Cane Creek’s Double Barrel shocks, available in coil and air versions, have until now been only available for long travel bikes, finding few homes outside of very aggressive freeride and downhill bikes. As a market segment, that’s fairly small, leaving the vast majority of XC, trail, enduro and all mountain riders without the incredible versatility offered by separate, externally adjustable high and low speed compression and rebound damping or the excellent Climb Switch.
Now, all that’s changed.
The new DB Inline takes all (ALL!!!) of the DB Air’s tech and packages it into a shock for 120mm to 150mm travel mountain bikes. And, really, those numbers are just suggestions, it’ll fit bikes outside that range, opening it up to virtually all modern bikes for anyone from XC racers to Enduro slayers.
It was no small feat condensing the dual flow, multiple adjustment technology into a smaller package without the external reservoir and control stack. Here’s how they did it…
DOUBLE BARREL INLINE TECH & FEATURES
A little history: Cane Creek and Ohlins, which are practically neighbors in Henderson County, North Carolina, both use twin tube technology in their shocks. And the technology has been around in motorsports far longer than for bicycles. The original DB Coil was developed using a consulting agreement with Ohlins, then finished in house at Cane Creek. All DB shocks since then have been completely developed in house. Each company has their own patents to draw from, and Cane Creek’s tends to carry the user friendly tuning features further.
Twin Tube Damping is the damping circuit architecture for all of their DB shocks, from the original coil version to the DB Air to this new Inline model. It means the inner shaft has two tubes, one inside the other, creating a completely circular path for the oil The benefits of this are multiple. First, it lets them direct the oil through the four distinct damping circuits. Second, because the oil’s flowing along the outside edge of the shaft, it’s continually cooled by dumping heat through the metal body, which then transfers it to the outside air. So, performance is more consistent on long downhill sections.
Since there’s no external reservoir, DB Inline design requires a different approach to maintaining oil pressure. Rather than an IFP (Internal Floating Piston) with a nitrogen charge pushing back against the oil, the Inline uses a bladder above the controls with the nitrogen charge behind it. The benefit of this over a traditional mono-tube shock is that it keeps pressure on the system in both directions of oil flow, which prevents cavitation (i.e. air bubbles forming in the fluid). We’ll see more on this in a bit…
The Climb Switch was added to the DB Air in 2013. In hindsight, it may have foretold a shock for shorter travel bikes. Not only does it make far more sense for the 120mm to 150mm travel bikes the Inline is aimed at, but it works fantastically well. It controls pedal bob by simultaneously closing the low speed compression and rebound circuits. That dual function is what separates it from any other “climb” mode on competing shocks that only affect compression damping. And in the true spirit of ultimate tunability, the Climb Switch is non-indexed, letting you slide it anywhere in its range to quickly add the amount of top end damping you want.

- high speed compression damping
- low speed compression damping
- high speed rebound damping
- low speed rebound damping
- climb mode damping
- air volume
- air valve position
MORE INTERNAL TECH

PERFORMANCE & FIRST RIDES
- start – descending with a few jumps
- 1:40 – descending with Climb Switch turned ON
- 2:03 – seated climbing, moving CS through various positions
- 2:40 – standing climbing, moving CS through various positions

SIZES, WEIGHTS & PRICING

- 165 x 38mm (6.5” x 1.5”) BAD0430
- 184 x 44mm (7.25” x 1.73”) BAD0932
- 190 x 50mm (7.48” x 1.96”) BAD0431
- 200 x 50mm (7.87” x 1.96”) BAD0432
- 200 x 57mm (7.87” x 2.24”) BAD0433
- 216 x 63mm (8.5” x 2.48”) BAD0944