Bicycle Gear News That Could Be True But Probably Isn’t
Spy shot today, review tomorrow. It’s a long-time industry-wide conspiracy consisting of crafty collusion between bike brands and media bent on devaluing current products by flashing the new-new in the middle of the peak selling season. Keeping your local mountain bike shop under heal since 1982! Cynical riders walk into their preferred shop the day after seeing some strategically uninformative bicycle photos. Hungry bike shop floor staff spill the beans on the fresh super-secret rigs arriving next week in exchange for the whiff of a potential deposit.
Not so with Knolly bikes. They’ve been predicting the future, and bucking trends, since they combined a 150mm spaced rear end with a 73mm BB shell, made space for 300mm dropper posts, and stuck a huge range of gears on a pedalable DH bike, in 2003. While other companies open offices in BC communities that truly appreciate mountain biking, Knolly chooses as their base the literal shittiest city to mountain bikers in the entire Province. When every other company started pumping out a slack AF Shore hardtail Knolly went full groadie. While other premium bike brands are grabbing rider attention with “Lunch Ride” bike builds the team at Knolly is launching a branded “Lunch Nap” kit consisting of a branded pillow, Boeshield T9 scented candles, and an endless-loop MP3 with the soothing sound of a properly lubricated Industry Nine hub.
They’re putting the ‘dream’ in dream builds. Or, is that sleeper builds?!?
In keeping with their history of off-tempo marching, Knolly shrugs off the industry trend of spy-shot-Sunday; sell-it-Monday.
In fact, Knolly is being a total snore about their return to a true long-travel, very pedalable, DH rig a decade or so down the trail. It’s obvious from photos that the bike is a mullet, has space for two water bottles in the front triangle, and is dual-crown rated. Knolly Manager Of Doing Sh*t, and former On Top Bike Shop grom, Cavan Brady (#teamcavan) woke up long enough to provide this statement about the next-gen Podium:
“New bike frickin slaps. Bike park, Squamish jank, loam lines. All good.”
In keeping with their past history, we can expect CAD easter eggs to show up on the Knolly website at least five years before the bikes come available. The brand’s biggest fans – the Knomers – have already started e-mailing Noel daily for updates on the bike’s release date and feedback on potential builds.
More information on the 2032 Podium pending the next time a member of the Knolly team parks their car at a busy trailhead on a Sunday afternoon!