Ok I’m in abit of a dilemma. I love my Patriot, its currently running an old RP23 216×53(?) air shock.

I was thinking of upgrading it to a 200×57 Kashima CTD shock and sliding the the shock mount position down one notch (possible on the 08 Patriot of course) thus keeping the same/similar geo that I like.

Could I improve the rear suspension on the Patriot by upgrading the shock?

I don’t want to go down the coil route. My bike build is quite light/how I like it.

I would save on the kashima coating and just put some silicon grease on the shock. I have the same set up as you and would only be upgrading if I had a load of money that I had no idea what to do with or the shock was broken and needed replacing or I found a cheap (Say Mojo outlet) upgrade.

One upgrade I was thinking about was a 10mm through axle.

Mines got the 135×12 rear end.

That’s what I meant. Does it make much difference?

Unsure if I’m the right person on that score as I immediately swapped the coil out for a air shock- I think due to the length of the air shock/positioning it may create abit of flex mid-section(?) that cancels out the benefits of running a 12mm axle over QR in case?

Why not just get your current shock custom tuned. Make sure they increase the small bump sensitivity so you can cope better with pebbles 😉

Tim Flooks

Full service and tune on current shock will get it working alot better.

My favorite shock when I had a patriot was a heavily modded DHX 5.0 coil but it was rather heavy.

What shock’s in it now? I noticed the other day that there’s tons of pre-CTD RP23s on ebay for not much, maybe the latest CTD is better but they definitely seemed to take a step back after the first gen with kashima came through.

Only ridden the one air-patriot which had a PUSH’d RP23 in it, really nice. Apparently a fair amount of work went into that, changing volumes etc to make it work.

I’m currently thinking about a shorter shock but sliding the mount down (or finding the alternative one they used to do). Make it lower but less travel.

Is your old shock ok?

A mate of mine had the Kashmina RP23 in his Five before moving to a CCDB Air. Previously we though the RP23 was a good shock but having tried the CCDB (and a DHX) the RP23 isn’t in the same league, but that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

My advice would be save the money on the RP23 and add a bit more to get something really good.

Having said that I have a 200×57 non kashmina RP23 out of a Tracer if you still want to go down that route.

Thing you have to bear in mind with the DBAir is it’s not light- so if the reason for looking at air is to save a chunk of weight, you don’t get as much difference. Think if I had a pedally Orange I’d want a db air cs but there’s a good argument for the lighter options I reckon. Especially price!

Is your old shock ok?

You mean the coil that the frame came with? Sold.

I fancy it lower too.

Wozza – how much were you after?

Don’t worry about kashima btw, it does make a tiny wee difference but it’s not enough to get worked up over. I paid something like £40 to change between an equivalent non-shiny fork to a shiny one, difference wasn’t worth £40 IMO.

I can’t see it getting used again, so how about £65ish collected from Trafford Park? It’s the high volume, no chips/dings on the shaft, no oil leaks, propedal works.

Wozza YGM

Cheers, replied.

I’d say go CCDB in one form or another if you can afford to spend the money.

RP23 (2011 stock one with the big volume aircan) didn’t ever feel right on the Five for me and tended to blow through it’s travel too easily.
The volume tuning spacer thingimies that fit in the aircan did help to reduce this significantly as they make it ramp-up sooner. Worth trying.
I eventually went CCDB (coil in my case though) and do think it’s worth the weight penalty TBH.

The volume tuning spacer thingimies that fit in the aircan did help to reduce this significantly as they make it ramp-up sooner. Worth trying.

I’ve got the thickest spacer sat on my shelf ready and waiting.

Retuning etc- (loco/Northwind)- yep. After I figure out if I do like the shorter length I’ll get one of the shocks tuned/sent off and use the other as a waiting backup then fling it on bay etc at cost 🙂

Loco- bet your bloody busy now arent you? Weeks backlist due to the fashion-weather cyclists popping up.

Loads of them in the Peaks now- in their fancy kit. Where were they when it was bloody cold!?

Booking for next week ATM, just filled the last space for this week, pop a booking form over and we’ll get you pencilled in 😉