First time poster here! I got bitten by the Spydie bug about two years ago and have been posting regularly on the 'British Blades' forum since then. My Spydercos however far outnumber any of my other sharp things so I thought I might as well jump in the water here too and contribute instead of just lurking for another 2 years!
I hope this is the right section to post this in anyway. I just thought I'd share a review of my latest Spydie, which I posted on the BB forum yesterday. I'm sure you're already familiar with this incarnation of the Manix 2 but its pretty new to us over in the UK.
I've been waiting for these to become available this side of the pond for a while now. Well, I couldn't help pick one up and it hasn't left my side since the weekend, so here's what I'm thinking so far (this is quite a long one with lots of pics so please bear with me! )...
...The first thing that I noticed was that the handle appears far darker in person and almost matt (i.e. not as translucent as I'd expected) in some lights. The idea of the 'toy-like' appearance never bothered me anyway as I'd planned on hammering this knife a bit so looks weren't important, however I've been very pleasantly surprised and think the Manix 2 lightweight is actually pretty darn attractive.
Here are the stats from Spyderco:
length overall: 8 " (203 mm)
length closed: 4.67 " (119 mm)
blade thickness: .118 " (3 mm)
blade length: 3.39 " (86 mm)
blade steel: CTS BD1
cutting edge: 2.87 " (73 mm)
handle material: FRCP
weight: 2.85 oz. (81 g)
This certainly lives up to its name as 'lightweight', a full 62g / 2.15oz lighter than the original G10 fully lined production version! This knife is incredibly light for its size.
My scales read the lightweight at 82.82g:
My G10 Manix 2 (even with the milled liners of the sprint runs) weighs in well over my scales' 100g capacity (approx 120g):
In fact the Lightweight is closer to the weight of a UKPK at 67.83g than a G10 Manix 2:
Now I turned my nose up at the FRN UKPK lightweight for quite some time (I am a bit of a G10 snob!) but was very pleasantly surprised. There were some compromises, such as the lack of a full backspring resulting in weaker tension, a hollow grind in CTS-BD1 as opposed to a full flat grind in S30V. I presumed the differences between the Manix 2 and its lightweight version would be comparably to the UKPKs, however I am actually finding that there seem to be less compromises in the case of the Manix.
The weight difference of approx 15g between the UKPKs always seemed pretty negligiable to me and it was reasonably clear that its real purpose was to be a 'cheaper' alternative to the G10 UKPK. Nothing wrong with this and the UKPK lightweight has found its place in my rotation. However with the Manix 2 platform, the weight difference of 62g between the lightweight and the original production model is considerable. This 'lightweight' is still at its core what a Manix is renowned for; toughness and robusticity, and this feels like a Manix 2 purely designed to be 'lighter', not 'cheaper'...albeit with the exception of the blade steel.
Manix 2 and Manix 2 lightweight, open and closed:
The most noticeable difference is obviously the handles. The lightweight's 'fiberglass reinforced co-polymer' scales feel very strong, with a slight flex in the centre of the handle when pinched deliberately and tightly between the fingers. The Spyderco bi-directional texturing is flawless and makes the jimped and grippy design of the Manix 2 even grippier.
Due to the lack of liners the Manix 2's trademark jimping has been recreated on the co-polymer scales...
...this works pretty well, not quite as aggressive as the original jimping but still very functional.
(continued below...)
). This also means that you cannot adjust the pivot, however I have a few Spydies now with the new bushing pivot system which means you cannot change the pivot tension anyway, despite having a screw together construction, so I don't really see this as a problem (although screw together construction does feel preferable, at least giving the option for warranty voiding mods and maintenance). 
