually found the steeper/ higher setting to be the best all-around option. If your trails are open and fast you’ll likely prefer the low and slack option, but having a choice highlights the Warden’s versatility—this is no one trick pony.
It’s also worth mentioning that the raked seat tube creates the illusion of long chainstays whereas in fact they’re only 429mm long. That’s shorter than most comparable 27.5 wheeled bikes and even some 26ers. Combined with the relatively long front-centre, the Warden maintains a high degree of manoeuvrability whilst still being long enough to feel stable at speed.
TWO WHEELED FOUR BY 4
The other visually striking and distinctive element of the Warden, and all Knolly bikes for that matter, is their proprietary and patented Four by 4 suspension design. It’s a variation on the common Horst Link design, which designer Noel Buckley developed to allow a greater degree of independent control of the often conflicting elements of bicycle suspension. The four rearmost pivots determine axle path, pedalling behaviour and braking activity just like they would with a traditional four-bar linkage. However, by adding a second smaller parallelogram to drive the shock, the leverage ratio can be manipulated without having any effect on the other parameters. It does add a few hundred grams, two extra pivots and an extra link to the suspension, but nonetheless it’s a clever way of gaining extra control of suspension design.
The design is very neatly executed too; the shared pivot at the top of the seat stays is a particular example of saving weight and reducing complexity. Double row angular contact bearings are used in the main pivot and most of the other points spin on sealed ball bearing too, with high load bushes in the upper link junction. Although none of the links appear especially burly, the main pivot and the three large pivots from the seat tube back use full width axles. You’ll also find double-sided clevis joints on the rear axle pivot and the upper link pivot. The net effect of all this is a suspension system which is both very laterally stiff, and inherently well aligned between the two sides, which ultimately means less wear on the bearings, smoother operation and longer maintenance intervals.
Many current suspension designs also run fairly high levels of anti-squat; the chain torque introduced when pedalling works to stiffen the suspension and resist its natural tendency to compress as the bike accelerates. Knolly takes a very different approach. Because they wanted the Four by 4 suspension to be totally active at all times, even when pedalling, they’ve chosen to keep anti-squat at exceptionally low levels. This does result in a loss of pedalling efficiency especially when out of the saddle, however it allows the rear wheels to hug the trail surface in a way that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. This again reveals the inherent nature of the Warden as a bike designed not just for climbing on easy ground, but for pushing the limits of traction on even the most marginal, stepped and rutted ascents—the sort of stuff you’re likely to find aplenty in North Vancouver.
And let me tell you right now that it works. There are a lot of bikes these days that climb well, particularly on easy to moderate terrain where efficiency and momentum are the keys to cleaning an ascent. This is not where the Warden shines; it bobs more than you’d like and generally feels a bit sluggish. On chunkier terrain at lower speeds and whenever traction is questionable, the Warden comes into its own. If you can keep your legs spinning and weight over the rear tyre it’ll keep trucking along whilst other bikes are spinning, slipping, bouncing, and falling by the wayside.
As an example, there’s a short uphill section on one of my local trails that is horrendously awkward; it’s filled with rounded, slimy, 20cm high boulders and off-camber roots. You crawl uphill at barely walking pace for 15 metres, changing direction every few pedal strokes to stay on line. I don’t remember ever succeeding on it before, but on my first ride on the Warden I cleaned it first try, and then cleaned it again second try. The Warden is like a 4X4 rock crawler; take it out on the highway at 100km/h and it’ll feel soft, mushy and horrible, but put a two metre high almost vertical boulder in front of it and it’ll clamber up like it’s barely even there.
We all know that one-by drivetrains are the hot ticket right now, but I’m going to suggest that the Warden is a perfect candidate for a more traditional two-by setup. Smaller chainrings provide higher antisquat force; with a 22 or 24 tooth granny ring up front, the Warden would pedal much more efficiently on moderate climbs but still have less anti-squat than the vast majority of other bikes so as to still maintain its climbing prowess in the rough. It’s worth taking a leaf from Knolly’s own book here; don’t just follow what everyone else is doing, but instead go with what works best for you and your terrain.
In many respects the monster truck personality continues when you point the Warden downhill. It’s somewhat tardy pedalling manners mean it’s not the fastest accelerating bike on the trail, and its desire to hug the ground, so beneficial when climbing, means that it feels far more planted than playful, more plough than plane. While it’ll manual easily and given enough encouragement from a lip it’ll launch predictably and precisely through the air, it also lacks the lively, poppy feel that sees some other bikes dance effortlessly from point to point down the trail.
What the Warden does do is allow you to pick a line and hold it with almost complete disregard for obstacles and sensible line selection. You don’t need to take smooth lines into consideration for braking either, because the Four by 4 linkage feels totally unaffected by the anchors. Solid, stiff and stable are what the Warden does best, and it does them exceptionally well. However it also needs challenging terrain and serious speed to awaken the sleeping beast within; without them, it just feels like taking your lifted LandCruiser to the drag strip.
GETTING CANED
As mentioned, the Warden comes standard with Cane Creek’s much lauded DBAir CS (Climb Switch) shock, and as with any bike the shock is a key component of how the suspension feels on trail. The Climb Switch slows both compression and rebound damping, and whilst it does work exactly as claimed, it also tends to stifle the active nature of the Warden’s suspension; in some ways detracts from the bike’s best attribute.
The DBAir has a very wide adjustment range and a fairly complex damper arrangement that allows it to be set up for virtually any bike and any rider. This means you need to take some proper time to get it set up right. We’ve ridden this shock on a couple of different bikes now, and are starting to suspect that riders of 70kg or less are right at the extreme end of its adjustment range; even with compression and rebound damping wound all the way out it didn’t feel under-damped. The Warden (like another bike we’ve ridden with a DBAir) has a very progressive suspension design, and this combined with a lighter rider weight may be the cause of the slightly dead feel we encountered. We can only speculate, but it’s possible that heavier riders may well be able to set up the Warden’s shock to feel much livelier; the only way you can know for sure is to track down a Warden at one of the many events where Knolly runs demo days.
A few months on the Warden and I can see why Knolly have built a very loyal and proud fan base; they design and make unique mountain bikes that are all about the love of riding challenging trails, and they make them in such a way that you’ll be spending a lot more time riding your bike than fixing it. The Warden may not be the lightest, or the cheapest, or the most efficient option on the market, but it’s certainly one of the most adaptable, most competent and easiest to live with in the long term. It definitely needs committing terrain, and an equally committed rider to bring out its best, but if that’s you then I suspect buying into the Knolly Knation is something you won’t regret. And you’ll have hordes of other riders cheering you on every time you hit the trail.
Thumbs Up
• Active, ground hugging suspension
• Well-considered geometry
• Designed for purpose, not fashion
Thumbs Down
• Not a responsive or efficient bike to pedal
• Shock lacks ‘liveliness’ under a lighter rider
SPECIFICATIONS
Frame: 6066 Series Alloy
Shock: Cane Creek DB Air 150mm Travel
Fork: RockShox Pike RCT3 160mm travel
Headset: Cane Creek 40 Integrated
Handlebars: Race Face Next 760mm
Stem: Race Face Atlas 65mm
Shifter: SRAM X01
Front Derailleur: N/A
Rear Derailleur: SRAM X01
Cassette: SRAM X01, 10/42 11-speed
Chain: SRAM X01
Cranks: Race Face Next Cinch
Bottom Bracket: Race Face
Pedals: N/A
Brakes: Shimano XT
Wheels: Stan’s ZTR Flow EX
Tyres: Schwalbe Hans Dampf 2.35
Saddle: Chromag Lynx
Seatpost: KS Lev
Weight: 13.16kg without pedals (Large frame 3,612g)
Available Sizes: S, M, L (tested) & XL
Price: $6,950 (frame only $3,250)
Distributor: Endless Flow Cycles (02) 4285 2993
