Exclusive: Cane Creek DB Inline-Disruptive Innovation
Big news from Cane Creek, producers of the well received Double Barrel Air CS rear shock, today they introduce the first twin-tube mountain bike shock designed specifically for aggressive 120-150mm travel bikes. DBinline features the same unsurpassed range of adjustability, performance, quality, and patent-pending technology of Double Barrel shocks in a lighter weight and smaller sized shock.
Technical Details
Lighter and slimmer than preceding Double Barrels, the DBinline has no external reservoir, but attempts to pack in all of the capabilities the Double Barrel family is known for. Double Barrel shocks utilize a fundamentally different internal design, a twin-tube layout with four-way externally adjustable damping, allowing for superior shock control with the largest range of adjustability. DBinline contains the unique Double Barrel features, but fits a growing set of bikes in the 120-150mm travel range, that sometimes cannot accept rear shocks containing external reservoirs due to frame design constrictions.
The DBinline has a number of cool features.
Cane Creek set out a few years ago to make the leading product in the class of shock they entered. Scott Sonnone had this to say about suspension. “Suspension is personal. All of our shocks arrive with a great base tune, but can be completely tuned from there.” He further went on to explain that Cane Creek is interested in not only producing great products, but helping their customers understand what the suspension is actually doing while they ride, thereby “demystifying the tuning process”. He elaborated on the “Base Tune Card” that arrives with your bike, if equipped with a DB shock. All DB shocks are “base tuned” for specific bikes. Cane Creek works ahead of time, with bike manufacturers, to get settings within the ball park of where riders want them to be, but can tweak after riding.
Our Take
The target demographic for this shock is the guy who chooses tires and suspension on how they perform, versus how much they weigh. In other words, those prioritizing the downhill over the uphill. Cane Creek is therefore not really worried that the DBinline shock is 33% heavier than competitors in it’s class.
The DBinline is completely tunable on and off the trail. Adding spacers to the shock is quite an easy process, taking less than five minutes, and can be accomplished with the shock remaining on the bike. This adds progressiveness to the final 20% of stroke, ramping up as it nears the end of travel, creating a plush feeling. Combined with the ability to completely control high speed rebound after a big hit, the shock won’t buck you off in a violent manner.
Four-Way Independent Adjustability isn’t just marketing speak, it’s something that works. Not being a practiced mechanic, all of these various adjustments (after just a little bit of online, and owner’s manual reading) (High Speed 1.Compression and 2.Rebound, Low Speed 3.Compression and 4.Rebound) were something that I could understand, and then actually put into practice, on the trail, with a multi-tool. Other shocks offer this, in their own way, but Cane Creek has managed to make it much more simple, and easy to understand. Much like manual dials on top of a DSLR pro camera, I prefer to work with those dials, getting that tactile feel, instead of going into a menu system on point and shoots.
I really think Cane Creek achieved what they set out to do with this shock. I think the shock sets a new standard for performance in the area it’s intended for. In line shocks, no external reservoir, for 120-140mm trail bikes. I thought the shock has fantastic downhill plushness (big hits) and small bump suppleness. When the Climb Switch was “On”, it did a great job reducing pedaling feedback, but gave you a nice, “muted” experience, all movement on the bike and related to you was slowed down, in a good way. I don’t want the rear wheel to sling back with a pronounced “boing” and jack me all over the place.
When the CS switch was wide open, or in downhill mode, the performance was fantastic. Very nice ramping up towards the end of the stroke, on the bigger hits, but great openness, or small bump acceptance, on the small stuff. It sucked up the big hits (at least ones I’m willing to go off on this type of intended bike), but not being all spongy-it actually had a very nice responsiveness to it. You could actually still pedal after medium hits, instead of being in a sloppy, la-la land. I did tune the shock after an initial get used to it period, with great success, to match up to my style of riding.
When pedaling over flatter sections, where the terrain is root after root after root, and the roots are elevated or pronounced against the ground, where it’s bap, bap, bap, pounding, in a big gear, pedaling hard, I thought the shock performed incredibly well. It pressed the rear wheel towards the ground after every root, in a predictable and tunable fashion, when passing over the top of the root. I also thought it sucked up the root as well as anything I’ve ridden, in that lightweight of a package. That’s where the shock really shined.
Pricing is $495 USD, and availability is June 16th.
Bottom Line:
So, final words. This shock is a winner. I do think it trumps the performance of the Fox Float CTD and RockShox Monarch RT3, even approaching territory of external reservoir shocks like Fox Float X, and RockShox Monarch Plus. Yes, you will pay a weight penalty against non external reservoir shocks, but this might be the start of a new class. The bike frames are here, we should get an awesome downhill oriented shock for aggressive riding. I don’t think the performance of the CS switch was perfect, for those with climbing performance in mind. But again, this shock wasn’t intended for that crowd. I would certainly race this shock in almost all enduro races. It does not have the performance of a DB Air or DB Coil. It’s a different product altogether and intended for different bikes. Adding the ease of tuning to the overall performance makes me give this shock a complete two thumbs up verdict even for a price of 495$.
