Hi all,

I am looking a building up a full susser again and I have narrowed it down to 2 frames:

The Knolly Endorphin:

http://knollybikes.com/bikes/endorphin

or the Banshee Spitfire:

http://bansheebikes.com/spitfire

My heart is leaning towards the Knolly, based on reviews etc. Both frames are yet to hit the UK but they’re not far off from what I hear. Keen to hear your thoughts on either of them, based on any previous experiences of the brands / previous models.

Cheers,

andy

Don’t know much about either to be honest but the Spitfire grabbed my attention in the STW front page story. Are there any reviews out for the v2 yet?

I like the Spitfires geometry and wheel size flexibility.

Lacking any sort of informed opinion, I took one look at the Endorphin and disqualified it for looking ridiculous.

Though the geometry on the Spitfire looks more to my liking, not being an MBR journalist I’m not able to completely evaluate a bike based on its head angle and bar width. But it looks alright.

Endo all day long.

Lacking any sort of informed opinion, I took one look at the Endorphin and disqualified it for looking ridiculous.

Says the bloke with a hemlock………..

Hemlocks are fugly, not ridiculous-looking. Key difference!

Knolly: Yo dawg I heard you like linkages so I put a linkage on your linkage so you can actuate while you actuate.

Northwind, I know what you mean regarding the aesthetics of the Knolly. Although the more I look at it the more I like it. The twin linkage looks a little ‘dangly’ but, going by reviews etc, it is supposed to work very well and stiff too. I love the dayglo yellow colour too!

I have been looking at a new frame over the last couple of months and was convinced by the knolly. Saw the spitfire the other day and I’m in two minds now over which would be better. Still edging towards the knolly though. Now morewood have released the 2013 sukuma got another frame to think about!!!

Neither the original distributed nor the MBR journo’s were overly impressed with the Spitfire when it was originally launched. The former warned me off because of quality issues and the latter said the suspension design wasn’t quite right.

Maybe that’s been fixed and maybe the knolly looks a bit kookier but the knolly is definitely the classier package.

Anyway have you considered Nicolai? It’s another Horst link design like the Knolly.

i’d get their Chilcotin if I were you it replaced their Delirium which was brilliant.. similiar set up.. plus Noel is renowned for attention to detail, whatever you get you’ll be happy Knolly makes some damn fine machines.. expensive though…

Banshee’s btw come up small so just be aware of that if you decide to go for one… they had some trouble in the past but seemed to have sorted themselves out…

check out reviews and forums on NSMB

@geetee1972 – not that I know much about this bike but surely we have to give someone the chance to ride v2 of the Spitfire it before we assume it suffers the same ills as v1?

Spitfire Thread closed. the other is just too ugly

The knolly looks like it would bend in half around the rear shock linkages if you slammed it over in a high speed berm…..

Knolly ordered last night. I guess that closes the thread;)

I’ll pop up some pics when it arrives. I’m keen to see if it I’d a good on the trail as the hype suggests…

‘ it’s as’

@geetee1972 – not that I know much about this bike but surely we have to give someone the chance to ride v2 of the Spitfire it before we assume it suffers the same ills as v1?

You’re right.

More importantly what colour have you gone for?!

Black ano but tempted to go day glo!

We expect pics and a full review once its up and running. I predict you’ll love it, I’ve ridden a few knollys and they are fantastic bits of kit. Contrary to what people may think by looking at pics, they are renowned for being very very stiff and strong. Noel is a very well qualified and experienced engineer, rather than a “designer”. Function over form for him.

The Spitfire looks superb in terms of geometry, fit for purpose and multi functionality. However I have been put off recently by the frame weight for the size large which is coming in at 8lbs Fox or more with a cane creek. That’s just too heavy for an all day 140mm bike. It could probably be built up to a decent weight but that would involve massive amounts of cash on silly light components.

Bet it rides good though.

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I chose the spitfire took it to glentress yesterday this is what I thought.

Just had my first proper ride on the new spitfire and it was seriously good fun!
My build is on the heavy side with freeride inner tube and heavy wheels, fox 36 coil forks, ccdbair etc I reckon it must be at least 34lb+, i ride 1×9 with a 34 front ring and am not that fit, I weigh 85kg.
When I built it I was worried by the weight but as soon as i started pedalling all those worries disappeared, I climbed my local trails with ease! I was also worried that the fox 36 would make everything feel dead and too easy as that is how it used to feel on my old bike, but again those worries soon disappeared as I started decending. It was so much fun to ride, it felt lively and light. In the air it was balanced, I was expecting the DBair to soak up the jumps but it had plenty of pop of all lips, roots.
I’m used to a low bb bike but I think the extra wheel base just helps add to the stability of the bike, there is lot of grip on the rear and it just rails berms and corners. I’m only using the 135×10 dropouts with 10mm bolt through and it feels plenty stiff. I also ride a dh bike with 150 rear end so know what that setup feels like, the back end of the spitfire definetly feels strong and planted. Finally I was concerned about the length of the top tube and the reach of the bike but with a 50mm stem it feels spot on. My last bike had top tube of 559mm with a 50mm stem, this is so much more comfy to ride. I know this sounds like I’m looking through rosé tinted glasses, but I have had so much fun on this bike today!

I had one the V1 Spitfires. There were problems with it and Freeborn were very good about sorting it. It was a really good wee bike, low and stable but still a lot of fun. I’d be interested to try the V2 with bearings and a little bit more travel. Its interesting that they’ve made it 650b compatible, you couldn’t have blamed them for playing it safe after the V1.

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but Monkey, I was just wondering how you are getting on with your Spitfire a few months in.

I started off thinking about a Rune or a Covert to replace by 05 SX Trail but I’m now thinking that both are probably too much for 90% or my riding (especially the Rune which looks like a right beast) so am now thinking that a Spitfire would be a more sensible choice.

I enjoy the descents more than the climbs and typically spend a lot of time at trail centres as well as the Peaks. For this stuff I’m sure the Spitire would be best however I also plan to do the odd uplift day as well as Wharncliffe and mucking about on the jumps and drops in my local woods. Have you used your Spitfire for anything similar?

I’ve got a demo of a Rune next week which will either convince me that it’ll be fine or make me realise that it’s OTT.

Cheers

Hello mindmap… I am loving the spitfire…. Got my shock dialled in after a few rides and the bike really is amazing. Took me a few rides to find the sweet spot for cornering but now I’ve got it it absolutely rails them! I thought the wheelbase and long reach was gonna take a bit to get used to as my last frame was a meta 4x,which was really short and compact. However I just got on it and rode it and all was good, the bike still feels really nimble and playful even though its long I guess the short chainstays help here. Just rode stage 4+5 from poc enduro today and the bike felt really good on the steep stuff.
If you are only doing the odd uplift then the spitfire will be the better option but if you really like the dh runs and don’t have big bike then the rune would be the way to go as it can handle it all. The spitfire is based around a 160 fork so it is built to be ridden hard but the rune will be stronger. I was gonna go for a rune but there is to much overlap between that and my dh bike, I’m glad I went spitfire it’s perfect for my riding.
I have used it on jumps and drops and its all good, it handles everything, it pops of jumps easily and is well balanced in the air. I had a test on a covert and bandit last summer and really liked both of them, i was leaning towards the bandit for the same reason as choosing the spitfire… The covert/rune had too much overlap with dh bike.

Doubt you would be disappointed with either frame!

Cheers mate.

I don’t have a DH bike, so not too fussed about overlap. I don’t do too much out and out DH stuff, it’ll be pretty infrequent.

I’ll be swapping all my stuff over from the SX – 36 Van RC2’s, 1×10 drive train, Easton Havoc wheels, short stem wide bars, reverb etc.

Looks like yours has been taking some stick. I have a fair bit if faith in how strong it’ll be given that it’s quite heavy for 140mm bike.