Knolly’s patented Fourby4 suspension

The Fourby4 suspension platform is the cornerstone of Knolly Bikes.

When our CEO and chief designer, Noel Buckley, set out to design his first bike (the V-Tach), he started with a suspension philosophy and a list of ride characteristics that were important to him. He designed the suspension technology first, prioritizing traction, ride balance, and suspension performance while braking. He rode the first prototype and knew he had a winning suspension design, so he applied for patents and Knolly Bikes was born.

Inspired by Formula One auto racing strut-style suspension,

Knolly’s patented Fourby4 suspension technology provides freedom in design and execution

that no other design in the industry can tout. This freedom means that Noel can design each model from the ground up and manipulate wheel path and shock progression completely independently. This allows each model to have suspension rate curves that are generally linear to progressive, which is important because it means your shock doesn’t have to ‘save the day’ by providing lots of bottoming resistance, as it would on a bike with a falling rate curve. This design helps keep your shock from being over-worked and over-heating on long downhills, which can affect shock performance. This also helps maintain normal shock service intervals. Each of our bikes have rate curves and leverage ratios that are implemented for a certain type of riding (trail, AM, DH) while all models share some fundamental ride characteristics.

High performance mountain bike suspension aims to control these four forces:

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Our Fourby4 suspension allows us to separate these forces and to fully optimize them to suit each of our model's intended purpose. This is why our bikes have an unrivaled reputation for suppleness, plushness and bottom out control. Fourby4 separates Rear Shock Progression so we can tune it effectively without affecting the other three performance characteristics.

This also means that we can tune Pedaling Efficiency, Rear Wheel Traction and Rear Brake Neutrality without having to consider Rear Shock Control. 

Fourby4 allows for the separation of competing suspension forces and it is the only suspension system in the world that can do this. Simply put, conventional single pivot or multi-link (four bar, short link, etc…) bikes must make more compromises. They need to trade off performance in one area to get more performance in other areas.  Knolly does not.

We are proud of our patented Fourby4 suspension and its’ what sets us apart from other brands. It’s also why so many Knolly owners are loyal customers for life.