Our Tigon mountain bike shock is another great example; there’s no other shock in the world that combines a coil and air spring in the same package. It gives you the super sensitive grip of a coil shock with the ramping support and bottomless confidence of an air shock. Historically, these two traits have been mutually exclusive, and you’ve had to make a compromise by choosing one or the other. With Tigon, we created a shock that is literally two-in-one. If Tigon were an ice cream cone, it would be a chocolate and vanilla swirl. For many riders, it’s exactly what they want but haven’t been able to have until now. Nearly every day we get suggestions to develop this or that, but if we can’t offer some noticeable rider benefit or improvement, we simply don’t see a point in bringing it to market!
What sort of feedback have you received from the industry?
road, gravel, commuter, mountain, and e-bikes. Everything we make has a focus on craftsmanship and quality, representing something that a discerning rider should be proud to put on their bike. Our components are often alternatives to mainstream thinking – for the rider that wants to build something better. If you’re not satisfied with the durability, ride quality, or lack of adjustability of the stock components that came on your bike, then Cane Creek is for you.
What makes the products unique? It all starts with asking ourselves the question: “Where’s the rider benefit?” Everything we do provides some sort of unique and noticeable improvement over the mainstream counterpart. Our new Invert gravel fork is another great example of our desire to add real rider benefit to our products - not just packing them with features that you don’t really need. We’ve been making some of the most complex dampers for mountain bikes for 20 years - so believe us when we say that there’s a time and a place for massive amounts of adjustability. But we questioned this fact when it came to gravel & adventurous drop bar riding. We blind-tested forks with and without complex dampers and found that test riders could not discern any real benefit from a damper in a fork that’s only using 30mm or 40mm of travel. Making the decision to drop 20 years of mtb-influenced status quo was certainly nerve-wracking, but we let our rider benefit ethos be the guiding principle. As a result, Invert is the FIRST fork for gravel that combines the smooth and controlled ride, with (actual) good looks, a remarkably lightweight design, and simplicity that is appropriate for gravel. If you think suspension is overkill, ugly, or too heavy for gravel bikes, I really believe this is the fork that will change your mind. Invert is everything you need, and nothing you don’t.
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I think the biggest thing we’ve noticed is the actual makeup of the bicycle world is expanding. What used to be a pretty closed-off and niche sport is rapidly becoming more widely accessible, and we think this is super exciting! A world with more bicycle riders in it is a better world than one with fewer. To this end – in terms of industry feedback - it’s all about trying to figure out how and where to meet this rapidly expanding group of riders and how to communicate with them in a way that actually teaches and encourages. We all deserve bikes that are fun, functional, and dependable to ride. Designing stuff only for the sake of serving high-level racing leaves a lot on the table that can still improve the way bicycles ride for the rest of us... If you’ve gotten into bikes recently, we’re happy you’re here. The explosion of gravel and e-bikes are partly responsible for this and we’re grateful for it.
What are the plans for 2025 and beyond? Oh man, we’re always working on something ! Product wise, there are some big and exciting projects in the works. The recently released Invert gravel fork is going to continue to be a BIG focus for us going into next year and our team is also working hard to make bike components easier to understand. One thing that we’re particularly excited about is learning and education. It sounds boring, but one of the biggest ways we can impact riders’ lives for the better is to help them unlock more understanding of their bike and how it works. So far, the bike industry has not been very good at this. This year we’ll be focusing a lot on creating some new materials that help riders better understand complex topics, from headset and bottom bracket identification to suspension tuning, and more! We’d honestly rather have riders see Cane Creek as ‘the company that helped me understand how to set up my shock’ than be the company that outfitted yet another world cup racer’s bike...
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