The Cane Creek Tigon is the North Carolina brand’s latest coil shock offering that is backed by Ramp Tube Technology for added progression.
Launched back in October, the Cane Creek Tigon is their air-charged coil shock that comes with all the usual Cane Creek fit and finish, plus the ability to tune more progressivity.
Photos by Pete Scullion.
Key features:
- +/- 438g* *210 without spring, varies by size
- DB Twin Tube Technology
- Independent High & Low Speed Compression
- Low Speed Rebound
- RAMP Tube
- 2 Position Climb Switch
- 12.7mm (½”) shaft diameter
- Motorex 4wt oil
- Sizes: Standard: 210×50, 210×52.5, 210×55, 230×60, 230×62.5, 230×65
- Trunnion: 185×50, 185×52.5, 185×55, 205×60, 205×62.5, 205×65
- £799.00 RRP
- CaneCreek.com
Seeing the Cane Creek Tigon in the flesh piqued my curiosity, especially as the Fox damper on my Orange Switch 6 was misfiring, I knew a quality coil shock could help get the most out of the bike. With that in mind, their latest air-charged coil shock was brought in to help the Orange, specifically in the opening portion of the travel.
The Tigon features much of Cane Creek’s usual suspects like the DB Twin Tube technology, something they pioneered and is on many top tier shocks of this ilk, be it air or coil. The sizeable half inch shaft means you’re not going to have any issues with strength here and is rated for clevice mounts. High and low speed compression circuits, as well as a low speed rebound adjuster. The lack of high speed rebound adjustment is the pre-set internal damping for hard charging. You also get a two-position climb switch for those longer winches.
Ramp Tube Technology is the big noise about the Tigon. Cane Creek’s progressive springs only offer half the end stroke progression that the new Ramp Tube can offer, plus the reversal of the shock layout means that all this fits into a fairly small package. The idea here being the addition of tunable mid-stroke and end stroke progression to a coil, you can also combine this with a progressive spring should you really love ramp up. The mechanical negative spring also means that the shock should feel very supple indeed. You do get a handy sag indicator on the shaft too.
The Tigon sits in between the DB IL shock, which Cane Creek claim is the lightest four-way adjustable coil on the market, and the Kitsuma which is their gravity-first coil shock. Compared to other high-end coil shocks, the Tigon is in the ballpark when it comes to asking price.
Cane Creek don’t actually offer a spring light enough for me, with their calculator showing I should be running a 309lb spring, whilst the lightest spring in the range is a 350lb. Luckily, compatibility with other manufacturer’s springs is a thing and brands like Ohlins, Formula and Rockshox do offer some springs for very light riders, with the former in small increments if you can overlook the yellow.
With the help of Joe Barnes’ shed full of light springs, we found a 300lb Formula spring that was the same internal diameter and length as the Cane Creek Valt spring. Sag was now sat at 30% or the 20mm mark on the shock which allowed me to far better tune the shock to suit compared to the 350lb spring that struggled to get beyond the 15mm mark.
Now sag was very much in the right part of the world, the Tigon started to sing. Initially I would leave the ramp tube at 0 psi in order to get a feel for how the shock felt on the Orange, remembering that I hadn’t quite got the measure of the stock shock fitted. Essentially I would be starting from new and mid to end stroke progression was one of the things that the Orange did rather well.
With some fettling, and dropping sag down to about 17mm (27%) on the very handy markings on the shock, the Tigon brought the Orange to life. That off-the-top suppleness and traction I had been missing was very much in effect and it changed the way the bike rode with a couple of extra turns of preload. I am now very much looking forward to wringing every last ounce of performance out of this damper. More to come.
