Update: 12pm Thanks for all the questions today! Brent, Jeff, and Sam have products to develop and bikes to ride. Stay safe out there if and when you venture out to ride your bike!
In April of 2018, there was a unanimous "Wait, what?" response from the industry when the 400-gram, all-titanium, $999 eeWings from Cane Creek were debuted. The cranks have gotten a lot of attention in their own right, even before the beautiful limited Tye-Dye option was released late last year. Recently, Cane Creek has added a shorter 165mm length to the offering and another limited edition eeWings “Raven” crankset that features black arms.
We wanted to know more about the team behind the eeWings crankset, so we thought it would be a perfect opportunity for you to ask Brent Grave, Jeff LaForge and Sam Anderson your questions.
Brent Graves – President and CEO Brent is a bike industry veteran with 29 years of industry experience – most of which has been in product development with Diamondback, Manitou, BMC, Specialized, and now at Cane Creek since 2016. He loves to go fast - particularly on two wheels and around corners. He started racing bicycles in 1979 and holds multi-state and series championships in BMX, road, and MTB. When he isn’t breaking speed records on two wheels, Brent can be found rocking out to Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath or Alter Bridge while playing with one or all of his six dachshunds. Jeff LaForge – Senior Design EngineerJeff has 12 years of engineering development experience across both the automotive and cycling industries. Since he joined Cane Creek in 2017, he has played a major role in the development of all of the configurations of eeWings cranksets, Helm MKII, Thudbuster Generation 4 seatposts, and is working on other products you don’t know about yet! Jeff is an avid cyclist (clearly!), kayaker, flyfisher, and thru-hiked the Appalachian trail in 2010. Jeff is also currently gardening and eating snacks with his two soon-to-be shredders. Sam Anderson – Product Manager Sam officially started working at Cane Creek in 2014 - But has been affiliated with the company for nearly a decade. Sam’s connection to Cane Creek product and culture can be traced back to one of his true passions - Trail building. Sam’s natural vision, creativity, and dedication to the sport first caught the attention of Cane Creek’s Product Development team after the Pinkbike worldwide premier of Finding Flow (not bad for some kids with a mini-DV hand-held and a homemade cable cam!). When Sam is not in the office, out testing, or stacking dirt he can be found playing one of his many musical instruments, freestyle rapping, or gearing up to do battle out on the hockey rink! How ‘Ask Us Anything' Works: Starting at 10:00 AM PDT/7:00 PM CET Today, July 9th, you can type your questions for Cane Creek into the comment box below this article and the guys will have a crack at answering them. Sometimes your answer will pop up in a few seconds; others may take a few minutes while Brent, Sam, and Jeff work their way through questions that are popping up. Everyone who posts a question, large or small, will be taken seriously.
To make this go as smoothly as possible, try to follow these guidelines:
• Keep your questions relevant
• Stay focused and to keep your questions on one topic if possible. You can always ask about another item later
• Try to keep your questions to about 100 words
• Ask Us Anything is a service to PB readers who are seeking helpful information, not a forum to broadcast opinions or grievances. If you do have an issue that you want to ask about, no worries, just keep your complaints relevant and in the context of a question so that it can be addressed in a productive manner
• Use propping to acknowledge good (or not so good) questions and bump them up or down to where they belong
• Please don't "Reply" to other people's questions and try to answer other people's comments. This makes it confusing to follow the thread.
Other time zones:• 1:00 PM EST (New York)
• 6:00 PM BST (London)
• 7:00 PM CET (Paris)
• 7:00 PM SAST (Cape Town)
• 3:00 AM AEST (Sydney, Australia)
That being said, the DBAir IL does ride really nice.
Sorry, this is a boiler plate answer that doesn’t address the issue. My local MX/MTB suspension shop can quickly and affordable service most major brands but won’t mess with CC certification. Meanwhile your competition has advanced suspension technology that can generally be home serviced with modest tool investment.
Not sure if CC shocks have a user serviceable air can? They should. And forks should always be user serviceable (sounds like the helm is).
No idea why fox gets away with not needing nitrogen but other manufacturers stuck with it.
All current Rockshox shocks, including the Deluxe and Monarch series, and the Vivid series, can all be filled with a conventional shock pump or with a pump adapter that they sell.
My experience was less than ideal. After two warranties and then purchasing an upgraded seal head/new design, I retired mine as the shock would always bleed fluid and start chirping like a bird within a month of the start of use. It was surprising given the good experience I had with the traditional DB Air. On a different bike.
Brent Graves should have an interesting answer, considering CC often blamed Specialized for the design of the yolk, while Specialized blamed CC for design/assembly issues.
Yokes are just a shit idea IMO.
would love to get an inexprensive version of your eewings. Made of "normal steel" like an bmx crank... Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,...
I use cane creek headset 40 nearly on all my bikes. Inexpensive and great, but after dirty winter it always needs a rebuild. Which headset would you recomment me for bad weather conditions? Which has the best sealing?
Thanks and greetings from Tyrol,
Mike
Chiming in for steelwings. I sent you guys an email when the eeWings first came out. Profiles are heavy, dated in too many ways, to eeWings are just a hard sell for many. The steel is real crowd would go crazy for a classy, modern, performance option at more regular high end crank pricing.
If your conditions are really that bad, then maybe a budget priced headset isn’t for you.
There are alot of answers going around and im looking for Cane creeks response.
As mentioned above- to properly get into a shock it requires special tools, vacuum fill machines, and compressed nitrogen tanks to do it right. Contact our sales@canecreek.com and they can get you set up. - Jeff
With the increased product selection from Cane Creek and the, rightfully deserved, increased demand for Cane Creek products, will y'all be looking to hire experience design/manufacturing engineers anytime soon?
- Sam
2. What's up with Sam's wallet bulge? Is that where all those eeWing profits go?
2: Wallet Bulge or tight Dirt Jump kid pants? Ain't no cash in there! I work in the bike industry I just have piles of dirt (WORTH IT)
-Sam
Your Ti cranks were the benchmark I used when designing mine. No more desirable crank on the market.
-Sam
What is your favorite trailbuilding tool?
Do you wanna go halvsies on buying the Reeb Ranch? Only a cool 2.5 mil. each.
- For getting down and dirty: You can't beat a Mattock!
- I've thought about the Reeb Ranch! But I don't think I can get the 1 million dollar down payment or the $20K a month mortgage
-Sam
Why is frame compliance a good thing, wheel compliance a good think, handlebar compliance a good thing, yet fork and stem compliance are both considered bad things?
For splash oil use: Motul fork oil SAE 15W
Damper Side: 7.5mL
Air Side: 5mL
canecreek.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/SP-HELM-005-50hr-Service-9.12.2018.pdf
top end products 10 years ago are 3x the cost now...meanwhile the moto industry is on par.
Aluminum is aluminum
Carbon is carbon
very little difference from initial bikes produced.
what does change is fancy paint jobs and fancy gizmos etc.
Why is a bike $10g now when I can buy a moto(with way more R&D into it) for $8g?
MTB has become a spor tof sponsored riders and the rich, buying the premo bikes for 10-15g and up.
P.S. Thank you for making DUB compatible preload adjusters.
canecreek.com/product/hellbender-70-bottom-bracket
- Jeff
canecreek.com/product/crank-preloader
I would like to know why did you choose a 30mm spindle for your crank instead of something around 24mm? Using a 30mm spindle on a BB92 is less than ideal when it comes to bearings life. Sorry but 30mm bottom brackets for BB92 frame are as bad as they are expensive …
Don't you think the machining required to pair the two parts of your crank is a little bit pricey? It reminds me somehow of the Campagnolo Ultra-Torque!
I love the Twin tube, it works amazing in bikes with a good leverage ratio, but in my old Nomad 3 for example , air curve is like a x^3 function.
And also It cannot be solved with more spacers, Or XV can, we need a more volume negative air can.
Pancho
canecreek.com/employment
-Jeff
Curious what the main couple of points you'd make for why that progressive coil would be "better" on a Hightower than the stock air shock?
Also: I have eewings on the same bike and absolutely love them, and I'm sure I'll have the same pair of cranks in 20 years on some other mtn bike!
We got them in skittle colors now too!
www.pinkbike.com/photo/18568391
-Sam
I love your headsets and other stuff, and I hope to see your forks on more bikes.
Love your products, especially my helm fork, got the blue special edition.. not going to replace it !
But-
As you can see, 2 companies (fox , rockshocks) has release a new 38mm stunction fork.
my question is - there are gonna be a new helm 38 on the way??
I just got a MK1 helm from you guys and am struggling to get it set up to deal with high speed chatter. (especially on middle-lower Bennett gap). The fork feels awesome on the slower big chunky stuff earlier in the ride on black to buckwheat but I can barely hang onto the bars on bennett.
150mm 29" - 82+/87- (~20% sag), 3HSC, 0LSC, & 3rd notch from the top on air volume
Any advice to deal with the chatter?
Don't you think you guys need an on-site physician? Can save you on health insurance costs for employees, I can triage any injuries, and I will gladly test out all of your new designs whenever you would like on those trails that I know like the back of my hand. Sounds like a win win win.
Would buy again. They seemed frivolous at first but after 2 years they seem like a good value compared to CF cranks. Unless standards change too much, I hope to use them for many many years.
Why doesn't CC offer any USA made disc brakes currently?
Go ahead and send me the prototypes!
Would love to test them even if its nothing new. Haha.
Thanks for the reply Brent!
Ride on!
-Nick
-Sam
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plestiodon_fasciatus
One thing I’ve always wondered is how the bottom out resistance works? Is it just the internal air compressing as the volume decreases?
Thankyou
I mean, someone had to ask, right?
Haha
-Sam
What color you looking for? We do have Gold and Silver available now canecreek.com/product/helm-mkii-decal-kits
Fender - in the future! We currently have too many good ideas right now in front of it.
-Sam
We have conversion kits available for both 27.5 ( AAG0548 ) and 29 ( AAG0549 ) to go from Air to Coil. But not from Coil to Air, as the coil spring will rub the stanchion and cause sealing problems with an Air Piston.
-Sam
Which bike is it?
-Sam
And any 'complete headsets' using Cane Creek comp-ring / cover will be using 36x45 deg bearings. Cane Creek only makes 45x45 deg bearings as replacement for other brands.
The only question I have is that the models you referred to are 41mm, whereas Sam is saying 42. I plan to eyeball with a ruler to verify what I have installed.
BAA0971K is the older 42mm/52mm bearing kit. The current ZN40 42/52 kit is BAA1173 and the Hellbender Stainless 42/52 kit is BAA1179 if you prefer Stainless.
Happy shredding!
-Sam
So...if you would rather not be put out of business by some young inspired upstart who desires to have a company that exists only to make the absolute best, most reliable components in the world including making every single part that makes up my products available to consumers, listen to your customers, and make the absolute best product that you know you can. People will love you. (More than they already do, of course)
P.S. I love the look of your eeWings, by the way.
www.amazon.com/Dont-Douchebag-Mans-Guide-Etiquette/dp/1772260037
Cane Creek: I apologize for behaving like an ass, I did not mean to make it appear as though all of your products were crap. I am young and full of Testosterone, and am apparently too picky with components, even before I ever try them.
Ever heard of a thing called cost?
Also "I am young and full of Testosterone".... that was painful.