I've had a DBCoil IL on a Smuggler.
It makes the bike track better and climb better, for sure, but it puts you in this weird spot where the suspension wants to soak up the trail but lacks the travel to do so. I found myself faster on air shocks, which would have more of a tendency to "skip" over features/bumps/etc than it would attempt to absorb them. It felt like the bike would fall into holes or get snagged more than with air due to the suspension movement. The coil also made the bike feel more dead, which meant unweighting the bike to smooth out the trail was a bit more work even with a higher spring rate and less rebound damping.
It's not a bad feel necessarily, but I think it tries to make the bike do something it's not meant to do and deadens the ride too much.
Oct. 29, 2019, 12:59 p.m. - Shinook
I've had a DBCoil IL on a Smuggler. It makes the bike track better and climb better, for sure, but it puts you in this weird spot where the suspension wants to soak up the trail but lacks the travel to do so. I found myself faster on air shocks, which would have more of a tendency to "skip" over features/bumps/etc than it would attempt to absorb them. It felt like the bike would fall into holes or get snagged more than with air due to the suspension movement. The coil also made the bike feel more dead, which meant unweighting the bike to smooth out the trail was a bit more work even with a higher spring rate and less rebound damping. It's not a bad feel necessarily, but I think it tries to make the bike do something it's not meant to do and deadens the ride too much.