Litespeed NoliChucky Trail Titanium MTB Frameset
With a titanium front triangle and carbon rear, the Litespeed Nolichucky could be just about the best enduro bike you could imagine, offering the compliance and comfort of titanium with the hardcore stiffness of carbon.
The designers from Litespeed found inspiration for this bike just by riding their local trails in Tennessee. They got the inspiration and the name for the bike from the Nolichucky Gorge which offers miles and miles of seriously fun and aggressive trails to ride. Whether you are looking for a great competition enduro bike, or you just want to have a lightweight, agile, durable and responsive rig to tackle your favorite trails and discover new ones, the Nolichucky will cover all your bases. What makes using titanium so brilliant for a bike like this is just how durable a material it is. Marry that to the geometry and suspension that will combine to give you tons of traction and precise handling, and you will feel confident enough to take this down the most technical trails in the most demanding conditions.
In terms of suspension, Litespeed have given us 120mm of rear travel that will encourage you to keep pedaling through those sections that will help you work with your momentum instead of scrubbing it. Their specially designed 4-bar Uplink system provides smoother, more usable travel that will help you keep your head and your grip on technical and loose stuff. Then for the geometry, they have tried to find that perfect sweet spot for aggressive riding without taking all the fun out of the descending. The Uplink suspension design offers greater standover height and the sealed cartridge bearings in the pivots will enhance the performance and durability of the setup.
Designed to work very well with forks from 120 to 140mm of travel, though the geometry has been designed for a 130mm fork, which when paired with the rear travel, will give you that exhilarating freedom of being able to take big drop-offs while still riding a rig that is not a bear to wrestle back up a hill. With the oversized titanium tubes and a carbon rear triangle, the Nolichucky can both climb and descend with tons of control and maneuverability.
With both front and rear Boost, the Nolichucky can accommodate either 29 or 27.5+ wheels, where it’ll come spec’d with 2.4 inch tires on the 29er, though you’ll probably be able to run up to 2.5 inch, and for the 27.5 you can fit up to a 3.0 inch. Litespeed have also not overlooked those nice details like internal cable routing for the dropper post, so you can enjoy a clean looking rear end.