brian
06-12-2007, 02:41 AM
I'll start off right away apologizing for the length of this, I just got a little carried away. I also felt that I really needed to describe how it, and myself have gone through to point of where we are at.
I decided to give a long term review on my Double Barrel shock. I figured that I would do a write up every couple months since it’s going to be a busy DH riding summer, and I’ll have lots of feedback. And to my knowledge, there hasn’t been a long term review done on it. I’ll be posting on a few sites and welcome your experience and/or advice that you found out that works for you on the shock.
The Bascis:
Rider: 210lbs, 38 years old, not as brave as I used to be
Bike: 2007 GT DHi MUCH braver then I am
Shock size: 9.5” eye to eye with a 3” stroke
Travel: 8.5”
Leverage ratio: 2.75
Spring: 400lbs
Settings: Stock
The Introduction:
I heard the hype about the shock from the beginning, even before it was available to the public (it's hard not to living an hour from the factory), so I called Cane Creek and spoke to Malcolm about getting one for my bike. Since they never mounted a Double Barrel on the new DHi, we were worried about the width of the reserve fitting under the seat mast. I offered to bring my bike up for them to look at, again being an hour away does have its advantages. Customer Service is something that Malcolm and Cane Creek takes pride in and it showed from my visit, I'm not going to into the details, but I will say that I seen it being dyno tested along with other shocks and some other things that I’m not allowed to share. It was very impressive.
Micrometers were used for measurements, questions were asked (and answered), and I meet the actual guy that was going to be building it. Again, I was very impressed with my visit. So I loaded the bike up and headed home. Less then 10 days later, I found out what brown can do for me, UPS dropped off a box with a new shock in it that was tuned for my weight and my bikes leverage and frame design.
The first thing that I noticed when I unpacked the shock (besides the all the bubble wrap) was the 7 pages of instructions and the dyno result of my shock, not a general dyno of the shock, but my personal shock.
First, you have to look at the partnership Cane Creek has with Ohlins, who if you don't know, designs and produces some of the best shocks for the motorsport world, and has countless world championships as proof. The quality of the build is 1st class, attention to detail is suburb, it just feels solid in your hand. Hand built by one guy whose only concern (or job) is to build it, then he dyno's it, then they pack it with the dyno results and instructions. Serious customer service here, you could almost say it's a custom built shock! The piston shaft is smaller then I expected, but with the reputation of Ohlins and Cane Creek, I felt no worries. I’m pretty sure they know what their doing.
INSTALLATION: A confession first, I always hated installing a shock, it’s not that it’s difficult, it’s just a pain trying to get the bushings, the spacers, then the bolts all to line up. Well the boys at Cane Creek included a handy little plastic dowel that made installation a breeze. I think the bike itself made mounting the shock difficult. It’s a 2007 GT DHi and you have to remove the carbon fiber seat mast in order to get to the shock. So using my Ultimate stand wasn’t going to work to well.
The First Ride:
I have a little downhill run on our property, it’s nothing big or anything, about 45 seconds long is all. It does have a couple 5’x3’ “wheelchair” ramps, a 20’ gap jump and a couple 3 footish drops and either a 3rd drop or another jump, it’s your choice. Nothing to brag about, it’s just something that I can ride out of the garage and hit a few times after work. On my trail the shock was never really asked to anything hard, but I did notice that it felt a little different.
1 Week:
Windrock for those who are familiar with it, you know what a steep and burly place it is. First couple runs were done with the stock settings, and I did notice that it was a completely different shock. It just sucked up the hits without any “back talk”, and the tracking felt different, not exactly sure how to describe it. After talking with a couple other guys who run the shock, I dropped the sag to around 50%, I personally thought this was crazy and wouldn’t work. We also backed out of the high speed compression and left the HS rebound alone. Time for another run, okay, now I can really feel a difference with the shock, it seems to track better and it feels strange, almost a dead feeling, which is the feeling that I’m told I want. It’s not totally there yet, and there is still some tuning to do.
3 Weeks:
This past weekend I raced a local (in DH terms) grassroots event. The shock was awesome and performed “as I” thought it should. However, after talking to a couple pros that run it, I did realize that there is so much more to learn about this shock, and that tuning it is a big trial and error sort of thing. We figured out that the settings were off, and that I need to be on a lighter spring.
Conclusion:
So now that I’m back home, I’ll swap out the spring, consult a few friends, give Malcolm a call and play around some more with the adjustments.
Just one of the things about the Double Barrel that is so amazing is the amount of adjustability is has, high/low speed for the compression/rebound. You can dial it in to be the all purpose shock on any trail, from the pesky little bumps, to the roots, to rock gardens, to the big drops, to the sprinting. No need to sacrifice small bump plushness for the big hit survivability, the Double Barrel does it all once you get it dialed in, which I’m slowly figuring out. The adjustability of the Double Barrel is just crazy! Take the advise of the instructions and take your time adjusting the Double Barrel, you can get over your head if you start tuning it all at once (trust me on this one). I was a bit worried about when I heard "people" state that it was too complicated as far adjusting, well either it's my superior intellect (which I seriously doubt), but I found it easier to adjust then other shocks out there. Let me explain, it's really simple if you think about it. You can adjust one of the four adjustment points without effecting the others, and you will notice a difference if you do only adjust one. But you can get over your head if you try to rush the tuning.
The coolest thing I like about the shock, (and this is just a personal thing) is the flat tire feeling. That's the best way I can describe it, it feels like your riding on a tire that is low on air, not totally flat, just pretty low. The thing is though, that you are not slowing down, you’re actually going faster and tracking better.
You got to remember that this is the most technological advanced shock to ever come to the bicycle world, so it will be pricey, it will take a few turns to get it adjusted to your liking, and it will make your current shock seem inadequate and very dated.
So I’ll be back in a couple months for a current update and hopefully I’ll still be stoked on it!
Until then…
Cheers,
Brian
I decided to give a long term review on my Double Barrel shock. I figured that I would do a write up every couple months since it’s going to be a busy DH riding summer, and I’ll have lots of feedback. And to my knowledge, there hasn’t been a long term review done on it. I’ll be posting on a few sites and welcome your experience and/or advice that you found out that works for you on the shock.
The Bascis:
Rider: 210lbs, 38 years old, not as brave as I used to be
Bike: 2007 GT DHi MUCH braver then I am
Shock size: 9.5” eye to eye with a 3” stroke
Travel: 8.5”
Leverage ratio: 2.75
Spring: 400lbs
Settings: Stock
The Introduction:
I heard the hype about the shock from the beginning, even before it was available to the public (it's hard not to living an hour from the factory), so I called Cane Creek and spoke to Malcolm about getting one for my bike. Since they never mounted a Double Barrel on the new DHi, we were worried about the width of the reserve fitting under the seat mast. I offered to bring my bike up for them to look at, again being an hour away does have its advantages. Customer Service is something that Malcolm and Cane Creek takes pride in and it showed from my visit, I'm not going to into the details, but I will say that I seen it being dyno tested along with other shocks and some other things that I’m not allowed to share. It was very impressive.
Micrometers were used for measurements, questions were asked (and answered), and I meet the actual guy that was going to be building it. Again, I was very impressed with my visit. So I loaded the bike up and headed home. Less then 10 days later, I found out what brown can do for me, UPS dropped off a box with a new shock in it that was tuned for my weight and my bikes leverage and frame design.
The first thing that I noticed when I unpacked the shock (besides the all the bubble wrap) was the 7 pages of instructions and the dyno result of my shock, not a general dyno of the shock, but my personal shock.
First, you have to look at the partnership Cane Creek has with Ohlins, who if you don't know, designs and produces some of the best shocks for the motorsport world, and has countless world championships as proof. The quality of the build is 1st class, attention to detail is suburb, it just feels solid in your hand. Hand built by one guy whose only concern (or job) is to build it, then he dyno's it, then they pack it with the dyno results and instructions. Serious customer service here, you could almost say it's a custom built shock! The piston shaft is smaller then I expected, but with the reputation of Ohlins and Cane Creek, I felt no worries. I’m pretty sure they know what their doing.
INSTALLATION: A confession first, I always hated installing a shock, it’s not that it’s difficult, it’s just a pain trying to get the bushings, the spacers, then the bolts all to line up. Well the boys at Cane Creek included a handy little plastic dowel that made installation a breeze. I think the bike itself made mounting the shock difficult. It’s a 2007 GT DHi and you have to remove the carbon fiber seat mast in order to get to the shock. So using my Ultimate stand wasn’t going to work to well.
The First Ride:
I have a little downhill run on our property, it’s nothing big or anything, about 45 seconds long is all. It does have a couple 5’x3’ “wheelchair” ramps, a 20’ gap jump and a couple 3 footish drops and either a 3rd drop or another jump, it’s your choice. Nothing to brag about, it’s just something that I can ride out of the garage and hit a few times after work. On my trail the shock was never really asked to anything hard, but I did notice that it felt a little different.
1 Week:
Windrock for those who are familiar with it, you know what a steep and burly place it is. First couple runs were done with the stock settings, and I did notice that it was a completely different shock. It just sucked up the hits without any “back talk”, and the tracking felt different, not exactly sure how to describe it. After talking with a couple other guys who run the shock, I dropped the sag to around 50%, I personally thought this was crazy and wouldn’t work. We also backed out of the high speed compression and left the HS rebound alone. Time for another run, okay, now I can really feel a difference with the shock, it seems to track better and it feels strange, almost a dead feeling, which is the feeling that I’m told I want. It’s not totally there yet, and there is still some tuning to do.
3 Weeks:
This past weekend I raced a local (in DH terms) grassroots event. The shock was awesome and performed “as I” thought it should. However, after talking to a couple pros that run it, I did realize that there is so much more to learn about this shock, and that tuning it is a big trial and error sort of thing. We figured out that the settings were off, and that I need to be on a lighter spring.
Conclusion:
So now that I’m back home, I’ll swap out the spring, consult a few friends, give Malcolm a call and play around some more with the adjustments.
Just one of the things about the Double Barrel that is so amazing is the amount of adjustability is has, high/low speed for the compression/rebound. You can dial it in to be the all purpose shock on any trail, from the pesky little bumps, to the roots, to rock gardens, to the big drops, to the sprinting. No need to sacrifice small bump plushness for the big hit survivability, the Double Barrel does it all once you get it dialed in, which I’m slowly figuring out. The adjustability of the Double Barrel is just crazy! Take the advise of the instructions and take your time adjusting the Double Barrel, you can get over your head if you start tuning it all at once (trust me on this one). I was a bit worried about when I heard "people" state that it was too complicated as far adjusting, well either it's my superior intellect (which I seriously doubt), but I found it easier to adjust then other shocks out there. Let me explain, it's really simple if you think about it. You can adjust one of the four adjustment points without effecting the others, and you will notice a difference if you do only adjust one. But you can get over your head if you try to rush the tuning.
The coolest thing I like about the shock, (and this is just a personal thing) is the flat tire feeling. That's the best way I can describe it, it feels like your riding on a tire that is low on air, not totally flat, just pretty low. The thing is though, that you are not slowing down, you’re actually going faster and tracking better.
You got to remember that this is the most technological advanced shock to ever come to the bicycle world, so it will be pricey, it will take a few turns to get it adjusted to your liking, and it will make your current shock seem inadequate and very dated.
So I’ll be back in a couple months for a current update and hopefully I’ll still be stoked on it!
Until then…
Cheers,
Brian