
jumps. I figured it would be worth playing around with for the upcoming race season to set up
my Warden LT perfectly. After talking with some other riders that are riding the Warden mullet
and comparing geo charts I was stoked to ride this bike!
For me, testing bike set ups is always something that I like to do a few months before race season starts so I can get comfortable before my first race. This year I got the Warden LT with 27.5” wheels and started tinkering. I adjusted the stem height to 30mm with my 20mm Chromag bars and put the bike into the slack position.
After a few pedals in Victoria BC, I was blown away by the capabilities of the Warden compared to riding my Fugitive last season. The extra 45mm of travel in the rear really makes the compressions smooth! But there was something that wasn’t quite perfect for me yet. Whenever there was a steep and technical section, I felt like I was using more strength then I needed to ride these sections well. I still had my fork and wheel from my Fugitive, so I swapped the two and tested out the mullet set up with a 170mm Fox 36 and 29er up front.
Immediately the bar height was where I liked it. By just testing it in the driveway, I could feel the added 3ish millimeters from the larger wheel size and was eager to get to the trails. I pedalled
about 10km to get to Bear Mountain, which is where I typically ride, and did the “race trail”.

Just after my first ride, I knew this was the set up that I would run for this race season. Keeping in mind that this was in February and the race season was fast approaching. I kept riding that exact set up until April and didn’t do any changes other than one tire swap and brake pads. It was a setup that was capable of absolutely everything. I was keeping up with Canada’s fastest downhill racers on Mt. Prevost on a Saturday and then doing a 1500m (elevation) of pedalling on Sunday with absolutely no changes to the bike.
I connected with another BC rider who recently set up his Warden LT Mullet-style; his name is Dale Mikkelson and he's Whistler’s trail association (WORCA) president.

“My 2017 Warden alloy has served me well. A trusted friend, a reliable workhorse. But something shiny and new appeared on the Knolly website that led to a new lusting. The new 2020 Warden was the stuff of legends. Longer, slacker, but still promising the efficiency of the updated 4x4 linkage. I was smitten.
But I was also curious about a bigger travel 29er, given recent experiences of ann epic revelation on the Fugitive. That bike could do way more than any bike in that category could do, and it was the 29er on the front that blew me away the most... the ability to get that thing rolling and just hang on, even with just a Fox34 up front. So, after speaking closely with the folks at Knolly, and realizing that the new Warden could happily go with a short offset 160mm travel 29er on front with no significant impact to geo or trail, I was on it.

almost able to hang onto the heels of my enduro-bro kid (also on a mullet Warden). Truly a
remarkable and capable bike that takes middle aged men to new heights of enduro-ness.”
- Dale Mikkelsen (IG: https://www.instagram.com/dale_mikkelsen/)
And lastly, I connected with another BC local, Alec Suriyuth, from Vancouver BC. He also had his Warden set up with some beautiful decals; It’s a bike that clearly stands out!

- Alec Suriyuth (IG: https://www.instagram.com/alecsuriyuth/)
To say that this is the way that all bikes should run would not be optimum for every rider. For some, the stability of the Mullet is what attracts them to this set up. If you were climbing steep uptracks regularly then the mullet would not help with your riding. It’s a set up that is fast and fun for riders looking to get a little more aggressive. If you had the option to try different options with different wheel sizes and fork set up, would you try it?