Personally, I'd still take a fully serviced DHX 5.0 with the ProPedal gutted and a custom shim stack over most shocks on the market (coil or air).
That's my bike in the title shot with the Cane Creek CCDB Coil CS. Given the choice, and the fact I don't care about weight, I'll almost always go coil. The only reason not to is that it's a lot more of a PIA to dial in spring rate initially (but of course, once it's done...).
I can appreciate where folks choose a good air shock though - more playful pop when riding, easier to tune, and weight matters to many riders (including some who say it doesn't).
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As an aside, Ti springs are not what they used to be. They've gotten much heavier as the quality of material has gone down / cost has gone up and a lot of the time now you're much better off with a lightish weight steel coil spring like the Cane Creek Valt. The Valt will almost certainly have a much more accurate spring rate.
I'm surprised your Ti spring is still going after all those years. I've seen a lot of totally bagged-out old Ti springs that measure significantly lower than their advertised spring rate.
Feb. 14, 2022, 10:43 a.m. - Andrew Major
Personally, I'd still take a fully serviced DHX 5.0 with the ProPedal gutted and a custom shim stack over most shocks on the market (coil or air). That's my bike in the title shot with the Cane Creek CCDB Coil CS. Given the choice, and the fact I don't care about weight, I'll almost always go coil. The only reason not to is that it's a lot more of a PIA to dial in spring rate initially (but of course, once it's done...). I can appreciate where folks choose a good air shock though - more playful pop when riding, easier to tune, and weight matters to many riders (including some who say it doesn't). \-\-\- As an aside, Ti springs are not what they used to be. They've gotten much heavier as the quality of material has gone down / cost has gone up and a lot of the time now you're much better off with a lightish weight steel coil spring like the Cane Creek Valt. The Valt will almost certainly have a much more accurate spring rate. I'm surprised your Ti spring is still going after all those years. I've seen a lot of totally bagged-out old Ti springs that measure significantly lower than their advertised spring rate.