Following on from the success of their rolling chassis kits with the VF2 and XCL frames, Chumba’s UK dealer, Progressive Bikes, are now offering the excellent Cane Creek Double Barrel (CCDB) rear shock as an upgrade over the existing Fox RP23 shock. The VF2 frame, with it’s carbon back end, retails for £1599 however, for a limited time only, you can upgrade the shock to a CCDB, including a spring matched to your weight, for an extra £150. The cost of the upgrade is the same for the £1450 XCL frame.
More pictures and Progressive bikes explain the reason they feel that the CCDB shock works well with these two frames after the break. “Given the linear nature of the VF2’s and XCL’s leverage ratio curves relative to other bikes in their class (although technically it is regressive and slightly progressive towards bottom out), the linkage will reflect shock’s tuning very closely. This means, if you tune up the low speed compression to eliminate pedal bob, you will immediately feel this throughout the VF2 linkage’s travel without varying leverage rates the linkage interfering with what you want the shock to.”
So basically the CCDB is a very tunable shock, allowing you to set high and low speed compression and rebound completely independently. Chumba feel that this works well with their linkage design because the suspension is very linear over it’s travel, meaning that it doesn’t interfere with the shock tuning. This means that what you set in the CCDB is what you get, over the entire range of the suspension travel. For £150 it sounds like it’s worth a try, especially since the CCDB retails for around £600 normally!
You can get more information on the web site at http://www.progressive-bikes.co.uk/ for details or contact Progressive Bikes at info@progressive-bikes.co.uk with your questions.
