Cane Creek Double Barrel Inline: Ridden in North Carolina

I was recently down in North Carolina to check out the launch of Cane Creek’s latest suspension product, the Double Barrel Inline. The Double Barrel Inline is an entirely new product for Cane Creek that carries the same DNA as the existing Double Barrel Air Climb Switch shock but in a slimmed down and lighter package. The Double Barrel Inline offers 4-way externally adjustable damping, a Climb Switch, adjustable air pressure and adjustable air spring volume. The intended user group of the Double Barrel Inline is discerning riders on 120 – 150 mm travel bikes. US pricing is set at $495 and weight is 295 grams (165 x 38mm no hardware).

Before delving in to the inner workings on the DB Inline I want to talk Cane Creek for a minute. Cane Creek was started in 1974 by Dia-Compe. Interestingly Cane Creek has a long history of building suspension products in North Carolina dating all the way back to the first RockShox RS-1 in 1990. For many years the AheadSet patent was the cornerstone of Cane Creek’s business, but when that patent expired in 2010, Cane Creek was forced to reinvent itself. One of those avenues was developing and growing Cane Creek’s suspension products.

The new Double Barrel Inline is a twin tube, 4-way adjustable shock with independently and externally adjustable high and low speed compression, plus high and low speed rebound. The DB Inline also utilizes Cane Creek’s Climb Switch (CS), which is an on the fly lever that increases low speed compression and rebound. Cane Creek built a one off development shock that was 8-way adjustable; two sets of standard 4-way adjusters that could be selected via a switch. Through on trail testing Cane Creek discovered that what truly controlled chassis movement when pedaling was an increase in both compression and rebound damping, not just the compression circuit like most other shocks. The result is what feels to be a much more controlled and efficient platform when pedaling while still maintaining adequate rear tire traction.

The inside of the air can is accessible with the shock still on the bike, allowing for a quick change of the air spacers inside. The Inline weighs in at 200 to 250 grams less than its bigger brother the DB Air CS, and ~90 grams heavier than a comparable Fox CTD shock. The main reason for the added weight to other inline shocks is largely due more oil volume – 35% to 48% to be exact. The combination of the greater oil volume and twin tube design gives the Double Barrel three major performance benefits; better heat management (less fade), greater damping control with higher oil flow rates (wider range of adjustment) and longer oil life.

The shock was exceptional on all three bikes. With the Climb Switch on, all the bikes pedaled surprisingly well – especially the longer travel Chilcotin and Enduro. The level of damping with the Climb Switch on is preset per each bike manufacturer, and it was interesting to experience the slightly different strategies at play. Regardless of the strategy all felt efficient yet maintained good traction over steep rooty and rocky sections. Once at the top, the Climb Switch is turned off and the bikes all transformed into bump eating shred machines. With the level of adjustability on the exterior of the shock I was able to tune the shock to my exact taste in a few minutes. In fact the rear ends on all three bikes worked so well that the forks generally felt under gunned in comparison, particularly on the Ghost. If you’ve ridden a Double Barrel shock before, the new DB Inline damping adjustment range and profile felt similar to the larger offerings; quite a testament given the smaller packaging.

The only criticism I can think of is its level of adjustability and the requirement for tools to turn the adjusters. With such a wide range of damping adjustment readily available, the user has the ability to make the bike amazing or complete rubbish. Cane Creek has done its best to educate its users through The Lounge and offers base tunes for most bikes on the market.

While this is a good starting point for most I think it is still imperative for riders to understand what those adjusters do and how those knobs can make their life amazing. The adjusters requiring tools to turn was a purposeful decision by Cane Creek. Cane Creek wants its users to take a minute to grab a tool and think about the change they’re about to make to the shock. Also tool free adjusters would have to be larger and heavier. I’d personally prefer tool free adjusters, but I can understand the logic.

I was blown away by the Cane Creek family, their passion and dedication shine through in the quality of their product. If you couldn’t already tell I was thoroughly impressed with the Double Barrel Inline. Rejoice those who shred on 120 – 150 mm bikes; your saviour is here. Even though the DB Inline is $50 bucks and 100 grams more than the competitors, the sheer on trail performance, quality and adjustability simply makes the Double Barrel Inline best in class.

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The most adjustable air shock on the market just got lighter… sweet. Head over to Cane Creek’s site to check out the Inline HERE.