MTB Rear Shocks: Air vs. Coil (Featuring Cane Creek) [Video]

Overview

Most riders probably have a Cane Creek headset on their bike. In fact, I would guess more than half probably do. And that's for good reason as they make some of the best headsets you can buy at all price ranges. However, when it comes to your rear shock, those same riders might not even know that Cane Creek makes those too. Well, they do and with six models in their range, they most likely have one to match your bike. We are going to take a look at the Cane Creek DBair IL and DBcoil IL shocks. That’s right, it’s air vs coil. We’re taking two shocks with the exact same internals and putting them head to head to answer the question: which kind of spring is better?  

A Brief History on Cane Creek

A quick fact about Cane Creek that most do not know: all of their shocks are built, filled, dyno-ed and tested in the mountains of NC, while most small parts are machined in Taiwan. Not many other companies can make this statement while still providing a full catalog of products. With their headset presence so large, you would probably be surprised to hear that there are times when the person answering your emails about random questions is the same person who is also assembling headsets, designing shocks, and doing in-field R&D testing. A small company that makes amazing products in the cycling industry is pretty rare and a great brand to support.

The Test Setup

Back to our test: we installed these shocks on our aluminum Transition Smuggler test mule. We planted a 150mm fork up front. When the bike was equipped with a coil shock, we were also rolling with a coil fork as well. When we switched to an air shock, the coil fork came off and an air fork went on. This provided us with controlled situations from shock to shock and a slightly raised BB (the Smuggler is low and was only raised 3mm due to the 150mm fork up front). We had about 6 weeks on both setups on trails ranging from our local chunky monsters to bike parks and anything in between, allowing us to gather proper riding traits of each setup. We did ride with a ShockWiz attached to the air setup just to see some numbers like deep compressions, the number of bottom outs, and overall riding sag to help us really get the air dialed. We used a lot of these numbers to help us transfer a few settings over to the coil setup. More about this in a bit.

Air vs. Coil Basics

Air vs. coil is always a big topic. It seems like in the last 5 years, all air shocks coming to market get compared to a coil when it comes to suppleness. Coil shocks are almost always more supple at the beginning of the stroke when paired with the right spring weight for the rider. This has a lot to do with the smaller shaft and less seal contact, resulting in less friction. Coil shaft diameters are much smaller with less seal contact when compared to air shocks. In addition to that, a larger seal with more friction will also need a bit more service than a coil.

Next is the natural progression of an air shock vs a coil shock. Almost all coil shocks are 100% linear, meaning the shock will take the same amount of force to compress all the way through the travel. Whereas an air shock will naturally be progressive, taking more and more force to get the shock through the travel as it compresses. This is better seen on a graph that we will have below. 

Since coil shocks are linear, they will follow the progression curve of the frame’s suspension kinematics. Few bikes out there in the trail category are very progressive. The 2017 YT Capra is one of the most progressive, and most of Evils' bikes are naturally progressive as well, meaning that these bikes work really well with coil shocks. Some bikes on the other hand, such as the last generation Yetis, have a very low progression rate, sometimes almost linear, making them much better suited for an air shock. If a frame doesn’t provide enough progression, it’s up to the shock to provide the bottom out resistance and air shocks are best suited for this task. So when thinking about air or coil for your bike, you should look into if your bike will work well with a coil as many bikes are built with the progressivity of air shocks in mind. That is slowly changing, but as of now, most bikes are built for air.

The last thing to look into is how to select spring weights vs how much air pressure to pump into your shock. For most coil shocks, you normally use the same manufacturer’s spring to go with the shock. These springs are only offered in a range with two things to keep in mind: stroke and spring rate. The stroke is going to be dictated by the length of your shock and the spring rate usually ranges anywhere from 325lb to about 550lb. Spring rate is the amount of weight needed to compress the spring by one inch, so don’t start thinking that the weight printed on your spring is supposed to be your riding weight! These numbers seem large because they need to be when you consider what kind of forces you’re putting on it. A linear bike with a 500lb 2.5” stroke shock will require 1,250lb to get it to bottom out. That’s a surprisingly easy thing to do when you’re hucking it off big drops.

When looking at spring rate you also have to consider your bike’s leverage ratio and how much your rear axle travels compared to shock stroke. Once you have that, you are able to get the correct spring weight. For myself at a relatively common 145lbs, I never have any issues getting the correct spring for my bike. Now if you fall on either side of the weight range, either under 130lbs or over 230/250lbs, you might find it a bit hard to get the correct spring weight. Not only does spring weight determine how much force it will take to use all the bike’s travel but also your sag. With an air shock, all you have to do is add air to get proper sag, then you’re pretty much good to ride. There are some limits on air as far as minimum or maximum air pressures go, but those are normally set with the outliers in mind.

So to recap, when thinking about an air or coil shock, you need to look at a few things. The bike model progression rate, leverage rate, and rider weight. It takes much more planning and estimation to select the proper coil than an air shock. Then there’s always that fact that if you end up selling the bike, there’s a good chance the next rider is going to have to go through the same process. This is never the situation with air. So coil shocks are a bit more of a pain in the ass in that case.

Cane Creek DB Coil Inline Riding

Getting the Cane Creek DB Coil Inline set up on the bike was pretty simple. I’m 145lbs, so the 400lbs spring weight with about 1.5 turns of preload gave me my preferred sag of about 28%. Since this is a mid travel bike, running a touch less sag helps with the bigger hits. The adjustment of the shock is one of its highlights, and I rode it around the parking lot just to get a few initial adjustments out of the way. From the recommended settings, I slowed down the rebound and added some HSC to help prevent blowing through its 130mm of travel.

Immediately, I noticed how supple this shock was over my stock setup. It really made for some insane traction that I’ve never had on a mid-travel bike. The bike started to track more like a bigger travel bike and gave it a new feel completely. I like to ride these mid travel bikes more like big bikes and when doing that, I often use all the travel. I don't think it’s an issue if you use 95% of the travel when riding aggressive trails, and experience the occasional bottom out. This rear shock did an amazing job at handling the bigger drops and harsh landings. Yes, it did bottom out but it was never harsh or felt like I was causing damage to the shock or bike.

Over a few rides, I ended up adding a bit more LSC and taking out a little HSC. With too much HSC you tend to “choke” the shock off and not always getting smooth travel as you want. I tend to prefer a little extra LSC than other riders I know, as I like the support it gives me when riding the back wheel. It also helps the bike from sitting in the middle of its travel, especially since it only has 130mm.

I was very, very amazed once I got used to this shock and was really able to start pushing it. I think a lot of this was due to the traction it provided and the way the bike handled itself in the rough chunk and chatter.

Cane Creek DB Air Inline Riding

Setting up the Cane Creek DB Air Inline shock was a little bit easier because, as I mentioned, I had the help of the Quarq ShockWiz. I had to run a little more pressure than I thought; about 175psi gave me the same sag I had on the coil. Again, starting with a parking lot test and using some of the settings from the coil to go off as well, I made the same adjustments. I increased the amount of HSC/LSC and made the rebound a bit slower. I was thinking some volume spacers would be needed but wanted to ride it stock first to see how it felt. I first went out with the ShockWiz hooked up and rode my local chunky steep trails, and yes, I love to nerd out on the stats it gives you. The first trail has lots of steep chutes, drops, and g-outs from water crossings and rock chunk. Air shock feels aside, this trail gave 18 deep compression hits alone and noted what I had thought: I need volume spacers.

While I usually know the adjustments I want to make, it’s nice to have the ShockWiz confirm your thoughts. After spending significant time on the coil, I had forgotten the natural ramp the air provides and man did I miss that. As much as I love the traction provided by the coil, the air helped me reduce the number of bottom outs, providing the bike with a bottomless feeling. I added quite a few volume spacers to the shock and headed out for more riding. I was also able to slightly drop air volume with the volume spacers added and that helped bring in some small bump compliance that the air was missing. While the air does not provide the same suppleness the coil did, it was much better than I thought. It was undoubtedly better than the Smuggler’s stock air shock and with the amount of compression and rebound adjustments the DBair provides, it’s easy to make it feel right for you.

Comparison

While these two shocks are very similar in their adjustments and the fact that they both belong in the same category of bike, the riding couldn't be more different. The coil provides so much traction even for being on a mid-travel bike. The air had more suppleness than the stock air shock, while still maintaining the awesomely progressive air shock feel. In my opinion, the coil is better suited to all-out trail riding. It keeps its composure when it gets chattery and stays consistent all the time, allowing you to focus on the trail. Whereas the air shock I really liked at the park and on jumps, the ramp-up is just unmatched by a coil and really shines when you need it most.

If I had to pick one, I would choose the coil, and I never thought I would say that. I've always been an air rider as it’s lighter and I like the ramp up. However, I was able to push harder than ever with the coil and hold lines I couldn't before. Yes, there is some weight associated with the extra metal, but once I’m heading downhill it's not noticeable. If I had different trails near me, my decision might be different but our trails are very natural and rough, giving the edge to the coil.

Final Thoughts

Coil vs Air, an old conversation that still holds up today. As coil is making a comeback, which one is best for you?  Are you a rider looking for the most supple ride and the most traction possible? Coil might be what you are looking for. Or are you riding jumps and drops and love never bottoming out? Air might be up your alley. I don't think one is better than the other from an overall perspective, but one could be better for your local trails or riding style. Coil is heavier while air is lighter, which is also something that could sway your choice. It's a hard decision to make. Looking at both options and talking to people that have experience on both could be the best way to know what you might want!

If you're one strange human and would like to read a transcript of the video above, continue reading below!

What's up guys? I'm Jeff, the founder of Worldwide Cyclery and today we're gonna be talking about coil shocks versus air shocks. It's really not that complicated of a topic, we can probably finish it here in a few seconds. This one has air, this one has a circular boeing-boeing point. Well as of recently maybe the last couple years or so, coil shocks seem to be making a comeback and in particular on trail and enduro bikes which is a bit unusual because they used to be kind of exclusively on downhill bikes. So a lot more people are trying them out on trail and enduro bikes. A lot of the manufacturers are making them in sizes available for trail and enduro bikes and some people absolutely love them. So we're gonna dive into a little bit of what makes them different from an air shock. Well let's just talk about some of the very obvious things. Right away coil shocks are way heavier. They are less suitable you don't have air volume spacers which you typically do in air shocks these days which is really nice and they're harder to deal with as far as like you know if you're you got to change your spring if like you sell the shock or you're buying a shock, you got to figure out what spring you need that's totally dependent on your bike's leverage ratio and your body weight and the shock. I mean it's just a little bit harder to deal with so there's some cons to it. There's usually less size options, they usually are making them only in like sort of larger shocks because they're typically for downhill bikes. They sort of spread into trail and enduro bikes but they don't really make coil shocks for smaller shock eye to eyes. So those are some of the cons to coil shocks. What are some of the pros to coil shocks? Well they're definitely more supple - there's less friction you can tell right off the bat just the amount of contact in the seal head on an air shock versus a coil shock. The coil shock has way less therefore it's typically way more supple. So that off the top supple feeling is great on a coil shock, makes it feel a lot more planted in a lot more scenarios that makes it more better small bumps sensitivity right so that's sort of like high speed chattery stuff is off awesome on coil shock. 

Usually air shocks you need to service them more often just again because there's more friction there. The seals wear out more, it's more exposed, there's sort of a number of reasons there but coil shocks are typically a lot more durable in that sense. You just don't have to service them as often which is pretty cool though. So those are some of the main pros and cons between coil and air that are known long term things. Why would you go with one over the other and why are a lot of people doing that? A lot of that boils back down to preference and people testing out a coil or riding their buddy's bike with a coil shock and going wow that felt amazing. And again where coil shocks really shine is they're typically more linear right, so what I mean by that is they like to go through the travel without ramping up and getting really stiff at the end. That brings you to another point there is oil shocks are just by nature more linear so it might actually not work on your bike. Certain bikes, the way the leverage ratio works on the bike of the suspension might just straight up be too linear that if you put a coil shock on it's gonna want to just blow through the travel all the way and you're gonna bottom out all the time and you might have that bike probably has an air shock that's specifically tuned for that bike from the manufacturer that has a lot of progression to it to prevent that. So keep that in mind, make sure and you know talk to the manufacturer of your bike or talk to someone like us that's sort of knowledgeable on the topic and make sure that your bike does work with a coil shock if you're considering it. There are some fancy or new things I don't know if MRP has released them yet or maybe they have but they're like progressive Springs you can put on coil shocks that's a super interesting idea. Push, I don't figure guys have heard of push industries, they make I think the most expensive shock in existence the 11:6 that thing is amazing. We love selling their custom Spect to the bike and to the rider and they solve all of those problems as far as linear too progressive regression. Push just literally takes the bike and the rider and custom builds a shock for you you pay for it's expensive but everyone we've ever sold people are absolutely stoked on those things so that's cool right there but there's tons of other coil shocks that are also amazing. Cane Creek double barrel coil inline and then here we have right here is a cane Creek double-barrel air inline that's a bit of a mouthful. Those shocks are both awesome and I've been riding them back-to-back on this bike and testing them out. It's really interesting, air shocks have come a long way. In the past, coil shocks were just by far and away they felt so much better. They were so much more supple and planted and they just were amazing and air shocks were awful. They would either bottom out all the time or you put so much air in them you'd have no small bump sensitivity but then you wouldn't bottom out. They just kind of sucked. Well air shocks have more or less sort of caught up and passed coil shocks in that sense. They've invented, you know, multiple air chambers for coils or for air shocks they've invented volume spacers to make it more progressive so you can get crazy tuning. A lot of technology has happened in air shocks that have made them really compete and in many cases be better than a coil shock. Shocks have also had a little bit of evolution tuned as well in the last few years. Cane creeks’ been one of the companies for the longest time that's had an insane amount of adjustability on their coil shocks. High and low speed rebound, high and low speed compression, and you have an actual climb switch right on the coil shock so that's a pretty new thing that a lot of coil shocks didn't have. Cane Creek is one of the first brands to come out with a coil shock that didn't have an actual oil reservoir so it had all those same good advantages but you could fit it on a lot more bikes because a lot of trail bikes couldn't fit that extra oil reservoir on there that a downhill bike was sort of engineered around. So you know coil shocks are by far away they feel amazing and where they excel over an air shock is that small bump sensitivity still and it feels to me you know depending on your bike right most bikes are gonna ramp up towards the end some are more gradual than others so a lot of how a coil shock feels depends on your bike and the exact leverage ratio. So again I recommend really talking to the manufacturer of your bike if you're considering putting a coil shock on it see if other people are doing that on the same model bike, talk to the brand, talk to a good shop, talk to us, we're happy to help with that sort of thing as well. But on certain bikes coil shocks can really feel amazing where if the bikes got some progressiveness to it, the coil shocks are not gonna feel too linear, it's gonna still have some ramp up towards the end so you don't bottom it out all the time. They do feel more supple off the top more planted and a good example is like sort of a high speed off-camber turn or just like a high speed corner where you're bouncing up and down that's where a coil shock is gonna like really just feel planted and stuck to the ground and have a ton of traction and an air shock because it has more like mid stroke support you could say it's gonna want to give more feedback to the bike there where coil shocks gonna shine and feel planted there.

So I've been riding an MRP ribbon coil fork and then the double barrel coil on the back so it's just coil front and rear right now and it's impressive I mean it's super planted it's definitely heavier than when I had air suspension front and rear which I don't like, I kind of like a light bike, but personal preference there. Rocky rough stuff it's crazy planted, it's really nice. It's definitely more linear, meaning bottoming it out more when I'm hitting jumps and drops and big G outs. I just can't get it quite as progressive as I can running air suspension so pro and con right there. And it depends on the rider right, because if you as a rider or riding a lot of high speed rocky rough stuff you might really enjoy coil suspension. If you're doing a lot more jumps or G outs or you notice yourself just bottoming out pretty often and your suspensions as you know tuned and as stiff as it should be properly you know then air just might be the way to go and again factor in weight too right. Weight makes a big difference but I think the reason coil shocks have started making a comeback is because people slap them on their bike, they get that small bump absorption, that planted stable feeling, and they're addicted to it and they want to stick with it and it is pretty noticeable and pretty cool and you can get the same thing with a coil fork there's not as many of them in the trail market even the downhill Forks now almost all air but coil suspension in general just has a totally different feel to it in the of like how it's more linear and how it's more supple than air suspension. Those are some of the main things, hopefully I didn't ramble on too long on that topic, but there's a lot to it and a lot of it again boils back down to will it work on your bike, does it make sense for your bike to run a coil shock, and then are you looking for that supple feeling. Because again, that supple feeling actually kind of makes your bike you know not pedal as well because it's crazy supple off the top and that's why cane Creek has the climb switch on their coil shocks which is a really cool feature, love that. And yeah that's that's one of the the general differences pros and cons between air shocks and coil shocks, let us know in the comments what you guys have if you've got an air shock and you rode it for a long time then you switch to coil we'd love to hear your story around that and sort of what you feel like works best for you let us know if you're riding to push 11:6 or any of these Cane creek shocks because these things have been pretty impressive for us to test out and and get some time on. Hit that subscribe button and we'll see you in the next one.