While watching Rampage on the weekend, I noticed a lot of those long travel bikes were running air rear shocks. This seems to be a growing trend… just curious what people thought of it? I'd love to hear some opinions as I'm considering running one on a new dh build.
Opinions?
The guys at Rampage…
a) get them for free
b) have them tuned just for them
c) aren't riding Garbo to GLC all day
but they are:
a) lighter
Cane Creek DB Air…..
The web site give you base settings to start according to your bike choice. Ride ,then u tweak to your liking. ( if required)
TIP … only adjust 1/4 turn at a tiime.
F'n Excellent air shock!
I have not been up on the new vivid or ccdb air as to how it feels, but from experience with all other air suspension, coil suspension is far superior. They have more initial softness, ramp up much better, and track better. Remember this is just an opinion.
I currently ride a Knolly Chilcotin with a CCDB coil and replaced my fox talas with a vanilla and it was like night and day once I got the proper spring weight. The bike is about 1 lb heavier due to this, but the suspension performance easily negates the increase in weight.
They are lighter and obviously have more tuning options, BUT they do not work well with all frame designs… talk to a suspension tuner such as Suspensionwerx to get some advice before you take the plunge.
Why compromise on the single thing that affects the quality of your ride more than anything else just to save an amount of weight you won't notice? Get a Ti spring and you are talking 1/2 a pound. Take the rest out of your post, bars, stem, saddle, cranks if you care, but get the best feeling and most reliable suspension you can. You can also save a lot of weight running 2.0 tires and V-brakes but that's a pretty bad idea too.
If anyone would like to argue that an air shock works just as well as a coil, bring your air equipped nomad and run it back to back with my coil fork and shock. It's night and day.
I have always been a coil/ ti spring guy. Have toyed with air on most of my bikes, but was always happiest going back to the coil.
This has all changed with the CCDB Air on my Chilcotin. Pricey as hell and a total PITA to set up, but feels comparable to my DH rig. It even makes Ned's sort of enjoyable.
This being said, I don't know if it feels better, or is much lighter than my usual Roco/ Ti spring set-up.
the ramping up of air shocks is probably why you saw them at Rampage. CaneCreek says that you'll get better traction with a coil. It's a preference thing in my opinion. Whatever feels the best to you is what you should ride.
:canada:
They are lighter and obviously have more tuning options, BUT they do not work well with all frame designs… talk to a suspension tuner such as Suspensionwerx to get some advice before you take the plunge.
Agreed, defintly discuss with Suspension Werx, They know what shocks are best suited for each bike and the application you will use said bike for.
I've been running a Manitou Evolver ISX4 on my trail bike (Santa Cruz Blur LT Classic) and luvin' it. If it worked the same on my DH/FR bikes, I'd take it. Not worried about weight on the DH bikes though, and I've got a couple Avalanche DHS shocks to get tuned for me for 2013. Sweet.
Let it flow, let yourself go
Slow and low, that is the tempo
Forum jump:
