I’m getting my float RP2 back from MOJO after it was repaired under warrenty after something went wrong in the internals. But I rarely get full travel out of it, and the foront forks have been upgraded to Lyriks.

So I was thinking based on reviews………..buy a coil shock

Diverse Dueler £280 with Ti spring – good for downhill but not so good for all-mountain as it’s very active/plush and i’d like at least some patform to pedal against on flatter sections?

Pushed Van RC £325 – the bestest, cheepest shock and would be setup however I wanted it (hopefully).

CCDB £475 – Expensive, but when you look at depreciation on any other shock it’s actualy about the same price over the frames lifetime (assuming it doesnt blow up terminaly which I’ve never heard of).

But reviews seem to hint that while the CCDB is the best we’re only talking incramentaly better over a pushed RC, and most of that benifit is in being able to tune it to a change in terrain/bike/rider (or if the initial tune by TF is somehow wrong), so only of marginal benifit as it’ll be me riding it, and it’ll be fitted for days out where I thing it’ll be of some benifit over the air shock (uplift/DH/some Peaks/some Lakes/hollidays, which make up the majority of the bikes use anyway), so a fairly narrow range of conditions.

Or………Keep the air shock

Push the RP2 and have a large volume air can (£100 service + £50 push tune + £40 air can). This would be almost as expensive as a new shock and while it would no doubt be ‘better’ on average over all my riding there’d be none of the advantages of having a spare shock or having the best tool for the job on any day, just a (very good) average. Bessides, it’s freshy serviced so I’d struggle to justify spending money serviceign when it doesn’t need it!

Or………buy a cheep coil

From tiawan on ebay, Van RC for £135 or DHX RC2 (an RC4 without the bottom out adjuster) for £185 (plus a bit for mounting hardware) and defer the decision to get it pushed untill it needs a service in 12 months time? Could be a bargain option, unless it fails like the float did.

Buy a CCDB, know that you have the best shock in the world, and enjoy your riding 🙂

Thats what I was thinking, after ages waiting for one to come up 2nd hand in the right size I figured that

£250 for a 2nd hand shock, plus a £100 service, plus £40 for the correct spring, plus new mounting hardware (which aren’t cheep on the CCDB, ‘norlglide’ whatever that is) makes it all but a few pounds short of a brand new one.

And everything else seems like a half measure.

Are there any reviews of the CCDBair yet?

What’s actually wrong with the original shock?

Shirley lower pressure will give you fuill travel?

The Dueler is fully custom tunable, the 3rd generation one is also pedals better with the new valveing fitted as standard too.
We had one on test with an Elite rider at the BDS at Fort William last weekend so they’re being developed further as we speak. 😀

I rarely get full travel out of it

Are you doing stuff that will require full travel (large drops/jumps), or listening to magazine propaganda, that unless you hitting full travel every ride, then your setup is wrong?

Push the RP2 and have a large volume air can (£100 service + £50 push tune + £40 air can). This would be almost as expensive as a new shock and while it would no doubt be ‘better’ on average over all my riding there’d be none of the advantages of having a spare shock or having the best tool for the job on any day, just a (very good) average. Bessides, it’s freshy serviced so I’d struggle to justify spending money serviceign when it doesn’t need it!

why? thats a silly option. A custom tune mojo offer can do the same as a PUSH tune.
If you had mojo repair the shock on warrenty you could have raised the concerns you had with not reaching full compression. and they would have tuned the shock to your liking. the rp2 and rp23 have 3 rebound tune options and 3 compression tune options. which one your shock has is noted on the air can. If you “think” your shock isn’t correct you could have asked them to change the tune for your shock.

what bike and frame is the original shock on and what’s the shocks spec.?
They’re sometimes not really specced/tuned quite right for some riders so adjustment maybe an option too.

tinas, what size is it, I know of a brand new 190×50 van rc which the guy wants £150 for .

What’s actually wrong with the original shock?

Shirley lower pressure will give you fuill travel?

I’ve got the sag at about 30% but even stuff like doing cave dale flat out (so plenty of shallow 1-2ft drops up top and then just big rocks the whole way down), it ramps up too quickly, I can make it use all the travel if I ride like a sack of spuds but riding fast it just shakes my fillings out.

That and being a fatty they shock gets pretty warm and loses some damping on rougher decents (and blows seals, but that might have been a one off) so a coil shock might be more consistent and reliable.

Are you doing stuff that will require full travel (large drops/jumps), or listening to magazine propaganda, that unless you hitting full travel every ride, then your setup is wrong?

I don’t want to use all my travel every ride, but as I’ve got faster/smoother I’m using less and less travel to the point where even on a deliberately rocky ride (edale up mam tor, mam tor footpath to broken road, cavedale, pindale, bradwell clough, and back over mamm tor to edale) I’m only using the middle third of the stroke (the first third being sag and the last third doesn’t get used), so a more linear shock would help.

what bike and frame is the original shock on and what’s the shocks spec.?

Specialized Pitch, RP2, ‘normal’ air can (the skinny one AFAIK), I’d have to check what tune it is. I think it’s low comression medium rebound, but would have to check.

what size is it,

200×57

A custom tune mojo offer can do the same as a PUSH tune.

I know, but I’m a sucker for a nice sticker 😛

And I could have asked them to re-tune it, but I felt lucky getting it done for free outside of warrenty, I felt that asking for custom tuneing, larger air cans etc might have given the impression I had an alterior motive for getting the work done other than just a straightforeward warrenty job.

You’re riding a pitch, should you really be expecting full travel on the terrain you’re riding?

It’s a bike in the travel range that is designed for good size drops 6ft+ to flat, should gravel roads really be using all the travel?

Also, isn’t the point of riding down something bumpy, for it to be bumpy?

My experiences on my Nicolai Helius AM.

Cheap Float – blew through the trael unless at too high pressure (not enough sag either), pretty uncontrolled too as tended to pack down.
Cheap Float with internal spacers – much better than above and able to get 30% sag but still blew through and tendency to pack down.
Push upgrade on Cheap Float with internal spacers – it took TFT two goes to get this right for me as I wanted faster rebound than the first go. Very happy with this shock now, but it’s not as good as a VIPr which I tried, or a good coil shock… it is better than a poor coil shock though!!!

Cheap DHX3 – not a bad shock. Better than the Float above but it also tended to blow through it’s travel and pack down. I tried a few spring weights on it and liked it most with a light spring weight on a short travel setting, this seemed to allow the shock to work better but misses the point of having the travel. I did think about getting it pushed but decided to continue my experiments with a shock that I could fiddle with so I bought a CCDB.

CCDB. Works very well but can feel a bit sluggish sometimes. It’s quite easy to get carried away and really ruin the performance… slowly slowly catchy monkey etc. There is a risk that each ride becomes a science experiment of fiddling and faffing… but now I have mine working as I like it I’ve not fiddled in months. Also… if your forks are not great you’ll not feel full benefit of the CCDB. When running my 36 Floats on the Nic the CCDB feels okay, but if I run the Marzocchi 55 RC3 Ti’s it feels great. If I run the zochi’s with the Float rear it feels okay, if I run the Floats front and rear they feel okay… it’s only if I run the CCDB and the Zochi’s together that I get the magic carpet ride :o) Since running this pair I’ve not bothered to stick the Floats back on as this combo is so much fun… sod the weight penalty!!!

Deville and VIPr was almost as good… and better in some ways. But I already had the CCDB when I tried them and I bought the Zochi’s daft cheap.

I now have a CCDB – the difference compared to my Fox RP23 is massive. In lots of ways, all of them better. But it costs loads. (£470 shock, includes custom tune, £200 spring)

But if I was just trail riding I would probably keep the Fox. Im doing a bit more than that and was finding the Fox ramped up too much, couldnt get the sag right and the pressure I needed meant the rebound wouldnt work properly.

Depends on your riding, but you need to fix the travel issue first before spending loads on a shock.

My bike now feels like it has endless amounts of travel with the CCDB on it. The air can just ramped up and felt wrong most of the time, apart from normal trail riding.

t’s a bike in the travel range that is designed for good size drops 6ft+ to flat, should gravel roads really be using all the travel?

I don’t think it’s ever been down a gravel road, up them in an uplift truck, bt never down one 😛

And are we talking pinkbike feet or actual feet, I’d measure the drop, not the added four feet to where your front wheel landed on the downslope.

Also, isn’t the point of riding down something bumpy, for it to be bumpy?

That’s what the hardtails for 🙂

One more comment from me… If I was enduro racing I would almost certainly run the Fox Float combo as it rides okay and weight difference to the CCDB/Zochi is a good 1-2lbs… but for my general riding I love the way the coil combo’s feel and I can manage the extra weight… what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

I honestly cant feel the weight difference between my Fox and my CCDB (with Ti spring)

A steel spring from CC weighed 420g, the Ti one from Loco was less than half that and slightly lighter than the Ti one from Nukeproof.

Does anyone know where I can get the high volume sleeve for less than £60?

the 200 X 57 isn’t available yet, couple of months I’ve been told should have a proto one for test soon.

It sounds like you may benefit from as larger volume air can to reduce the ‘ramp up’ towards the end of the stroke, a custom tune can also be used to to get better performance out the shock.

just saw last reply yes give me a call, you can get them in Kashima too 😉

I owned a pitch, used it quite a few times on the descents you mentioned. I weigh 13 stone.

Came stock with an x-fusion thing, actually worked really well, survived a week in the alps no problem/

Moved onto a DHX air with HV air can, initially had to run 15% in order not to bottom out ~4ft drops to rough flat (non pinkbike rating). Reduced the air can volume, was running 20% in order not to bottom out. The HV can did make the descents you’re riding more controlled, the reduced air can volume made it less controlled.

Finally tried out a monarch plus RC3 on my pitch, stanard volume air can, awesome. Running 25% sag, no bottom out, even on ~8-10ft drop to landing. More plush in the first part of stroke, more support later on, made the bike more lively and fun.

I think what you’re wanting to achieve of attaining full travel whilst not having it too squishy for pedalling, on a bike that’s suitable for some reasonable ragging is asking for the moon on a stick. A HV air can may help you along the way to it, but it will turn the bike into a big squishy marshmallow.

Also, coil vs high volume air can, a coil gives more support mid stroke, where you’re wanting less support, a HV air can would be a better bet for what you want.

I also want to say, for me, the pitch felt very much dead with a HV air can with any more sag than 20%, in order to get full travel i’d say it still took a pretty descent hit, landing on rough ground to get full travel.

LOCO YGM 🙂

The DBAir is designed to compliment the DBCoil in working on bikes the other doesn’t lend itself to, worth checking out, as it could feel like crap.

There have been a few people with issues on them too, so I would be inclined to wait it out a little yet.

Personally, I would keep your air shock for the XC days, and buy a cheap Fox coil shock & get it serviced/tuned for you/your bike for the bigger days. 5 minute swapout, job done.

For anyone interested,

I fitted the XV air can, medium spacer and put 200psi in (used to run about 185-190psi in the normal can). Sag is now nearer 20% than 30% and I can still get to within a 5-10mm of the end of the stroke on a fairly mistake free ride (i.e. there’s some in reserve for big hits if needed). It feels much much more controlled, no bouncing arround off lips, and it feels like there’s actualy something going on out back over really rough bits. Overall it nicely matched the new Lyriks up front (with firm spring and 4 click of low and high speed compression).

Downsides, maybe a little too squishy, going to try the biggest spacer, then probably the original can just to try them all back to back seeing as it’s a quick enough job to swap them, and ride a few rocky trails back to back to see the differences. With the pro-pedal off it’s really active, to the extent that having the pro pedal on actualy helped on some runs!

Heating up? Are you sure there’s nothing wrong with the shock / you have the rebound set too slow?

If the former, friction would heat up everything so maybe it needs a service, and as everything heats up it expands so this may slow the return (rebound) resulting in a clattery / packed shock.

Same with the rebound too slow – it’ll be packing dowm.

As said by others, you won’t get full travel – air compressess to a point where it won’t anymore, it doesn’t leave the shock.

Kryton57 – Member

I think you just missunderstood the question (allong with the reason all shock absorbers gets hot) or didn’t read through to the end.

Hmmm, i;m thinkning of reducing the volume of my DHX air to get it to be a little bit more progressive, hopefully i can then reduce the pressure in it from 280psi down to something more sensible like 250psi. just need to find a suitable bit of plastic to put in it.

Does it have seperate inner/outer cans linked by a small hole like the float? If so you can just pack the outer sleeve with suspension grease.

Deanfbm what tune did you get on the Monarch plus for the pitch?

Outer sleeve packed with a bit of 1mm x 135mm x 50mm plastic that was reasonalby flexible. (nice and easy to take out, if needed, and no where near as messy as grease).

30% sag did require ~270psi, now requires 200psi, will give it a proper ragging and see what i think then.