Knolly Chilcotin 6.0
Wheel Size: 29’’
Travel: 170 mm rear / 170 mm front or 155 mm rear / 160 mm front
Geometry Highlights:
- Sizes Offered: Small, Medium, Large, XL
- Headtube Angle: 63.75° to 64.75° (adjustable, see below)
- Reach: 509 mm (size Large)
- Chainstay Length: 446 mm (Size Large)
Frame Material: Aluminum
Price for Complete Bikes: $4,499 to $5,899 USD / $5,999 to 7,799 CAD
Intro
Knolly wasn’t shy about the new Chilcotin being on the way — their website for the outgoing model said that it was sold out and that a new version was coming — but now we know all the details. So let’s take a look.
The Frame
Most of the high-level details of the Chilcotin haven’t changed a ton. It’s still made from aluminum, rolls on 29’’ wheels, and uses Knolly’s standard Fourby4 suspension layout. Fourby4 is essentially a Horst-link arrangement with an extra pair of links to actuate the shock, which Knolly says gives them some extra control over the leverage curve. Knolly doesn’t go into detail about what they’ve done with that flexibility (no kinematic data is published) but says that they’ve tweaked and refined things compared to the outgoing Chilcotin.
Like the prior-generation version (and many Knollys over the years), the Chilcotin is offered in two different travel configurations, with changes to the fork travel and shock stroke handling the differences. The rear travel has grown slightly to a stated 170 mm (from a 65 mm stroke shock) or 155 mm (from a 60 mm one), which are meant to be paired with a 170 or a 160mm-travel fork, respectively. The changes in fork length make for some tweaks to the geometry between the two, and a two-position lower shock mount gives some additional options there. (More on all that in a minute.)
Mirroring the changes we saw to the Endorphin last fall, the Chilcotin gets a straight top tube and a much more subtle bend to its downtube. The silhouette is still identifiably a Knolly, but it’s a lot cleaner looking than the prior-generation bike.
There’s still room for a water bottle inside the Chilcotin’s front triangle on the whole size range, and Knolly has added a set of accessory mounts underneath the top tube. The cable routing is internal, the bottom bracket shell is threaded (with removable ISCG tabs), and Knolly’s typical SuperBoost (or “Trail157,” as they call it) rear wheel spacing is here, too. The rear brake mount is for a 180 mm rotor, and tire clearance is stated at 29 x 2.6’’. The Chilcotin also now features a UDH for the derailleur and comes with a machined aluminum version rather than the standard aluminum / plastic one.
Knolly also notes that the straight seat tube on the Chilcotin leaves lots of room for dropper post insertion, saying that most folks should be able to fit at least a 170mm-travel post on Small frames, and a 200 mm one on the bigger ones.
Fit & Geometry
Knolly has made significant changes to the geometry of the Chilcotin, starting with adding a new size Small frame to go with the Medium, Large, and XL that were offered on the prior-generation bikes.
Reach now starts at about 460 mm for the Small and grows by roughly 25 mm per size, give or take a couple of millimeters depending on the travel configuration and geometry setting. That puts the reach figures of the Small / Medium / Large sizes on the new bike only very slightly shorter than those on the Medium / Large / XL sizes of the outgoing model; the new XL Chilcotin is substantially longer than before. A slightly steeper seat tube angle (somewhere between 77° and 78° effective, depending on settings) reigns in the effective top tube a tiny bit.
The Chilcotin’s chainstay lengths are now size-specific, starting at 438 mm on the Small and growing by four millimeters per size. That puts the chainstays on the Small frame at the same length as the full size range on the outgoing model; larger sizes’ chainstays have gotten substantially longer.
The headtube angle is now 63.75° (Chilcotin 170) or 64.25° (Chilcotin 155), with both versions in their slack setting; the “neutral” setting steepens things by 0.5°. The Chilcotin’s bottom bracket drop is listed at 26 mm regardless, but it presumably changes by a few millimeters depending on both fork travel and geometry setting.
The Builds
Knolly offers the Chilcotin in four different build tiers, all of which are offered for both the Chilcotin 155 and the Chilcotin 170; the suspension packages are tweaked slightly based on the travel configuration, but a given build tier is otherwise the same for either travel configuration.
Knolly has, by and large, prioritized high-end suspension and opted for less ultra-fancy drivetrains and wheels and so on on the Chilcotin build specs — sensible decisions for a burlier Enduro bike in our book. As such, the Chilcotin stands out as being a pretty good value for money spec-wise, especially for a smaller, more niche manufacturer.
- Drivetrain: Shimano Deore 12-speed
- Brakes: Shimano Deore 4-piston (w/ 203 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors)
- Fork: Marzocchi Z1 Air
- Shock: RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate
- Wheels: DT Swiss M1900
- Dropper Post: SDG Tellis
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX
- Brakes: Magura MT5 (w/ 203 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors)
- Fork: Fox 36 Performance Elite (Chilcotin 155) / Fox 38 Performance Elite (Chilcotin 170)
- Shock: RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate
- Wheels: DT Swiss M1900
- Dropper Post: SDG Tellis
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX
- Brakes: Magura MT5 (w/ 203 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors)
- Fork: Fox 36 Factory (Chilcotin 155) / Fox 38 Factory (Chilcotin 170)
- Shock: Fox Float X2 Factory
- Wheels: DT Swiss M1900
- Dropper Post: SDG Tellis
- Drivetrain: Shimano XT
- Brakes: Shimano XT 4-piston (w/ 203 mm front / 180 mm rear rotors)
- Fork: Fox 36 Factory (Chilcotin 155) / Fox 38 Factory (Chilcotin 170)
- Shock: Fox Float X2 Factory
- Wheels: DT Swiss M1900
- Dropper Post: SDG Tellis
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) How does the latest version of Knolly’s Fourby4 suspension perform on the trail?
(2) Does the Chilcotin feel like a super game-on, race-oriented sort of Enduro bike, a more versatile all-rounder, or something else entirely?
(3) And how much does swapping between the 155mm-travel configuration and the 170 mm one change the character of the Chilcotin?
Bottom Line (For Now)
The new Chilcotin looks like a nice update to Knolly’s longest-travel bike, with improved aesthetics, tweaked geometry, and more. It’s been quite a while since we’ve been on anything from Knolly, so we’re hoping we can change that with the Chilcotin later this year. Stay tuned.