Cane Creek VALT Spring: Rider Review

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

Going for a coil shock can add some unwanted weight to your bike but a good light weight spring can help eliminate some of the added weight. The other key piece is getting the spring weight right for you. Read on as our friend Eric tells us about his experience picking out a great light weight properly sized spring for his bike.

Intro:

This spring is a great value. There is no real difference in performance between springs. Spring rate should be spring rate. So the only differentiation is weight. So compare the VALT spring to an expensive Titanium spring and a cheaper basic steel spring when making your decision.

Selection:

This 2.25" 450 lb/in spring weighed 343 g. A high-end Titanium spring can be as low as 190-260 g. So switching to Ti might save 1/4 lb. I don't think durability is a factor as I've never heard of anyone breaking a spring on a mountain bike. Dampers can wear out but that is part of the shock, not the spring itself.

The VALT springs come in 50 lb increments and a bunch of different sizes (diameter) so you can dial in your choice. Cane Creek has a nice program on their website for calculating your individual spring rate. Cane Creek Double Barrel Suspension Spring Calculator

Just enter your frame travel (whatever your rear travel is specified at), shock length (7.875". Whatever your shock length is for your frame), sag (I used 30%) and weight on rear (65% for XC, 75% if you get real far back for downhilling, 72% is a good number for Enduro). Not sure why they have you specify preload turns since you only set that for tuning sag. I just assumed 3 turns. Make sure not to mix up the units between metric (mm) and English (inches). My results were 390-430 lbs so I rounded up to 450 lbs for Enduro riding and jumps. Some riding buddies said that 500 lb would be more suited for aggressive riding but I haven't found that to be the case with this spring.

Ride Review:

The bike now feels more planted over rough terrain with the spring providing a more linear feel. Don't ever feel like I'm blowing past the shock with the coil. Compression seems really even and doesn't bottom out at least as far as I can tell. Unlike on air shocks where you can obtain your travel used with an o-ring, it is harder if not impossible to obtain with a coil after a ride. I set the initial sag using a tape measure and comparing to the undeflected length. The result was 28% so didn't need to add any preload to the shock. This matched exactly to the online Cane Creek calculator.

Final Thoughts:

The Cane Creek Double Barrel Inline shock is one of the lightest out there (275 g) and works really well with this VALT spring. Total weight of shock came in at 618g. Contrast that to a good air shock at 450-490g. Not much of a difference. Knock off another 100g with a Ti spring and the whole myth about coil shocks being heavier than air goes away.