Recently, Cane Creek has been making some big moves. First it was the new OEM level C-Quent air shock and then the new light weight DBcoil IL with the Vault spring. Last week, they also announced that they would be taking over the production, sales, and distribution of eeBrakes.
Keeping the ball rolling, Cane Creek introduced four new products at Eurobike for suspension, headsets, and even dropper posts…
If you own a DBinline (or plan to own a new DBcoil IL), you will soon have an OPTion for a remote. Meant to work with the shocks’ Climb Switch, the OPT remote offers a full range of adjustment for the switch which controls both compression and rebound damping to aid in climbing. The slider can be set in any position from fully open to closed and uses a thumb toggle for easy positioning.
Depending on your bike’s set up, the cable guide can be set up in a bottom or top mount position with all the parts included with the system. The cable itself is a standard brake cable which runs through shift cable housing. The remote kit will sell for $50 and will available November 15.
No, Cane Creek doesn’t make a dropper post. But they are making a dropper post remote lever. One of the biggest motivations seems to be the ability to combine the OPT remote with the Dropper remote lever for a super clean handlebar set up on the left side of the bar. To make the lever compatible with the most posts possible, it features adjustable lever positioning, cable pull options, and two types of cable insertion methods, and is Matchmaker compatible.
That makes the lever compatible with the Crank Brothers Highline, DVO Garnet, Easton Haven, Fox Transfer and DOSS, FUNN UpDown, all KS models, the RaceFace Turbine, RST Elev8, all Specialized Command Posts, the Thomson Elite and Covert, 9Point8 Fall Line, and supposedly every other dropper using a cable actuated remote. To be sold for $80, the lever will also launch on November 15.
This one goes out to the weight weenies who find themselves off road. The AER headset has been a staple in their line of lightweight headsets for a while, and even though the upper Norglide bushing works for the road, they didn’t recommend it for offroad use.
Enter the new lightweight hybrid bearing. To make an upper bearing with a 40% lighter weight, the bearing uses aluminum housing rather than steel. Aluminum races would never hold up to steel ball bearings though, so the headset uses super thin steel races between the balls and the aluminum housing. The bearings themselves will be available as upgrades for 110 and 40 series headsets in 41mm, 41.8mm, 52mm, all in 36×45 degree as well as a second 52mm in 45×45 degree.
Compared to a similar 110 series bearing, the hybrid bearing shaves about 7g – when every gram counts, right? The headsets themselves will be available in separate top and bottom assemblies to fit just about every frame on the market including standard and tapered steerers for $70-80 complete. Individual bearings will sell for $28-40.
Finally, the Cane Creek Viscoset is now ready to hit the market. Originally designed for e-bikes, the concept of an e-bike specific headset may sound a bit weird – until you ride one of the step through models with a rack mounted battery and experience the dreaded speed wobbles. Apparently, certain e-bikes are more prone to suffering this fate than others which is where Cane Creek comes in. The headset uses a series of interlocking plates that are coated in fluorocarbon damping grease to effectively become a steering damper. Every other plate is keyed differently so that some key into the steerer and some key into the frame and it is the viscous damping between the individual layers that does the trick. In addition to coming stock on certain e-bikes, the headset upper only will be available in EC34 and ZS44 fits. Available December, the uppers will sell for $55 each.
