# Short travel coil shocked 29er



## Brad Pitted (Oct 7, 2018)

I’ve been trying to decide on what the next FS bike will be and have recently put an inexpensive bomber cr on my nomad. This is how I always wanted the old vivid air to feel; no hint of stiction between compression and rebound, just constant, live movement. I need this on whatever is next.

Among bikes like the Tallboy and Ripley, are there any standouts that are particularly well suited to coil duty? Ripmo is pretty tempting too but really looking to stay around 130 travel. Any suggestions including more obscure brands are appreciated.


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## kapusta (Jan 17, 2004)

Canfield Tilt is a 138mm frame that comes stock with a 140mm fork, and is designed to work with coil or air.


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## xjbaylor (Sep 22, 2006)

I get the desire, I feel the same way. I am currently on a Revel Ranger, and I am constantly thinking about running a "light" coil on it. For that reason, I would add the Ranger as an option, only because Revel offers it with a Push from the factory, so it would seem they agree with you. I have also ridden the Evil Following V3 with a Push, and it was pretty great.


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## Blatant (Apr 13, 2005)

Banshee Prime or Phantom. Revel Rascal. Optic.


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## Mike Aswell (Sep 1, 2009)

I have the Following V3 with a Push coil on it. It's great. It's up for sale, but not because I don't like it. In fact I'm happy that it hasn't sold. (I know I'm weird, it's a long story).


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## ocnLogan (Aug 15, 2018)

Blatant said:


> Banshee Prime or Phantom.


This was my first thought as well.


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## vegen (Jan 2, 2006)

Marin has a Rift Zone that comes with a coil now.


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## detsortehul (Jun 25, 2007)

Intense Primer has a suitable progressive leverage curve. I really like mine with coil.


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## Muggsly (Nov 9, 2005)

Evil Following 120mm and comes with a coil option of push 11-6 micro.


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## Big Fil (Nov 5, 2014)

I think most current gen bikes are coil compatible. I have a Yeti SB140 with a Push 11-6 and it's great.


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## Brad Pitted (Oct 7, 2018)

A plethora of interesting suggestions and some new avenues to explore. I love the hunt. Just miss the days when any dope with a credit card could order up anything he wanted and maybe even get a Discount this time of year.

So is it generally accepted that a progressive ratio is best for a coil?


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## slimat99 (May 21, 2008)

I've always preferred the extra progression of air when travel is less than 140. Even with a leverage curve to suit a coil 130 will bottom more with coil than air, and 130 isn't much. I would only want a coil 130 if the leverage was specifically tuned for it. Not just progressive enough to allow for it.


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## MK_ (Nov 15, 2004)

New Rocky Element is what I'm eyeing with a coil.


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## zhendo (Aug 31, 2011)

One thing to consider is that even bikes without a particularly progressive leverage curve can work really well with the latest crop of hydraulic bottom out (HBO)-equipped shocks. EXT and Push will tune their (very expensive) shocks to match that bottom out support to the frame you're putting it on, and the EXT Storia is really light as far as coils go. Rockshox also has HBO on their new coil shocks and they are user-adjustable, but I don't have experience with those or with Push.

If you don't want to throw $1K+ on a shock, definitely go with a more progressive frame. The Banshee Phantom, as mentioned, is an awesome rig (I'm biased), but I haven't tried a coil on it.


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## MyDadSucks (Sep 6, 2017)

Blatant said:


> Banshee Prime or Phantom. Revel Rascal. Optic.


I had a coil on both phantom and prime, the phantom was really not well suited to the coil. Had to use a pretty firm spring rate to get the required 23-25% sag, and it negated the benefits of the plush coil feel. mid stroke was good but the stock dpx2 feels quite bottomless if you spend the time to get it sorted. the prime was better, i was able to get it to behave more like a coil. 

im not sure why there tend to be so many coil shocks on short travel trail bikes lately, i feel like i see a lot of rangers especially with push coils. If you like the constant movement and plush feel, the new stumpjumper has quite good suspension performance; if you take the time to set up the stock dps, it feels very plush and bottom out is not harsh at all.


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## smmokan (Oct 4, 2005)

Guerrilla Gravity Trail Pistol. Stock is 120mm with a 210x50mm shock, or you can get 132mm if you long stroke it with 210x55mm. The bike absolutely rips and is often overlooked because the frame weighs a pound more than the competition... but it holds its own with any short travel 29er out there.


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## juice (Feb 8, 2004)

Brad Pitted said:


> So is it generally accepted that a progressive ratio is best for a coil?


Not just best, but I'd say necessary if you ride hard. Very few longer travel bikes are progressive enough for coil, much less shorties. The new RS with hydraulic bottom-out could help.

I was planning on getting a short travel bike and progressive leverage was a requirement (but air for me). The options I found with 20% progressive or better boiled down to Rocky Mountain Element, Evil Following, Transition Spur and Kona Hei Hei. The Evil and Kona would need anglesets, but that's doable. Another option is the Norco Optic with Cascade Link. 

None of these would be progressive enough for me personally with coil, but would be OK with air. Bigger, more aggressive guys like me break bikes (and wheels, and shocks) if they bottom too hard.


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

When some of us started riding, even 80mm travel bikes had coil springs. And they worked well (rear end). Then travel went to 4", which was "freeride" or whatever, but again, coil shocks and it worked pretty well. Course some bikes were designed real bad back then, but the good ones were pretty good and fun to ride with coil shocks. I think a real "downcountry" bike has 100-110mm of travel and a coil rear shock. It can work really well, but no one really wants to go through the trouble of producing a version of their XC bike for this. They just take their XC race frame or marginally more travel set up for an air shock and call it "downcountry". Short travel coil works great...but it's doubtful we'll see anything like that.


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## *OneSpeed* (Oct 18, 2013)

Kona Dream Build: Conrad’s Coil Spring(bok) Process 134 CR


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cog.konaworld.com


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## yetiman71 (Mar 12, 2008)

A UK option….

Bird Aether 9 – comes with a couple of coil shock options in the configurator Aether 9 | Bird MTB // Born in Swinley, Built in the UK.

I’ve had their longer travel AM9 for over 4 years and it has been fun and faultless to own (been running a Bomber CR for the past couple of years). Great company to deal with as well.


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## TylerVernon (Nov 10, 2019)

Pivot Trail 429. 

The Primer is 140mm but I have one with a coil and I don't feel the extra travel slows me down. Its pretty progressive so you only use the last bit on big hits.


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## Bike_Tyson (Jun 4, 2021)

TylerVernon said:


> Pivot Trail 429.
> 
> The Primer is 140mm but I have one with a coil and I don't feel the extra travel slows me down. Its pretty progressive so you only use the last bit on big hits.


I believe the 429 is recommended not to use a coil by Pivot. I have one, and it was initially a consideration in a purchase decision, but I felt it rode great anyway. I think for Pivot bikes they are ok with coil starting at the Switchblade. Happy to be corrected if remembering wrong.


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## Suns_PSD (Dec 13, 2013)

Coil shocks won't even be a thing in 5-7 years outside of amateur DH riders. 
They just don't work as well as the modern air shocks.
Using one on a short travel bike is just dumb as it'll do everything wrong unless someone puts 40% progression on a short travel bike, which they won't. 
You would have to have that spring rate incredibly high to prevent constant bottom outs on a low travel bike with anything that wasn't sky high progression. Then it wouldn't be supple, it wouldn't be light, and the SAG wouldn't be correct.


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## TylerVernon (Nov 10, 2019)

Bike_Tyson said:


> I believe the 429 is recommended not to use a coil by Pivot. I have one, and it was initially a consideration in a purchase decision, but I felt it rode great anyway. I think for Pivot bikes they are ok with coil starting at the Switchblade. Happy to be corrected if remembering wrong.


Some articles say you can; others say you can't. I think with a progressive spring and one of the modern shocks with hbo it would be ok.


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

Suns_PSD said:


> Coil shocks won't even be a thing in 5-7 years outside of amateur DH riders.
> They just don't work as well as the modern air shocks.
> Using one on a short travel bike is just dumb as it'll do everything wrong unless someone puts 40% progression on a short travel bike, which they won't.
> You would have to have that spring rate incredibly high to prevent constant bottom outs on a low travel bike with anything that wasn't sky high progression. Then it wouldn't be supple, it wouldn't be light, and the SAG wouldn't be correct.


Man, if I could ever find that air shock that works as well as a coil...

I'm not sure this is such a crazy thing, we rode 4" travel coil shock bikes just fine back in the day, and by "just fine" I mean we rode them hard and they would hold up just fine with modern geometry.


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## Bike_Tyson (Jun 4, 2021)

TylerVernon said:


> Some articles say you can; others say you can't. I think with a progressive spring and one of the modern shocks with hbo it would be ok.


I'd definitely be interested if someone finds a good combo that works on the 429, but I'm not sure I'd want to add weight to the bike. The Float X actually seems to work pretty well when you get it dialed in. With that said, I do love the sticky rear end feel of a properly tuned coil. 

As for air being better than coil (Sun's comment), definitely cannot agree with that. For some applications it may be, for others coil has an advantage. Horses for courses and personal preference. I have two bikes with coil, one of which came with air and it is light years better with a coil shock. I've also had frames that had linkage designs that just didn't play nice with coil.


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## slimat99 (May 21, 2008)

Jayem said:


> Man, if I could ever find that air shock that works as well as a coil...
> 
> I'm not sure this is such a crazy thing, we rode 4" travel coil shock bikes just fine back in the day, and by "just fine" I mean we rode them hard and they would hold up just fine with modern geometry.


You'll never find an air shock that will perform like a coil because there is no way to address the fact that an air shock's damper is sealed up in a hot air balloon. That and the seals for the air can are reasons why air can never perform like coil. We can make air feel like coil for the first 1 to 2 minutes of DH if there's a ton of oil and big air volume but the hot air balloon will kick in. It's just the nature of the beast.

The best shock for the weight I've run was a cane creek inline coil. I moved on because they make them so hard to work on, but based on weight to performance it was hands down the best shock I've run. Basically felt like DHX2 at the weight of an x2 air. I think it was a little lighter than an x2 air actually. Too bad inline coils haven't been refined. They really could be the perfect compromise for 130 to long travel single crown bikes. I think if CC had made their shocks more DIY serviceable with better QC to begin with they could have shook up the suspension market. When the inline coil is dialed in it's in a league of its own.


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

slimat99 said:


> The best shock for the weight I've run was a cane creek inline coil.


I have one, but I can't get it to work very well. It seems impossible to tune mine for choppy terrain like roots/rocks, etc. It's probably the nature of the poppet valves instead of using proper shim stacks, but I got it as a backup anyway and it's working in that role.


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## slimat99 (May 21, 2008)

Jayem said:


> I have one, but I can't get it to work very well. It seems impossible to tune mine for choppy terrain like roots/rocks, etc. It's probably the nature of the poppet valves instead of using proper shim stacks, but I got it as a backup anyway and it's working in that role.


I see. I had one on a nomad3 right after a dhx2 and I was blown away with how similar they performed even on long DH's where the low oil volume should have been apparent. It would be nice to see another company have a go at a high end inline. There must be something about the low oil volume companies don't like? Sounds like your issue wasn't with that, just with the nature of the damper design.


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

slimat99 said:


> I see. I had one on a nomad3 right after a dhx2 and I was blown away with how similar they performed even on long DH's where the low oil volume should have been apparent. It would be nice to see another company have a go at a high end inline. There must be something about the low oil volume companies don't like? Sounds like your issue wasn't with that, just with the nature of the damper design.


Yep, I love the concept. It's a perfect concept for "downcountry"...or trail bikes.


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## milehi (Nov 2, 1997)

smmokan said:


> Guerrilla Gravity Trail Pistol. Stock is 120mm with a 210x50mm shock, or you can get 132mm if you long stroke it with 210x55mm. The bike absolutely rips and is often overlooked because the frame weighs a pound more than the competition... but it holds its own with any short travel 29er out there.


This. The frames are very stiff too. I'm on the Smash.


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## TylerVernon (Nov 10, 2019)

Jayem said:


> Yep, I love the concept. It's a perfect concept for "downcountry"...or trail bikes.


The Ohlins TTX22M is like 20g heavier or so. I remember kicking myself that I got the CC inline because it was "lighter" when it isn't, really, by much.


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## joecx (Aug 17, 2013)

slimat99 said:


> I see. I had one on a nomad3 right after a dhx2 and I was blown away with how similar they performed even on long DH's where the low oil volume should have been apparent. It would be nice to see another company have a go at a high end inline. There must be something about the low oil volume companies don't like? Sounds like your issue wasn't with that, just with the nature of the damper design.


You asked for it, a new inline Deluxe coil









See, all-mountain isn't dead. That SuperDeluxe Coil Select shock is an interesting option - it's an inline coil shock, meaning there's no external reservoir, with rebound as the only adjustment option other than spring weight.


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

joecx said:


> You asked for it, a new inline Deluxe coil
> View attachment 1996616
> 
> 
> See, all-mountain isn't dead. That SuperDeluxe Coil Select shock is an interesting option - it's an inline coil shock, meaning there's no external reservoir, with rebound as the only adjustment option other than spring weight.


One of the draws of the CCDB In-line is the extremely wide tuning range, which can be made to "work" for most any bike, so it ends up being extremely adaptable. For the aftermarket, unless RS is planning to sell different tune variations, it's not particularly interesting to get another crap-damped in-line coil shock that is not close to the tune the bike needs...They need to stop putting out medium-everything.


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## joecx (Aug 17, 2013)

Jayem said:


> One of the draws of the CCDB In-line is the extremely wide tuning range, which can be made to "work" for most any bike, so it ends up being extremely adaptable. For the aftermarket, unless RS is planning to sell different tune variations, it's not particularly interesting to get another crap-damped in-line coil shock that is not close to the tune the bike needs...They need to stop putting out medium-everything.


 Rockshox has been pretty good about offering different shim stacks even at the Select level. That said, I've got 2 CC Inlines that were fairly easy to setup and just got a Kitsuma that I'm dialing in and find it even more intuitive.


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

joecx said:


> Rockshox has been pretty good about offering different shim stacks even at the Select level. That said, I've got 2 CC Inlines that were fairly easy to setup and just got a Kitsuma that I'm dialing in and find it even more intuitive.


Yeah, it's having to go through all the trouble of sourcing the tune, then disassembling, re-bleeding, you need that stupid plastic ball for the bleed port, etc. I was trying to get some RS tunes a little while back and they were out of it. For aftermarket, they really need to be offering at least L, M and F tunes "stock", so you don't have to go through all this ridiculousness.


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## juice (Feb 8, 2004)

Jayem said:


> I'm not sure this is such a crazy thing, we rode 4" travel coil shock bikes just fine back in the day, and by "just fine" I mean we rode them hard and they would hold up just fine with modern geometry.


Maybe for you. I broke a bunch.


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## slimat99 (May 21, 2008)

joecx said:


> You asked for it, a new inline Deluxe coil
> View attachment 1996616
> 
> 
> See, all-mountain isn't dead. That SuperDeluxe Coil Select shock is an interesting option - it's an inline coil shock, meaning there's no external reservoir, with rebound as the only adjustment option other than spring weight.


Would love to see that with at least LSC and HSC. I personally wouldn't ride a coil without those just because of how light the breakaway on coil is, and how easily they give up their travel.


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## Mcs2000si (2 mo ago)

I’m riding an evil following v3 with -1 works Angle set and push 11-6. Had a 2021 stumpy expert but always grabbed the evil. Both were great but for my Midwest riding (Chicagoland, brown county, bentonville) the evil checks all the boxes. I do some intermediate jumps and 3-5 ft drops but not much more. I can ride all day and I just have to pick my lines a little more carefully if it gets chunky since I don’t have a 150 bike. Im keeping it (famous last words) until the full evil redesigns come out in a couple years. Might consider an offering if my riding progresses to bigger jumps and drops but at 44 I don’t feel like the risk of bigger hits is worth the risk of being out of action for months if I crash. Whatever you get just enjoy it and whoever laughs the most during the ride wins.


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## Sanchofula (Dec 30, 2007)

I’d go with a Canfield Tilt over a Pistola, the Canfield has a better suspension design and the frame is stouter; ie rear end.

The Pistola is a fine bike, but it wallows when pushed hard, whereas the Tilt loves to be flogged and rides above its pay grade.


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