Any thoughts on the Revel Rail 29?

Never have built a new bike ground up with the parts I want from scratch. Was in a newer shop in town and they mentioned the Rail 29. Not as progressive geo as some of the enduro sleds out now but looks to be a little longer than my Tracer 275 which I think would be good and I've been thinking of going 29er for a bit. So any thoughts or rumors on the frame? Will not be full on budgie if I do it. Already said no to an Elevensix or EXT but still XT level or so so maybe a little bling here and there.

I think Joetron is a Revel dealer and smmokan has Revel's in his fleet as well.

I have the 27.5 Rail. Amazing climber for 170/165 bike, descends ok as well : )

CBF is a great platform. And yeah, what those guys said.


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I don’t think a ton of people have time on the Rail 29 yet (even here in carbondale I haven’t seen many) but those I do know are very hyped on it. CBF kicks ass on the way up and down so it’s hard to go wrong. I’ve been on a rascal for a couple years and like it more than any other bike I’ve tried, but to each their own. I imagine they’ll get some demos going this summer

That's what I'd like to replace my megatower with eventually if I keep a big bike in the stable.

I'm supposed to get a size run of XT builds in the next week or two.... I'll definitely report back as soon as I can get some time on one.

For anyone interested in 27.5 Rail, they are apparently 20% off at the moment for both frames and builds that are in stock. I've been riding mine a ton lately, love this bike!

https://www.revelbikes.com/our-bikes/revel-rail/

A call to Revel revealed these will probably not hit dealers till Fall (unless ssmokan has a special "in")
At this point, the only first hand experiences will be reviewers.

A few of the fast bros are riding them locally. I haven’t heard any complaints, but I’m an old guy now and no longer as hip to the scene.


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Originally Posted by Roxtar

A call to Revel revealed these will probably not hit dealers till Fall (unless ssmokan has a special "in")
At this point, the only first hand experiences will be reviewers.

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I've got two... a medium and a large. I've had clients on them for the last week and a half in Revelstoke, and they fucking loved the bikes. I can't speak from much personal experience since I've been riding my GG Gnarvana up here.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/review...re-uphill.html

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Originally Posted by XtrPickels

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/review...re-uphill.html

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One of the better Pinkbike reviews. I particularly liked the comparison section down towards the bottom.

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Originally Posted by smmokan

I've got two... a medium and a large. I've had clients on them for the last week and a half in Revelstoke, and they fucking loved the bikes. I can't speak from much personal experience since I've been riding my GG Gnarvana up here.

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Awesome. Glad to hear they're out.

Ssmokan, having a hard time finding one in my backyard so I'll ask you instead. I love my V1 Ripmo but I've always been impressed with Canfield's rear end (yeah I said it) and have been hoping for a carbon Canfield.
Please compare them if you can.
Thanks

It's been too long since I rode the V1 Ripmo to make a comparison, TBH.

My quick thoughts on the new Rail 29 from riding it a half-dozen days... a few of those days were in Revelstoke, where the trails are some of the steepest I've ridden anywhere. The other few days were here in Colorado on techy trails, but I'd rate them as solidly "black" with nothing other than technical sections and not too steep overall. My large demo is an XT build and I had a set of I-9 Enduro 305 wheels on it, so fairly pimped out. It probably weighed around 31 lbs.

I think the Rail is a great long-travel trail bike for what *most* riders will consider hard trails. That is, it's poppy and playful, and has more travel than the Rascal. To me, it didn't feel noticeably different than the Rascal handling-wise. It'll keep you out of trouble if you make a mistake, and it does really well at eating up chunk and chunder. It climbs quite well on tech, but I was hoping for a steeper STA for the steep climbs. That said, it's not an enduro bike, and it's not what I personally want when I ride a bike with 150-160mm of travel. In anything that resembles truly steep terrain (like Boondocker or Iron Lotus in Revelstoke), I found the bike twitchy and not stable whatsoever. It's night and day different from how I felt on super steep terrain riding the Propain Tyee, GG Gnarvana or slacked-out Forbidden Druid. Not confidence inspiring to say the least. Overall it's a really nice bike with a good build quality, but I'd look at it as a long travel trail bike and not an enduro sled. I was hoping to make our large demo my new "big bike", but I'm sticking with the Gnarvana this year.

I can say 27.5 is nimble and crushes terrain. It’s like an all mtn with massive travel and climbs well


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Originally Posted by smmokan

It's been too long since I rode the V1 Ripmo to make a comparison, TBH.

My quick thoughts on the new Rail 29 from riding it a half-dozen days... a few of those days were in Revelstoke, where the trails are some of the steepest I've ridden anywhere. The other few days were here in Colorado on techy trails, but I'd rate them as solidly "black" with nothing other than technical sections and not too steep overall. My large demo is an XT build and I had a set of I-9 Enduro 305 wheels on it, so fairly pimped out. It probably weighed around 31 lbs.

I think the Rail is a great long-travel trail bike for what *most* riders will consider hard trails. That is, it's poppy and playful, and has more travel than the Rascal. To me, it didn't feel noticeably different than the Rascal handling-wise. It'll keep you out of trouble if you make a mistake, and it does really well at eating up chunk and chunder. It climbs quite well on tech, but I was hoping for a steeper STA for the steep climbs. That said, it's not an enduro bike, and it's not what I personally want when I ride a bike with 150-160mm of travel. In anything that resembles truly steep terrain (like Boondocker or Iron Lotus in Revelstoke), I found the bike twitchy and not stable whatsoever. It's night and day different from how I felt on super steep terrain riding the Propain Tyee, GG Gnarvana or slacked-out Forbidden Druid. Not confidence inspiring to say the least. Overall it's a really nice bike with a good build quality, but I'd look at it as a long travel trail bike and not an enduro sled. I was hoping to make our large demo my new "big bike", but I'm sticking with the Gnarvana this year.

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This is kinda what I figured by looking at the geo. Seems like it might be great for people in the SW and Colorado where the extra squish helps smooth out the rocks, but a super slacked out long bike will only slow you down in the tech.

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Originally Posted by smmokan

It's been too long since I rode the V1 Ripmo to make a comparison, TBH.

My quick thoughts on the new Rail 29 from riding it a half-dozen days... a few of those days were in Revelstoke, where the trails are some of the steepest I've ridden anywhere. The other few days were here in Colorado on techy trails, but I'd rate them as solidly "black" with nothing other than technical sections and not too steep overall. My large demo is an XT build and I had a set of I-9 Enduro 305 wheels on it, so fairly pimped out. It probably weighed around 31 lbs.

I think the Rail is a great long-travel trail bike for what *most* riders will consider hard trails. That is, it's poppy and playful, and has more travel than the Rascal. To me, it didn't feel noticeably different than the Rascal handling-wise. It'll keep you out of trouble if you make a mistake, and it does really well at eating up chunk and chunder. It climbs quite well on tech, but I was hoping for a steeper STA for the steep climbs. That said, it's not an enduro bike, and it's not what I personally want when I ride a bike with 150-160mm of travel. In anything that resembles truly steep terrain (like Boondocker or Iron Lotus in Revelstoke), I found the bike twitchy and not stable whatsoever. It's night and day different from how I felt on super steep terrain riding the Propain Tyee, GG Gnarvana or slacked-out Forbidden Druid. Not confidence inspiring to say the least. Overall it's a really nice bike with a good build quality, but I'd look at it as a long travel trail bike and not an enduro sled. I was hoping to make our large demo my new "big bike", but I'm sticking with the Gnarvana this year.

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Just out of curiosity, what's your favorite bike that you've ridden in that class?

In the long/low/slack class? My experience is pretty limited to just a small handful of bikes with not much saddle time, but I'd probably say my favorite is the GG Gnarvana (have ridden the GG, Propain Tyee, Spec Enduro, 160/142 Forbidden Druid, Deviate Highlander 150, SC Megatower). There are a lot of other bikes I'd like to test out at some point.

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Originally Posted by smmokan

In the long/low/slack class? My experience is pretty limited to just a small handful of bikes with not much saddle time, but I'd probably say my favorite is the GG Gnarvana (have ridden the GG, Propain Tyee, Spec Enduro, 160/142 Forbidden Druid, Deviate Highlander 150, SC Megatower). There are a lot of other bikes I'd like to test out at some point.

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Right on. The gnarvana looks like a rad bike. I was a big fan of the Smash I had. But yeah - so many bikes, so little time.

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Originally Posted by smmokan

It's been too long since I rode the V1 Ripmo to make a comparison, TBH.

My quick thoughts on the new Rail 29 from riding it a half-dozen days... a few of those days were in Revelstoke, where the trails are some of the steepest I've ridden anywhere. The other few days were here in Colorado on techy trails, but I'd rate them as solidly "black" with nothing other than technical sections and not too steep overall. My large demo is an XT build and I had a set of I-9 Enduro 305 wheels on it, so fairly pimped out. It probably weighed around 31 lbs.

I think the Rail is a great long-travel trail bike for what *most* riders will consider hard trails. That is, it's poppy and playful, and has more travel than the Rascal. To me, it didn't feel noticeably different than the Rascal handling-wise. It'll keep you out of trouble if you make a mistake, and it does really well at eating up chunk and chunder. It climbs quite well on tech, but I was hoping for a steeper STA for the steep climbs. That said, it's not an enduro bike, and it's not what I personally want when I ride a bike with 150-160mm of travel. In anything that resembles truly steep terrain (like Boondocker or Iron Lotus in Revelstoke), I found the bike twitchy and not stable whatsoever. It's night and day different from how I felt on super steep terrain riding the Propain Tyee, GG Gnarvana or slacked-out Forbidden Druid. Not confidence inspiring to say the least. Overall it's a really nice bike with a good build quality, but I'd look at it as a long travel trail bike and not an enduro sled. I was hoping to make our large demo my new "big bike", but I'm sticking with the Gnarvana this year.

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LT trailbike is exactly what I'm talking about. I'm kindof over the enduro sled thing.
I was just wondering if it would be a good contender to replace the Ripmo, my current favorite in that class.