As Malcolm showed me around the facilities, it was amazing to see how much attention is paid to quality. Every part is checked and rechecked to make sure that the rider gets exactly what they are supposed to be purchasing. Everything from the Thudbuster to headsets to the Cane Creek Double Barrel (CCDB), go through extensive testing and quality control before it ever hits your hands, and eventually the trail on your bike. With production in-house on the shocks, headsets and posts, Cane Creek is able to diagnose and troubleshoot everything quickly and easily. It also allows the Cane Creek engineers to design and innovate at a faster rate. I saw some of what is on the books for 2010 and it is going to be an exciting couple of seasons for Cane Creek.

In these pictures, you are going to see…for the first time ever…the actually Ohlins shocks that Ohlins uses for their race teams. Many people do not know this…but Ohlins has actually contracted Cane Creek to produce these units for them because of their superior focus on quality control and performance.

A huge thank you goes out to Jim, Gary and Malcolm for letting me come mess around in their shop for awhile. Now onto the photo tour!

From El Beastro’s MTBR.com post on the Knolly board:

I’ve been working on this build since I picked the frame up in person from Noel in February. The custom powdercoat took a while to get done at Spectrum simply because of their back log, but as always, the powder was “totally fricking out of this world” worth it. I’ve been riding The Endorphin now for about 3 weeks and absolutely dig this rig. I’m still dialing in the suspension and the bike is just getting better.

Props out to Noel at Knolly for all the support and to Larry at Mountain High Cyclery for all the time he’s put in on this project. I also want to thank Mark, Steve, and Liz at Spectrum for taking the time to personally work with me on the paint scheme and then make it happen exactly the way we discussed it. We are all very proud of this rig.

Build kit:

• Endorphin:- Large, Custom Spectrum Powderworks Powdercoat
• Rear Shock:- Cane Creek Double Barrel
• Fork:- Marzocchi 66SL
• Head Set:- Cane Creek 110
• Stem:- Thompson 31.8mm
• Bar:- Gravity Carbon HiRise 31.8mm
• Bar Ends:- Hope
• Grips:- Raceface ODI
• Brakes:- Hope M6 Moto 203mm F / 183mm R
• Brake Pads :- Hope Sintered HH Compound
• Shifters:- SRAM X-0
• Seat Post:- Thomson Elite 31.6mm
• Seat Post QR:- Chromag Aluminum
• Saddle: -WTB Laser V Team Black
• Crankset:- Middleburn
• Bottom Bracket:- SKF Double Roller
• Chainguide :- Heim Single Roller
• Bash Guard :- Dark Cycles Alum
• Front Derailleur:- Shimano XT
• Rear Derailleur:- SRAM X-9 Medium Cage
• Cassette:- SRAM PG-990 11-34
• Chain:- SRAM PC971
• Pedals:- Time Atac
• Wheels:- I9 Red/Silver Custom Ordered Enduros
• Rear Skewer:- Hadley 10mm Thru Axle
• Front Tire:- Schwalbe Big Betty 2.4
• Rear Tire:- Schwalbe Big Betty 2.4

Overall weight w/pedals:- 35 lbs

As you can see from the pictures below, there was no expense spared on this build. You might have seen another one of his bikes (now in Fo’s possession)…the arctic-camo Ventana El Terremoto 6.0. This bike is flat out amazing. Great work!

Look for these great products:

• Industry Nine Wheels
• Cane Creek Double Barrel
• Cane Creek 110
• Moorewood Frames
• Turner Frames
• SRAM Components
• Rock Shox Forks
• Hoss Clothing
• Trail Building Tools
• and much more!

If you need it…they can order it…

Be sure to have the coupon code MTB198 ready when you order.  If you have any questions…drop me an email, but these guys have some of the best customer service in the business with the best mountain biking components on the market.  Take a look around…you never know, you might find something you need (or just want).

Look for…

• Turner Frames
• Cane Creek 110 Headset
• Cane Creek Double Barrel
• Industry Nine Wheels
• Cromag Frames
• Morewood Frames
• Rock Shox Forks
• SRAM Components
• and more…

Contact
770-271-8825 | 888-604-3888
or Purchase Directly Online

http://www.t2bikes.com/

1. I purchased this shock for retail price in June of last year.
2. It has been in several configurations on two different bikes (more later on this).
3. This review is solely my opinion on the performance and characteristics.
4. I have only ever used steel springs.
5. I am not affiliated with Cane Creek or Ohlins Racing.
6. During testing period, riding weight ranged from 185 lbs to 195 lbs.

CANE CREEK DOUBLE BARREL BACKGROUND

The Double Barrel was developed by Cane Creek in conjunction with Ohlins Racing. Their goal was to produce the best performing rear shock on the market for a mountain bike. Ohlins Racing’s United States branch office is located in Hendersonville, NC a stone’s throw away from Cane Creek’s headquarters. Ohins Racing is known for producing some of the best shock absorbers on the market and with more than 200 World Championship and other major titles, they have earned the right to claim that they are one of the best in the industry. This partnership with Ohins Racing and Cane Creek has proved to be very beneficial for both parties and the result was the Double Barrel. The Double Barrel also won Mountain Bike’s coveted Product of the Year Award in 2006. Each Double Barrel is handbuilt in North Carolina and goes through a testing process on the dyno before you even get your hands on it.

TECHNOLOGY behind the Cane Creek Double Barrel

The Double Barrel is the first rear shock to use Ohins patented twin tube technology.

From the Cane Creek Website:

The Double Barrel uses a unique Twin Tube design.

• Unique in industry: it totally isolates the rebound circuits from the compression circuits.
• Twin Tube flows more oil through adjustable valves (instead of piston valves) giving you more control.
• Oil moves through the piston only as directed by the external adjusters. In other words, the rider dictates how much oil will be routed through each valve.

For much more detailed information on the technology behind the Double Barrel, you can check out their website. In an attempt to prevent redundancy, I will not repeat all of that information here.

MY SETUPS

Ventana El Ciclon – 5″ Mode

7.875″ x 2.00″ with a 450# and 500# spring

Ventana El Ciclon – 6″ Mode

7.875″ x 2.25″ with 500# spring

Ventana El Terremoto – 6″ of Travel

7.875″ x 2.25″

Other Bikes Tested

2007 Turner RFX – 7.875″ x 2.25″
Turner Spot (Horst Rear) – 7.50″ x 2.00″
2006 Turner Highline

I was able to switch my shock between 2.00″ stroke and 2.25″ stroke because of a nice feature of my particular size shock. All I had to do was remove the cone base plate (as seen with in the triple picture) with a flat base plate (as seen on the header picture) and change the spring from a 2.00″ stroke to a 2.25″. This proved to be very convenient as I was switching rockers and frames. Not all models are able to do that.

MY RIDE

Right now the shock is on my El Terremoto which is a 6 inch four bar from Ventana. It take a 7.875″ x 2.25″ shock, and currently I am running a 450# spring with 3 turns on the preload collar. This gives me about 35-40% sag.

THE REVIEW

Shocks I have ridden for comparison – Fox DHX-C, Fox DHX-A, Fox RP23, Push’d RP23, Manitou 5th Element, Fox RP3, Avalanche Chubbie w/Hi and Low speed adjustment

The shock came in stock for my El Ciclon with the following settings.

• HS Comp 2 turns from fully open
• LS Comp 8 clicks out from fully closed
• HS rebound 2 turns from fully open
• LS rebound 12 clicks from fully closed

In the box you get your CCDB, manual and the dyno chart of the adjust ability range of your specific shock. As I had mentioned before, every Double Barrel built at Cane Creek gets fully tested on the dyno before it is shipped to you. They send this graph along with your shock.

Initial Thoughts

At first, I was blown away. The shock that the CCDB replace on the Ciclon was a stock RP23, and I was having constant problems with mid stroke wallow. I never really could seem to get it to use it’s travel the way I wanted it to. It was getting to the point that I was going to send the shock off to Push to get the entire treatment done. That entire first ride, I was just looking for hard square edges to run into and drop off of. What surprised me the most was not feeling the rear end. It just seemed to act exactly like a suspension is supposed to. It hit the square edge, soaked up the shock and my body stayed in the same place. What surprised me even more was how easy it climbed. There was almost no pedal induced bob but I still had traction when I needed it. There was very little tuning done during this first ride as I was trying to get used to how the shock felt in it’s shipped form.

After some more time…

While I was very impressed on how the shock performed in it’s stock form, there were several characteristics that I needed to change. I did buy this shock for the extreme adjust ability range it has over any other shock in the market, so I might as well make it act exactly how I want it to.

Low Speed Compression

With the low speed compression at 8 clicks out from fully closed, the bike climbs unbelievably well, but you loose that low shaft speed sensitivity on drops and smaller hits. I have also found that on fully active suspensions (especially four bars like my Ciclon and Terremoto), you can really control pedal bob by concentrating on even and consistent pedal strokes. This is something that every rider should be working on anyway in my opinion. I opened up the LSC 4 clicks from fully open and a whole new world opened up. The rear tire was glued to the ground and this was traction that I have never felt on this bike before. I literally could not feel any jarring hits from the rear end. It just seemed to float over everything. This is the feeling I was looking for all along. On climbs, I had a lot more traction, but there was the pedal induced bob that I was referencing towards earlier. With some work on my climbing skills, this has gone away for the most part. The change in the shocks performance in the flats and on downhill runs totally makes up for the little loss of efficiency climbing. For long extended climbs, I can always use the flat head on my multi-tool to dial up the LSC some. I normally do this on climbs that are long enough that I get pretty tired. I find the more exhausted I am…the more my form takes a hike, so letting the shock do some of the work in that situation is not a bad thing.

High Speed Compression

So far, I have left this setting in it’s shipped setting. The larger fast hits seem to be sucked up perfectly without any hint of bottom out. I have noticed on some runs (mostly shuttle runs), that the dirt is off the top of the bottom out bumper. I believe this is happening during fast, chunky rock gardens and larger drops where the shaft speed overtakes the LSC circuit. As long as I am not feeling harsh bottom outs and I am still getting full travel, I believe I have the LSC and HSC dialed in about perfectly for my needs.

Low Speed Rebound

This is the other setting I left in it’s stock form. I might end up messing with it some more since I have the other three settings right where I want them, but for now…the stock setting is great. The recovery from low speed shaft hits is fast enough where the shock is not packing up, but slow enough that it keeps the plushness that I like.

High Speed Rebound

On the HSR, I opened it up another 1/2 turn from the stock position. I wanted a little faster recovery time in those extended, fast rock gardens so the shock would not pack up. There is a specific rock garden that I test this setting out on locally. It’s about 30 feet long with a 4 foot rock drop at the exit. Blowing through your travel and not being able to recover it would not be a good situation on this run, but with the setting a 1/2 turn out…it seems to work perfectly.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, I am extremely happy with the CCDB. Out of everything else I have ridden, it is the best performer by a mile. It just acts how I believe a shock should, and a lot of this has to do with the ability to make the shock feel exactly the way you want it to. The CCDB also seems to act it’s best working in the middle of it’s stroke. Increasing your sag height over what you are used to running will probably surprise you. Once I brought the say down in the 35-40% range, the shock really came alive. Keeping it up in the 25-30% range doesn’t really open up the circuits like they were intended in my opinion. Where all of the other shocks I have ridden have lacked (mid-stroke), this shock seems to perform it’s best.

The CCDB can be a set and forget shock if you want it to be, but you wouldn’t be unloading it’s true potential. One thing to remember…one click makes a difference. I was very used to the Fox shocks where you had to adjust full turns to get any kind of reaction. That is not the case with the CCDB, so make small incremental changes.

Any negatives that I can think of? Well only really three…

1. It’s expensive – In the world of mountain biking, you get what you pay for. The CCDB is one of the most expensive shocks on the market. I believe that it is worth every penny, but others might not. Throwing a shock on that is worth more than your frame may not be an option. Also, if you swap frames several times a year, you may not want to pay for something that your next frame may not take.
2. It’s heavy – I threw away the notion that weight was a bad thing a long time ago after a friend of mine smoked me up a climb on a 41 lbs Bullit on flats. Heavy coil shocks may not be in the cards for you if weight is an issue. The closest shock perfomancewise would be the Push’d RP23 if you are concerned about weight. A ti spring is also an option, but the weight vs. cost is just not there for me. I also like to play with different spring rates, and that would get very expensive with ti.
3. Adjust ability – This wide of an adjustment range can be a problem for some people. You can get this shock out of wack as fast as you can get it as smooth as butter. Keep the stock settings written down so if you get off track, you can always get back to square one.

CANE CREEK

A side note on Cane Creek…this company, in all seriousness, probably has the best customer service in the business. If you have any questions or concerns, they are more than willing to help you out or walk you through it. When you buy a part from them, you really are investing a long term relationship with their company and employees. Their quality control and testing are extremely important, so you always get a top notch product every time. I also use their 110 headsets that you can see in another post. Malcolm is the Double Barrel guru…so if you have any questions…I would drop him an email or a phone call and he will walk you through it.

I had built up the Ciclon into a dual coil 6″ machine before I ordered this bike, so all of the parts transfered over without any issue. I did order up a new set of rockers so the frame would have nice glossy black ones instead of the faded ano adjustable 5″/6″ ones that I already had. I was also using my existing seat stays because there is no difference between the ones off the Ciclon’s and the Terremoto’s. The chain stays were replaced with the gusseted HD versions. After installing the rear end, new rockers and my Cane Creek Double Barrel (there will be a blog review on this shock at a later date), I was ready to start the build. But first, for some attempt at humor on the SORBA forums and the Ventana board on MTBR.com, I took some pictures of the frame around the house along with a Homer styled couch shot.

THE FRAME

The fit and finish on this frame is perfect, all the way down to the “Electric Sex Welds”. The crew over at Ventana Mountain Bikes really know what they are doing. They are also one of the last companies that do everything in house, all the way down to the powder coat. The amount of love for the sport that the employees have can be seen in every single frame. From the quad bearings, head tube gusset and bottom bracket machining, you can see how much attention to detail is really put into these frames.

THE BUILD

The build was the fastest I have ever had. It also helps that there was no cutting, bleeding or general fitment issues because I was just moving parts from one frame to another that were very similar. It even surprised some people when I had the entire bike posted on the forums within a little over an hour. The part that took the longest was actually getting the CCDB in the bottom shock mount. Both companies hold very tight tolerances.

The final build specs

Frame: ’07 Ventana El Terremoto 6.0

Color: Custom Matte Black

Options: Quad Bearings, HD Rear End

Shock: Cane Creek Double Barrel 450# Spring

Fork: Rock Shox Lyrik Coil U-Turn

Wheelset: Chris King HD on DT Swiss 5.1d

Skewers: Chris King Fun Bolts and Rock Shox 20mm Maxle

Seatpost Clamp: Hope QR Black

Front Der: Shimano XT

Rear Der: SRAM X.0

Shifters: SRAM X.0 Triggers

Chain: SRAM

Cassette: SRAM 990

Brakes: Hope Moto V2′s 203mm

Cranks/BB: Race Face Atlas w/DH BB and 24T/34T Blackspire SuperPro rings

Pedals: Shimano XTR

Headset: Cane Creek 110

Handlebar: Syncros Bulk

Seat Post: Gravity Dropper

Stem: Thomson 70mm X4

Saddle: Selle Italia Prolink

Grips: Oury Lock ons

Front Tire: Big Betty 2.4 Triple Compound

Rear Tire: Maxxis High Roller 2.35

Accesories: Roach Chain Stay Protector, XTR Shift Cables, Heim Guide w/black MRP roller

Weight: 35.20 lbs

Future changes: Big Betty UST 2.4′s, Thomson 50mm X4 Stem, Custom black pc’ed XT cranks

THE RIDE

Now enough about the build, how does it ride? One word….SOLID! This bike does it all. It was also a perfect choice for what I needed right now. One of the characteristics that I love about Ventana bikes is how they sit in their travel. It is incredibly plush but controlled, and with the CCDB on the back I can run more than average sag and the bike still feels bottomless. Now, this is a 36 lbs. bike, so it isn’t going to climb like a sub-30 lbs rocket, but it does climb surprising well for how much it weighs. Weight is really all relative anyway. I have gotten used to the weight so it isn’t that big of a deal anymore. Since the initial build, I had to have the rear wheel rebuilt. I taco’d the DT Swiss 5.1d, so the wheel went off to Chad @ Red Barn Bikes to get rebuilt with a Mavic 823. The front has not been done yet.