Words by: Ken Fung
How does Knolly Bikes pick their frame colours?
Being a small company, we can get creative with our frame colours and offer a program that is dynamic, fun and deliver something for every rider. Read on to find out what inspires our colour selections and in part two (next week's blog!), you'll learn about our 2024 limited edition colour program!
Colour Choices since 2018
Over the last 5 years, we’ve taken colour inspiration for our frames from the automotive industry and also our local community. With the change from Generation 4 to Generation 5 (2018-2021), we based our mountain bike colours from race car livery paint schemes including the Gulf Lemans Blue, John Players Special Black + Gold flake, Mclaren Papaya Orange and Land Rover British Green to match the Defender 90.
In 2021-2022, we found local brewery influences and painted our models to match Port Moody’s Yellow Dog Brewery High 5 Hazy IPA (Fugitive) and Retriever Golden Ale (Chilcotin), and the Cache steel gravel bikes were painted to match beer labels from Beere and Superflux Brewery.
In 2023, some colors from the previous year carried over with some small production paint batches. Influenced by restomod vintage cars from the 50s, the Black Cherry fade to Black Metallic Pearl was found on the Warden. The Teal Cosmos on the Chilcotin was reminiscent of the first generation Toyota Tacoma. Keeping with the beverage theme from the previous year, the Fugitive featured a Tequila Sunrise fade from Magenta to Yellow.
This year (2024), with the complete revision of the model lineup aesthetic and moving to the Generation 6 platform, we thought about the colours really hard (as a small bike company with a great following of riders) because we wanted to stand out in the industry with something special.
The Endorphin received more subtle colours in reference to the Toyota Corolla Champagne and Volkswagen GTI Mk2 green.
Acknowledging that some Enduro riders want to be seen and some want to blend in, we picked a variety of finishes in paint and anodizing options for the Chilcotin. We selected Raw and Anodized black for durability (and to not stand out), and chose Laguna Blue (2002 Volkswagen GLI) and Green Fade to Black (1997 Acura Integra) for those that want something bold in a sea of dark coloured bikes.
Due to the popularity from the previous generation, the Warden got a repeat of the Mclaren Papaya Orange and Land Rover Green but with a spin to it. The Mclaren Orange received a fade to black pearl at the bottom bracket zone to match our other fade patterns for the last season and a take on the Land Rover Green with the ‘24 Defender 110 Safari Green.
Keeping it low key for our Fugitive riders whom are slightly more conservative, this model received Anodized Bronze with gold decaling for durability (and to match Kashima colored suspension), a Dad Jeans Blue which is similar to the Ford Maverick (with gray decals to match the great interior of the truck), and the Chameleon Purple that color changes in the sunlight from Purple to Black with lime green decals for that reptilian theme.
Check out knollybikes.com to view the full line-up and shop our new 2024 colours and models! And next week, we'll be launching our 2024 Limited Edition Coloured program (with limited quantities available to purchase for consumers!).
