Cane Creek DB – what's your experience?

I’ve got a CCDB on my single pivot and while it feels great a lot of the time and amazing some of the time, it still feels disappointing more than I expected it to, and occasionally – on certain random hits – it’s crap. I’ve come to the conclusion that it can’t be ace on all trails unless I’m prepared to dial it in for each different descent (I now everyone says it needs a lot of tuning). Beginning to wonder if a Fox coil would actually give a better fit-and-forget all-round performance. I guess almost by definition, a shock that’s mint on one type of terrain can’t be so mint on another terrain without some degree of re-tuning. Anyone find the same?

Nope, mine’s truly set and forget. I don’t see how a fox coil would be any better in terms of adjustment.

Mine defiantly took time to get right. When i built my bike up for the first time we had a trip to Glentress and it was terrible, felt like i had a flat tyre most of the time, I was not a bunny. But got mine from Standec and Dave’s customer service was fantastic. When I got home I rode it a few times on a trail I knew and phoned him from the trail to see what wasn’t right and he offered suggstions. eventually got it just right and I’ve not looked back.

Mate got one on his orange 5 and we followed the same process. I’m not the worlds biggest 5 fan, but must say his is easily the best I’ve rode (now its sorted).

Well given you have Hi Speed and Low Speed Compression and Hi Speed and Low Speed Rebound and Preload and Oil weight and Stack to adjust Im not surprised its not ace out of the box.

If you get the stack and oil weight correct for you bikes leverage, then the correct spring rate for your weight you should have enough H/L Comp & H/L Rebound to sort the rest.

But you will need to “session” a trail and tweak it a bit.

I got mine from Stendec and Dave said to phone him while out on the trail for help. ( I would but Im still waiting for my Ti spring to turn up)

Cheers for these replies. Thing is, it’s not out of the box – had the shock for over a year and have fettled with all the adjustments. I’m sure it’s possible to set it up so it’s perfect for a given trail – better than any other shock probably – but then the problem is that what’s perfect for one trail can’t really be perfect for another, surely. I can see it’s a great shock, but I’m just wondering it its fit-and-forget capability is limited if you ride a massive variety of terrain (fast and rocky, slow and steep, slow and rocky etc) and don’t wan’t to re-tune the shock for every trail type.

I had to play with mine for a fair bit to get the right balance, but haven’t touched it since.

Absolutely love it, wouldn’t go back now. I always have thought about varying the low speed compression for more pedally days, but have never actually bothered.

Not sue about getting it right for one and then not right for every other. I’ve used mine all over North Wales since getting it sorted and not had any issues.

Surely every trail s made up of different types of terrain. I’m off to CyB on Monday and that has bits that are rocky, steep, smooth, jumpy etc etc. Most trails just change the amount of each. :-)!.

Mine seems sorted on everything I’ve ridden, I always thought I was tuning it for my bike to how I like it to feell.

That said my bike has adjustable travel and I’ll altering it for the alps and I’ll probably need a fiddle to get it right (I’ve got my current settings written down so I can change it back after).

Wi- what bike is it on? I have one on my Five. Got very different settings from TFtuned (where I bought it) and those recommend by malcolm at cane creek.

Why do you think a cheaper mass produced shock with less adjustment will work better? What magic quality will a Fox set a certain way give that your ccdb set effectively the same won’t? Got one on my alpine 160 and tweaked the settings whilst on a 2 week holiday in rocky India til it was sublime. It might need a re-tweak when I mince around the chilterns are play around woburn but only if its extreme.

I reckon you’ve got it too extreme, take it back to factory settings or give one of the experts a call. Or sell it for an inferior shock, there will be plenty of interest in yours here.

Have you tried setting it up for how you ride rather than for each trail?

Mojo – it’s on a Patriot (not the new Patriot, ’08 I think). Whose settings did you end up going with?

And I do have it set more or less to how I ride. And no I don’t think a Fox will be better, I just wonder if all that adjustability comes slightly at the expense of getting one decent ‘all-round’ setting, which is basically what I’m after. I rode the CC the other day and it felt amazing on one descent, then just average on another very different descent. I might be wrong, but I’ve heard one or two other CCDB owners say similar things. For now I’ll persevere with the CCDB – maybe it just needs even more setting up and experimentation than I’ve tried already. Might ring TF for some tips.

Are you sure it’s the shock your feeling and not liking?

I was unimpressed initially with my CCDB. A call to TFT and a discussion on setting helped, as did some tweaking. But what has made me really impressed with it is changing my fork. I think the CCDB is so smooth and neutral feeling that if there is an issue with the fork you’ll be feeling it through the frame. Since changing from a Float fork to a Marz 55 RC3 Ti the harshness I tended to feel in the gnar has totally gone and the whole bike feels much smoother and far more evenly controlled.

I think my Float fork chokes on it’s oil when really pushed hard no matter where I have the settings. Feels fine in the car park but on the trails it’s never quite right… and I find my Pushed Float rear similar. My CCDB and Marz 55 RC3 Ti is a lush combination. If I introduce either of the air shocks I get the harshness and consequent reduction in performance/fun/giggles… but the bike is lighter 😆

Not of much use to the original poster. But reading all you mostly rave about the ccdb has pushed me over
The edge. It’s time for a treat I think

Mine was perfect out of the box from TFtuned, considerably better than my 2012 factory RP23 that never felt right and alway pushed right through its travel even with silly high pressure in it.

Honestly transformed the bike and I never need to touch it.

Bought mine from TF Tuned and its been pretty much spot on without much fettling.

Awesome shock but incredibly sensitive to setup: 1/4 turn too much HSC and it feels like a bag of spanners, 1/4 turn not enough and it feels like the damper’s full of treacle. Having said that, Malcolm set mine up well enough that i’ve barely had to touch it.

Messiah makes an important point. You have suspension at each end of the bike – both affect how the bike feels. Get the front sorted as well.

On my Fox Talas’s I find 5 psi makes a noticeable difference.

wl – can you actually put into words exactly where you feel the shock is letting you down and whre it excells in different situations? All you’ve said so faar is very vague.

Messiah, just gone from lyrik air to 55rc3ti to match the ccdb. Loved the lyriks but hoping this is an even better set up.

wl – I tried both and TFtuned seemed better. The main difference was in the rebound with CC recommending a middle(ish) setting for both HSR and LSR. Tftuned set my shock with much higher damping on both rebounds and with HSR at the max (4 full turns). After trying different settings, I definately prefer the feel of the Five with a good amount of HSR (3.5 to 4 turns). Any less and the back end doesn’t feel controlled.
I too have the 55 rc3ti forks. When I had fox float forks the rear coil noticebly out shone the front. Now with the 55 rc3’s, I’d say the front suspension performs equally if not better than the CCDB rear.

I’m wondering if the CCDB AIR is any cop for a vpp designed frame?

Any feedback on those yet, ANYONE?

Ed likes his

http://www.on-one.co.uk/news/products/q/date/2012/03/04/el-guapo

Cheers mojo etc – I’m gonna do some more tinkering with the dials and see how far I get. I run 55RC3 ti’s too, so it’s definitely not a case of under-performing forks. Might try a softer spring too – I was recommended a 400lb, but at 12st fully kitted I might get away with 350, and it’s only £20 to try it and see.

Cane Creek reckon their shocks work best deeper in the stroke (at least 30-35% sag)and using more damping to control the stroke rather than the spring. So a softer spring may enable you to use more damping. What sag are you getting at the moment?

About that, I think – I’ll double check though. Cheers for your tips. I reckon I need to put in some more set-up time, and possibly try that 350 coil.

I’m same weight and 400 is bang on for my alpine. I have more damping on all adjusters than Malcolms settings, quickly added LSC to stop bobbing and travel blowing on slow rolling stuff, more L and H rebound calmed things down and got rid of a strange wandering feeling like a flat tyre or lateral flex in downhill corners.

I know what OP means about some trails feeling great – others not so, I’m about 2/3rds of the way through tuning my CCDB on Nomad C. I’ve got small bump sorted, night ride in wharncliffe on smoothish singltrack, mud, rooty, twisty stuff is fantastic but, in the Peak on high speed loose rocky descents it just feels too harsh and firm. So I have some tweaking of high speed rebound and compression to do.

Interesting thread here. I’ve been running a CCDB on my ’07 Patriot for about 3 weeks. Fox Van36R up front. The process I followed was this: –

Tried a 350 spring, was getting about 35% sag at first, could not eliminate significant pedal bob.

Installed old Manitou 400 spring and get 30% sag with zero preload(annoying as over 110g heavier than 350!). Set LSC eliminate a lot of bob, roughly middle of adjustment range. Set LSR to roughly suit, a little more than middle of range to prevent too much ‘pop’ after compressions in the trail. LSR on a CCDB is similar to a lot of rebound damping adjusters on other forks.

HSC I’ve completely wound off. If I was hucking or doing mad DH I might wind some on to prevent bottoming, but at the moment I will get 90-95% travel on most rides, but rarely hit the bottom-out bumper.

HSR I’ve played with a bit, it gives the ultimate control when it gets proper gnar. It’s also difficult to ‘feel’ in a carpark. I’m not sure what I’m running at present, but I like the bike pretty lively.

Last weekend I did ~13 miles at Haldon Forrest doing a combination of trail centre stuff and natural woodland riding with roots, kickers, singletrack etc. Then Sunday I did 17 miles on Dartmoor, from slow trialsy ups and downs over big boulders to wide open fast rocks and roots. I added a half turn extra LSR half way round Haldon, and that’s it. One shock to rule them all.

Only thing i’m after now is a service for the Fox36 as they’re 5 years old and still on the same oil (!) then I’d like some Ti springs front and rear…. shame they’re so expensive/unobtainable.

Oh, and whoever was after a 350 spring, if you need a 2.5″ stroker I’ll send you mine for £15 posted.