Konichi Wagwan from the Forest of Dean

Sep 30, 2021
14
18
Forest Of Dean
I thought it would only be polite to introduce myself before I start dissecting your knowledge. The missus and I currently both ride analogue bikes, but because we have a 7 year old girl who just loves hammering it down Verderers and Launchpad, there's only so much we could do with 180mm travel bikes and coil shocks, so just plumped out for a Trek Rail 5 in the same colour that Rob chose. In fact it was his video and the availability of a large bike on my cycle scheme that convinced me to put a deposit down.

However, I've since learnt that despite having a 230x57.5 eye to eye length and stroke as the remedy, I've discovered that the cane creek DB coil will most definitely (in the words from Jake at Sprung) "get more smashed than teenage chicks with a bottle of Lambrini". The missus is used to the shockingly (forgive the pun) poor reaktiv tune that came with the OE remedy, but I'm lead to believe that the standard deluxe on the Rail 5, combined with the weight will mean that the damping characteristics will be more controlled (i.e. a modicum of controlled rebound will help). That said, we're coil converts. Most of the stuff we tend to ride is -25% over tech, so that illustrates the typical sort of riding we enjoy doing.

The next question I'd want to ask is whether or not a MY2014 Pike 160 29 would be a suitable swap for the stiction bound excuse of a fork that is the 35 Gold? I had the fork on my old Spesh Enduro before it got ported onto the Remedy (with a 6fatty 2.8" setup) and is now doing nothing other than sitting pretty on a Dartmoor primal frame with Halo Vapour wheelsets. I've not had the best of experiences setting up the 35s. One one instance the bushings were causing so much binding on my neighbour's forks and no matter what I did to them, it won't resolve the issue - warranty job. Another neighbour couldn't get their rebound adjuster to make any pronounced difference. Both were on levos, however, so I'm suspecting bad QC on the batches that came out in 2018 - 2019.

But yeah, any Rail 5 threads would be very much welcome!

Safe tings!

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Sep 30, 2021
14
18
Forest Of Dean
There’s a few on here that rate the rails. Welcome from another forester .

Yeah, I regularly see the dads and stalwarts smashing power hours around Mallards, Lydney and Bixlade. One of the main reasons i got one was for winter working from home, a lunch shred. Timing was spot on for making my cycle to work application for the year's choice. Plus, there's an increasing contingent in the FOD Nightriders that have supplemented their analogue bikes with Ebikes, so it just makes logical sense.
 

Healy

Active member
Oct 4, 2020
342
243
Forest of dean
Yeah your right. Just got my boy a decent bike and he loves riding over pedals.
I sold my canyon to pay a bit off the ebike. I do miss it but can’t beat the ebike to be fair.
When does yours arrive
 

Doomanic

🛠️Wrecker🛠️
Patreon
Founding Member
Jan 21, 2018
8,686
10,313
UK
Another FoD regular and Rail rider here Not a local but I might as well be, the amount of time I spend there. :D
 
Sep 30, 2021
14
18
Forest Of Dean
Yeah your right. Just got my boy a decent bike and he loves riding over pedals.
I sold my canyon to pay a bit off the ebike. I do miss it but can’t beat the ebike to be fair.
When does yours arrive

My CTW application will go live on the 6th, but I already put my deposit down at Sunset Cycles over at MV Bike Park in Caerphilly, so it should be within 2 weeks of the application. I was just stoked to get it in the colour me and the missus like. It won't be stock for long, mind.

I know with a lot of the bargain basement spec ebikes, i.e. sub 5k (not to say that 5k is bargain basement, but you know what I mean), stuff will need upgrading, so there's a few bits and pieces from my spare parts bin that's ready to go. The wheelset and fork swap will be the first thing to do, since I've got a magic mary on 160mm pikes and hans dampf that's tubeless'd and prime to go (currently on the hardtail)

Got a set of MT520 4 pot shimanos with SLX levers that I can swap over - Not saying that there's anything wrong with the Tektros on the rail, but when you have brakes you know you can trust, you might as well.

I'll no doubt be giving a local shakedown at Mallards and see how it handles Heckler and Blackpool Flydown. My Mega's already at 18kg, so I can only expect the rail to be pretty planted.

I just see so many dads with a towie doing the GBU climb, but personally, I normally do the locals/enduro ride up along the side of launchpad and up past wormhole. Having the ebike with the little un would just make it that bit easier than hauling her up the hills on a mega.
 

Doomanic

🛠️Wrecker🛠️
Patreon
Founding Member
Jan 21, 2018
8,686
10,313
UK
How does your bike handle the wild trails, i.e.Whiter's and Laner's stuff?
I only ever ride the Family Trail... :p

It's got 170mm Lyrik forks, 156mm DVO Jade X coil shock and a 27.5 rear wheel with a 2.4 DHR2. 29er MM or DHF on the front, depending on conditions. 220mm Galfer rotor on the front, soon to be replaced with a Hope 220mm floating rotor.
 

Healy

Active member
Oct 4, 2020
342
243
Forest of dean
Wormhole I love that track. I do countdown then into wormhole. I got the base spec Whyte e180 and it’s quality. Just put a set of hope fortus 35s I had from my spectral on. Thinking about swapping brakes but it rides great as is
 

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