Shock upgrade worth it?

I’ve got a Sonder Cortex that I bought just after lock down and I’m tempted to upgrade the rear shock.

Its currently got a Rockshox Deluxe select plus RT shock and I was going to send it off for a service however, I noticed I can buy a new shock for £10 less than the service cost! I then did a bit more research and noticed I can get a Cane Creek DBair IL rear shock for around £200 and was wondering if it’s worth paying twice as much to upgrade to the Cane Creek shock? Does anyone have any experience with this shock? Any reliability issues?

I’ve got Cane Creek Helm MK II forks and they’re really nice, I’ve barely touched the settings since I got the bike but they’re very smooth and thought the rear shock would work well them! (I’m sending the forks off for a 100HR service this month so hopefully it will be set up better for me when they’re returned!)

With the Cane Creek DBair IL you’ll be getting more adjustment settings than with the Deluxe. If you’re a set and forget person then it’s debatable whether you’d really benefit from it.

Other than that you’ll not be getting much more, it doesn’t have a piggy back reservoir and it’s not super high volume so it’ll probably feel somewhat similar.

If your original shock ain’t broke then I’d just get it serviced.

“Its currently got a Rockshox Deluxe select plus RT shock and I was going to send it off for a service however, I noticed I can buy a new shock for £10 less than the service cost! ”

I know this feeling well! The problem with the new shock bargains is that they’re rarely the same compression and rebound tunes as the shock that came with your bike, and if the shock you have is already working well then that’s probably the right pair of tunes for you. I think there’s 4 or 5 types of each tune so about 20 different combinations. They can all be changed but doing so requires a full service plus rebuilding the shim stack.

I have a spare matching shock for my bike which I bought because it was super cheap and the same model off the same bike – but they’d changed the tune from the firmest (which works well for me) to the lightest, so I haven’t even bothered trying it.

If your bike doesn’t have a yoke pushing it then the DBair IL is said to be a good shock. I had the bigger piggyback version on a Spitfire, it’s a great shock – very calm.

I tend to agree with Kramer, if you dont like tinkering with settings then a Cane Creek shock might not be an improvement

Sonder used to spec top-end models with the Cane Creek DB Air IL fitted, so they should be able to suggest a base tune for the shock, which should give you a good start point for settings.

Guy K actually used the two shocks back to back and had some thoughts on the differences, basically the CC is significantly better. Link below.

Finally, I’ve got one on my FlareMax using pretty much Cotic’s suggested tune and it just works really, really well ime. For £200 it sounds like a bargain.

https://www.bikeperfect.com/reviews/sonder-cortex-nx-eagle-trail-29er-review

The db air il will be better than the Deluxe you have now – assuming you take the time to set it up and play with it. Surely that’s not a new one for £200 though?

I do tend to set and forget but I’m getting better at making adjustments and tinkering with the settings (I’m also easily swayed by new shiny parts!).

Am I correct in saying the DB inline is the older shock and the Air IL is the new version?

Hhhmmm I shouldn’t be spending at the moment but if I was going to pay around £100 for a shock service on the Rockshox I’m only paying £100 for the Cane Creek really aren’t I?!

IME the big question is how appropriate/well set up the old shock was. Even a really basic shock can do good work if it’s been spec’d right, even a really nice shock can be bad if it’s not. You can easily spend money to “upgrade” and end up worse off.

Cane Creek gives you a ton of easy adjustment ability which is a big advantage as long as you’re happy to put in the time (or it has a good baseline setup). Otherwise it’s a box full of wrong answers. I’ve loved mine in every bike I’ve had them in but I’m a knob twiddler.

I’m considering an upgrade to CC DB IL at next service. From what I read it should be better. Certainly has more adjustments which would let me match it to my fork better.

The problem with the new shock bargains is that they’re rarely the same compression and rebound tunes as the shock that came with your bike

IIRC this is a RockShox thing, like you get an “LL1” tune which determines the range the adjusters will move between. I believe Cane Creeks, being mainly aftermarket products, have a single tune but a wider range of adjustment on the dials.

Am I correct in saying the DB inline is the older shock and the Air IL is the new version?

Same name, new version is “G2”.

Hhhmmm I shouldn’t be spending at the moment but if I was going to pay around £100 for a shock service on the Rockshox I’m only paying £100 for the Cane Creek really aren’t I?!

That’s the logic I’ll be applying. Also the shock service will perhaps be £120, plus postage both ways.

Plus you will have a spare when you next send it away for service 😉

Well, order placed! Actually looking forward to fitting/tweaking the fork, the current shock seems very basic in comparison.

Chestercopperpot and Bikesandboots once I added P&P it was practically free! Lol

If anyone is interested there is one more left on the Alpkit outlet store on eBay for £199.99.

I’ve been having this exact same debate recently – how has servicing become just as expensive as buying a new shock these days?

I think this particular case is an anomaly due to Gen1 inlines being sold off.

But generally for replacing a basic shock with another basic shock, say Rockshox with just a rebound adjuster. Nobody wants them I’d guess so discounts especially on unpopular sizes. Then cost of manufacturing vs cost of servicing labour in the UK. My guess anyway.

I’m also wondering this. I’ve got a RockShox Super Deluxe Select R on my Nukeproof which is pretty basic, but it works and has a ‘custom tune’ since it came with the bike. It works fine; although it feels sort of rough over rocks there doesn’t seem to be an upper limit on how fast I can go, so whilst it might feel plush I’m not sure it’s worth the upgrade.  I might want to experiment with compression damping, dunno.

I had an x-fusion on my rocket from new. I upgraded to the cane creek and used cotic’s base settings and it’s felt great from the word go and I haven’t even bothered trying to change any settings. It feels much pop-ier to jump with and drops feel much better damped. It doesn’t have a full lockout but I haven’t really felt that’s an issue. Rocky stuff the improvement is more marginal – hard to tell how much is because the old shock had not been well looked after

Shock arrived but I’ve only just had a chance to try it out! I sent my forks to TF Tuned for a service and we’ve had nothing but horrendous weather since I got everything back!

I’m really impressed, it’s so smooth compared to the old Rockshox shock and it just seems to absorb bumps. I was a bit cheeky when TF Tuned called to confirm they’d serviced my forks, I asked if the could give any advice about the set up fork the new shock and they were brilliant, the set up they suggested feels great!

That doesn’t sound cheeky to ask tf tunes for advice after you had spend a considerable amount of money with them. It sounds an excellent plan.