I’m not too impressed with the DRCV shock (Penske racing version) that came with my remedy 9, so looking to change out the shock (doable with different mount hardware and offset bushings before anyone says it wont fit 🙂 ). It really blows through the travel and doesn’t suit my riding much- It has lots of alps use etc so I guess a piggy back shock would be best.

Options I see are:

Get current shock pushed – no idea how much difference this will make, don’t know if it will solve blowing through the travel, non-piggyback, around £150

Monarch Plus – seems to tick all the boxes, user serviceable, not a huge amount of adjustment, can be had for around £280

Float X – ridden on an orange alpine- was ace. Non user-serviceable, min £400

CCDB inline CS– non piggy-back, lots of adjustment, non user-sericeable, £330

I can’t decide what to do! I don’t really want to spend as much as £400 on a float X, the Monarch Plus seems to be a good fit and the user serviceability is a plus for me, but if I’m spending this much to upgrade I feel it might be silly to not just go all the way.
I’ve been told by one employee from a suspension specialist that ‘the DRCV shocks aren’t great, I’d swap it for something else’, and by another that ‘just push your DRCV shock, it’ll be far better than a monarch’.

Any comments or comparisons to aid my confusion would be greatly appreciated

double post!

I don’t have much to add except, I have a float x on my bike, and find a lack of mid stroke support, better than an rp23 but not too impressed with it. Sounds like what your not impressed with currently.

I am considering getting it pushed, getting a DBAirCS, or waiting for a float x2 (with climbing setting to be released)

Can you add volume reducers to the DRCV ? If yes, have you experimented with them?

Can you add volume reducers to the DRCV

Not exactly, however the air volume can be adjusted and the tune adjusted on the damper to get them to work better.

Mid-stroke support is definitely lacking on the DRCV.

I’ve got volume spacers in the secondary air chamber- still not feeling great- still running excessive pressure to not bottom out and thus losing small bump sensitivity.

thanks for the responses!

I have a Trek EX Fuel 9.8 that has a DRCV. Shock.

I found the same thing that the standard shock was just blowing through the travel far to easily no matter how much pressure I had in the air can ( within reason).

Took the plunge and had the shock PUSH’d at TFT last week.

Took a little time and communication with the technician to set up correctly, but a definite improvement.
The descend platform is much better and doesn’t bottom out with my air pressure setting. 185 psi and me in riding gear being about 83 ish kilos.

Can’t comment on the other options you’ve mentioned, but would recommend a chat with TFT.

DB inline especially now its been serviced and tuned by TF. Improved the bike loads giving more confidence and more speed as a result

Will a CC inline really fit? I thought that would hit the narrow linkage.

Is the reason you can home service the monarch, that it can be recharged with air? Is the nitrogen factory charge only to eliminate water that can build up from compressing air?

I’m assuming the Db inline would fit- from pictures I reckon it would! I’ve seen it mounted with a convention DB air.

Another thing is that for it to be push tuned, it means taking our the penske racing gizmos and replacing them with the standard fox boost valve bits, which seems like a bit of a waste!

I suppose it’s a weigh up of how good would a stock shock (probably monarch or cane creek) be compared to a custom tuned DRCV. Difficult to decide having never ridden them!

I’ll also add that I tried a monarch plus on a friends giant the other day, and even when climbing felt a lot grippier (same tyres). And yes JackHammer, thats what I’ve been told

Not that impressed with my CCDB inline. IMO it should only go on short travel bikes, and even then only for lighter riders.

I have just got a 2016 float X but am waiting for the mounting hardware so haven’t tested it yet . I was using a jtech tuned rp23 and was really happy with it. Still a really good shock but I just fancied a change , plus an imminent move to the mountains meant I wanted a piggy back shock . What about getting the rp23 tuned and a new sleeve?

New X-Fusion Stage, available brand new from American bike shops on eBay.

Getting rave reviews, the slider/piston/stanchion thing is massively oversized and apparently does away with the need for reservoir parts of shocks…. Ideal if space is right I’d have thought.

Ccdb inline still has limitations with weight on the damper apparently. I faced this decision a few months ago with an rp23 our something new. In the end, I couldn’t fit a piggy back shock in my 2011 frame and I got the shock pushed. I had the advantage of having push before though. I don’t have any complaints on this one so far either.

Interesting- I hadn’t heard about the inline weight problems before. I’m not heavy (70kg without gear) but ride fairly hard (off the top of my head I’m running my pikes at about 85psi and rear shock 180psi).
If I could get a normal double barrel CS for the right price I feel like that would be the way to go.

Deviant, interesting thought on the x-fusion. Initial thoughts are that I’d get the Vector HLR rather than the stage, but I’ll have a read. This is essentially my mini dh bike- lots of uplift days and other than that it gets the odd trail centre smashing. My Vengeance HLR’s are the best fork I’ve ever had (still prefer them to my new pikes!) but the suspension specialist I phoned told me their rear shocks don’t compare to fox/rs stuff at the moment.

I’ve got a standard monarch used cheap which I’m going to try on the weekend, if that feels good then I might just go with the Monarch Plus…

Mind you, looks like the vector doesnt have a ‘propedal’ type switch, which puts it out the window!

So I have a Monarch (not the plus version) on the bike for now which I’ll try on some mini dh tracks on the weekend. I’ve actually just got a good deal on a CCDB Air CS used, so hopefully will have that on next week!
I will update on the ride impressions

I had a few questions for cane creek, which they promptly answered:

– the ID of their bushings (which have a 14.7mm OD on post 2012 DB shocks) is the same ID of fox and rockshox bushings (which have a 12.7mm OD), meaning you can use the same mounting hardware / pin / axle for the CCDB as you would with your Fox/RS shock. To be clear, I’m just talking about the mounting hardware- fox/RS bushings will not fit. For me, this means I can use my existing offset pins.

– the CCDB doesnt come with ‘tunes’ as Rockshox/Fox do (e.g. Medium compression/rebound). This is just controlled with the 4-way adjusters

– the XV can requires 3 large spacers to make it ‘slightly smaller’ than the volume of the standard air can

A little update for anyone looking to replace their DRCV shock.

Spent the day at Rogate yesterday (mini dh trails) with the Monarch RT Debonair on. The previous owner had put insulation tape inside to act as a volume spacer to make the shock more progressive, although I haven’t checked how much.

Easy to set up, but I wouldn’t say it was much of an improvement. Started at 30% sag but kept bottoming out, so reduced it to just over 20%. Felt better and wasn’t bottoming as much, but just didn’t feel great. Hard to explain, but the word I’m going with is ‘wooden’. It was a M/M tune, but I felt like the compression wasn’t quite right. Could probably be resolved nicely if you tinkered with the shim stack. Overall, bottoming whilst retaining small bump sensitivity felt a little better than the DRCV, but I wouldn’t spend the money to change.

Probably worth saying that where I was bottoming it out, were probably instances where it should bottom out, e.g. a 3foot-ish drop with not particularly smooth landing, or hitting something fast (mainline drops for anyone familiar with Rogate, or 2nd landing on the bikini bottom run drop). But I tend to do ‘bigger’ things than that when I get the chance (probably more than the bike is really supposed to do 🙄 ) so still want a bit more bottom out resistance.

CCDB will be going on this week

The CCDB arrived, but doesn’t fit. With the air can at the bottom, the air cans edge hits the seat tube, or with the air can at the top, it hits the rocker. Boo!

I dont have both offset bushings in yet though- the second one miiiiiight create enough of a gap to stop it hitting the seat tube….

did you not do a search before getting the inline, it won’t fit cause of the evo link.

It’s not an inline, is a double barrel. Regardless of the evo link, it can be mounted upside down (as I’ve seen done on older remedy models), but on my frame the air can touches the seat tube (although once sagged, there is actually enough clearance)- I’m not sure if this would apply to all frame sizes, but on my 16.5 virtual/17.5 real size it’s tight

same goes for the DB CS as well – you are limited to a few shocks specifically made for the trek unless you modify the linkage

You can use any shock you want provided it has the clearance. The same principle applies to every other frame on the market.

I currently have a 200mm e2e Monarch on the bike (which is not a shock specifically made for trek bikes), with offset bushings to effectively reduce the e2e to 197mm (as per treks design) and different hardware.

The linkage is nothing to do with it- it simply requires different mounting hardware. I wouldn’t say using different mount hardware is ‘modifying the linkage’.

OP if you’re after a poppy, fun shock with decent midstroke support have you considered BOS? It’s what they’re brilliant at. My Vipr has been faultless for almost 3 years and is hands down the best rear shock I’ve ever used. Done Alps stuff, Antur etc and never missed a beat.

Thanks RicB- I haven’t, purely because of the numerous reliability problems I’ve heard about BOS… although I’ve not really read into it much! I’ll have a look into it!

A little update….

Couldn’t do anything to get the double barrel to fit.

Just put an inline on it, which just about fits upside down (with the adjusters at the bottom).

Another little update, been running the CCDB inline on the remedy for a few weeks. Had a day at aston hill and a day on the BPW uplift. Excellent shock, huge improvment over he DRCV fox one. I weight just over 70kg, so about 75 kitted up, and ride fairly aggressively (e.g. all the blacks at bpw), dont feel that its lacking compression at all as some people find. Took a day to get the shock set up roughly right, now I’ll fine tune, but small bump and overall feel is excellent!