170mm Fork travel. Anyone increased their forks on the Trek Rail ???

Billy Rail

Billy Rail

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I know Trek says this voids the warranty but I'm an aggressive rider downhill and felt the forks diving a lot. I will order the new debonair spring that is supposed to work better but at the same time really contemplating bumping up the travel to 170mm. Anyone done this on the Rail? Keen to find out if it suits the bike or would ruin the geo. Cheers sorry if this has been discussed before
 
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Billy Rail said:
I know Trek says this voids the warranty
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No it doesn't.
1589924046924.png
 
I'm planning on doing it soon, just waiting for @Gibspark to ride his recently upgraded forks a few more times before I let him loose on mine... :ROFLMAO:
 
Perhaps if the forks diving a lot. Try a a couple more psi in the fork pressure. Perhaps add a volume spacer to hold it up a bit.
 
woody1990 said:
Perhaps if the forks diving a lot. Try a a couple more psi in the fork pressure. Perhaps add a volume spacer to hold it up a bit.
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Yea perhaps volume spacers. I don't want them to be too stiff but I don't want them to just flop on me when I need them. Its a fine balance
 
*low speed compression is a balance between supple and fork dive.
Tokens are end stroke ramp up. The new debonair cartridge supposedly gives it more support but typically fork dive is mitigated by adding lsc . Not sure if you have lsc adjustment knob? Maybe it can be custom valved if not or additional oil weight. Id add fork travel but thats not going to stop it diving.
 
Redders473 said:
I run a 170mm zeb on mine and it's awesome.
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Nice, I have one on order for my '21 9.7. Both the bike and the fork have an eta of October.
Jealous of those who have already received their '21 rails. Seems like Canada got left behind.
 
I'm running a Yari upgraded to Lyrik Ultimate spec at 170mm.
 
ribtek said:
Did you adjust the Mino link to « high » to compensate for the geometry change?
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To be brutally honest am not sure what position my mino link is in. Does it ship in low out of the factory.
 
Redders473 said:
To be brutally honest am not sure what position my mino link is in. Does it ship in low out of the factory.
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it does. Adding a ZEB 170mm raises your front end 18mm (10mm travel and the Zeb is also taller). What it does is it slackens your bike and can make it worst for climbing. Did you do any steep climb with it without the front end feeling too light / lifting?
 
ribtek said:
it does. Adding a ZEB 170mm raises your front end 18mm (10mm travel and the Zeb is also taller). What it does is it slackens your bike and can make it worst for climbing. Did you do any steep climb with it without the front end feeling too light / lifting?
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I know what it does mate ?. i haven't bothered changing my mino link over because i don't know if it's already in low or high. It's set at what ever the factory set it.

The front end does wonder on really steep stuff with the zeb on it. But generally i just blast up fire roads to access trails any way.

So question back to anyone is. Does the rail come in low or high from factory.
 
Redders473 said:
I know what it does mate ?. i haven't bothered changing my mino link over because i don't know if it's already in low or high. It's set at what ever the factory set it.

The front end does wonder on really steep stuff with the zeb on it. But generally i just blast up fire roads to access trails any way.

So question back to anyone is. Does the rail come in low or high from factory.
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well as I said it does come in low.
 
ribtek said:
well as I said it does come in low.
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Yours could be different best way to check is to look on the side
Redders473 said:
So in answer to your original question then mate.

No haven't but i will be doing.
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ok cool let us know if it makes a difference.
I wanted to put the ZEB but I am afraid about the fact it’s 8mm longer on top of the added travel. I might go with Fox 38 for that reason but it’s quite a bit more expensive where I live.
 
ribtek said:
Yours could be different best way to check is to look on the side


ok cool let us know if it makes a difference.
I wanted to put the ZEB but I am afraid about the fact it’s 8mm longer on top of the added travel. I might go with Fox 38 for that reason but it’s quite a bit more expensive where I live.
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Just remove spacer dude i had three under my stem on the yari trimmed the Zeb so i have 20mm under there now.

Bar heights same as my slayer
 
Redders473 said:
Just remove spacer dude i had three under my stem on the yari trimmed the Zeb so i have 20mm under there now.

Bar heights same as my slayer
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the bar height doesn’t change the angle of the bike at all. Removing spacers under the bar just affect your riding position relative to the bike, it doesn’t affect your bike geometry at all. Having à longer fork affects the geometry, it highers BB and lowers head angle. Well I already explained..
 
I just installed a smashpot on my rail 9 with the dvo jade X, I tried the fork at 170mm and it was horrible, completely ruins the bike. I was trying to make the bike something its not. I'm going back to 160 where the bike felt great.
I need to get a decoy shred or the new reign as a shred bike I think.
 
What didn't you like about it? I much prefer my bike a 170 mullet.
 
Front end is too light, much harder to get the front end to really bite when pushing for those strava times. It did feel OK down our pro jump line, but that just flows. Sag in the rear shock is perfect, I could have tried the flip chip but I think the geo is perfect at 160mm. I did run it as a mullet last year when I had a spare bike, which made me look at the decoy and new giant as a complimentary bike. I think the trek is a great bike but probably better suited to the wife for the type of riding we do here in NZ
 
I put 170 Lyriks on and the height felt spot on. Recently put 170 Zebs on and they felt a little too tall so have changed them to 160 travel.
Feels good so far but havn't been down anything really sketchy yet.
 
That's a good point actually. @zerofunds what fork are you running?
 
Just the zeb select that comes on the 21 rail 9. It's a beast of a fork, feels like a monster truck and probably part of the reason I've started over riding the bike.
 
I think the Zeb has a longer A2C than the Lyrik/Yari which may be why the latter work better as 170mm forks.
 
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