[Metamorphic]

Looking for some real world reviews, how's this thing's trail manners? Do you feel like a sluggish walrus trying to crank hard on non-steep trail sections to keep speed? Does climbing with it make you hate life and think about injecting? Or is it rad? Thinking about it for my 2015 Spitfire. Current DB Inline is becoming a maintenance nightmare, may ask Cane Creek about upgrading to either the DB Air or Coil CS.....

 

[rollertoaster]

My buddy has one on his Canfield riot. He really likes it, except for the fact that the damper shaft unthreaded itself from the eyelet end.

 

[captainspauldin]

Looking for some real world reviews, how's this thing's trail manners? Do you feel like a sluggish walrus trying to crank hard on non-steep trail sections to keep speed? Does climbing with it make you hate life and think about injecting? Or is it rad? Thinking about it for my 2015 Spitfire. Current DB Inline is becoming a maintenance nightmare, may ask Cane Creek about upgrading to either the DB Air or Coil CS.....

Don't have a DB Coil CS, but my Megatrail came with the DB Inline and it didn't work for me(I'm a big guy), luckily I was able to get an upgrade to the DB Air CS and it's been night and day vs the inline, much more supple and fantastic in the rough vs the inline. YMMV..

 

[Metamorphic]

Don't have a DB Coil CS, but my Megatrail came with the DB Inline and it didn't work for me(I'm a big guy), luckily I was able to get an upgrade to the DB Air CS and it's been night and day vs the inline, much more supple and fantastic in the rough vs the inline. YMMV..

Nice, that is another consideration I am looking into. I'll chat with the Cane Creek guys tomorrow and see what they'd recommend.

 

[ZHendo]

Looking for some real world reviews, how's this thing's trail manners? Do you feel like a sluggish walrus trying to crank hard on non-steep trail sections to keep speed? Does climbing with it make you hate life and think about injecting? Or is it rad? Thinking about it for my 2015 Spitfire. Current DB Inline is becoming a maintenance nightmare, may ask Cane Creek about upgrading to either the DB Air or Coil CS.....

I'm sure the CCDB Air CS is a great shock based on other folks' shining reviews, but I had a terrible time with it. I never had any reliability struggles, but I could never get it to feel right on my 2014 Spitfire. I admittedly didn't fiddle with the volume spacer bands too much, but set up according to Banshee's recommendations it always felt really harsh and "spikey". I backed off HSC based on recommendations from Cane Creek, but it then felt really unsupportive at speed and in the really rough stuff. I sold it for a good chunk of change and traded for an Avalanche-tuned Fox CTD which, despite overheating a bit on longer descents, was much better on the damping side. I'm now on an Avalanche'd Van RC coil, and it's even better. I do find myself wishing for a climb switch-like solution because the bike sucks major pedal power going up, but based on my first Cane Creek experience I'm a bit wary of looking toward their stuff again.

 

[Metamorphic]

I'm sure the CCDB Air CS is a great shock based on other folks' shining reviews, but I had a terrible time with it. I never had any reliability struggles, but I could never get it to feel right on my 2014 Spitfire. I admittedly didn't fiddle with the volume spacer bands too much, but set up according to Banshee's recommendations it always felt really harsh and "spikey". I backed off HSC based on recommendations from Cane Creek, but it then felt really unsupportive at speed and in the really rough stuff. I sold it for a good chunk of change and traded for an Avalanche-tuned Fox CTD which, despite overheating a bit on longer descents, was much better on the damping side. I'm now on an Avalanche'd Van RC coil, and it's even better. I do find myself wishing for a climb switch-like solution because the bike sucks major pedal power going up, but based on my first Cane Creek experience I'm a bit wary of looking toward their stuff again.

Interesting - the tuned Van is on your Spitfire? How's the DH performance? Significant advantage over your tuned Fox air you had?

 

[MrBaker87]

I have a ccdbair cs on my Rune. It's been unreliable at first. And now that i have one that works, i can't seem to get it to not feel like poo. Admittedly, it's set-up okay now. But not wonderful like the price would have have you think. I wad on a vivid 5.1 coil shock while i was waiting for the ccdbair cs to come back from warranty (2x) and it felt loads better.

 

[ZHendo]

Interesting - the tuned Van is on your Spitfire? How's the DH performance? Significant advantage over your tuned Fox air you had?

Yes, the tuned Van is on my Spitfire. The DH performance is pretty stellar, though the tradeoff is that the pedaling performance really isn't too great. The air shock felt a bit more lively in the early stroke due to the inherent "bump" in the spring rate of an air shock, and as a result is pedaled quite well. The coil isn't awful by any means, but the Spitfire has a decently high leverage rate at the beginning of the travel that seems to push the shock into its travel in a hurry. This translates to outrageously good traction on the downhills, but can feel a tad mushy on some of the long, grinding climbs around here.

My logic was this: the Spitfire was never designed to climb brilliantly. It climbs fine, but lives for the downhills. The Fox 36 that I have up front is amazingly good, so I was looking for a shock that could mimic the awesomeness of the fork when things get gnarly, and the Van does a great job of managing scary situations and making the most of the bike's 140mm of travel. Not to mention, the Van is very inexpensive - I bought a used one with a ti spring that already had the Avalanche tune for about $200, then had it re-tuned by Craig for $180. That's a hell of a lot less than a CCDB...

 

[tacubaya]

I have a DB Coil CS on my Balance and its rad, climb switch works really well.

You should ask CC for an upgrade, they'll give you a good discount.

 

[StiHacka]

I run teh DB Air CS on me Balance and the CS is the tits. Being a proxy dentist, I can't tell a good shock from a bad one though.

 

[ZHendo]

While I was never able to get along with the damping/feel for my Spitfire, I gotta say that I agree with the last 2 guys here...the Climb Switch is the bees teets. I don't know why other companies hadn't thought to come up with a single adjustment to impact both LSR and LSC, but it works really damn well. It's the one thing I miss from that shock.

 

[mykel]

DB Air CS on Knolly Enorphin here as well.
Shock is good if a bit meh - but the climb switch does what it says on the tin.
I like my coil DB's (non-cs) better by far for feeling.

 

[jstuhlman]

huh. have a db coil and never felt the need for a cs. maybe my vpp is so unrideabru it wouldn't matter anyway...

 

[StiHacka]

huh. have a db coil and never felt the need for a cs. maybe my vpp is so unrideabru it wouldn't matter anyway...

Your leverage curve makes you climb even when going down - you need a descent switch.

 

[Kntr]

I went through 3 Inlines in a couple months. Crane Creek let me upgrade to the CCDB air for $150. I like it a lot. The CS switch really works and so far its been more reliable.

 

[Metamorphic]

I went through 3 Inlines in a couple months. Crane Creek let me upgrade to the CCDB air for $150. I like it a lot. The CS switch really works and so far its been more reliable.

Awesome. I actually made the call yesterday to go that route. That upgrade fee is too good to pass up in my opinion. Playing it safe and getting the DB Air CS. But doing lots of research on coils for trail bike still I like the idea....!

 

[Hermes475]

I have a ccdb coil cs on my balance that I really like. It is nice and adjustable, with that sensitive, supple feel that coil shocks deliver. It really transformed the bike as I did not like the shock the bike originally came with very much (which was a ccdba cs). I have always favored coil shocks on bikes that can handle them, although looking at the leverage curves for the 2015 balance, it is kinda borderline for having a coil shock. Ironically, I almost never use the climb switch since the balance climbs so good. The only time I will use it is on long fs road climbs where I want to stand up and pedal for a bit to give my legs a change of pace.

My balance originally came with an ccdba cs and I never really got along with it. The balance has a fairly linear leverage ratio and the only way I could make the ccdba cs work is if I ran two volume spacers, otherwise it just blew through the travel. Running a lot of compression damping helped ameliorate the blowing through the travel issue but gave a harsh ride. I have ridden quite a few ccdb coil shocks on dh bikes and they are my favorite shock, by a slim margin, although I only have time on a vivid coil, manitou revox, and fox rc2. My ccdba cs also got stuck down when the pos/neg equalizing port got gunked up with o-ring scuzz so I had to open up the air can and replace the air can seals, which I am now getting pretty good at since every ccdba I have had has done this after a year or so. It is nice that with a coil shock you only have to worry about the damper seals leaking as steel coils have been proven to be quite reliable.

I also got a cheap but awesome manitou mcleod shock which for some trails I preferred over the ccdba cs. The mcleod was never quite as good on the fast rough things but it was still more than adequate.