So I’ve got a Fuel EX, its a great bike and after servicing the fork I’m loving riding it again. The Reverb post I added also made a huuge difference to my riding.. Having said that the front end (9mm QR 32mm forks) feels a bit noodlie and steep on the rough stuff.

Most places I ride it’s great, but recently at Aston Hill I was definitely left wanting more travel, chain retention and generally ‘more’ bike. Couple that with wanting to do more uplift stuff and a trip abroad next year. I did consider beefing the front up with a new 15mm fork and new wheel but the cost adds up- probably ~£500 second hand once you’ve got everything. So I’m after something new….

The Slash has really taken my fancy- while I’ve heard the Talas is not quite up there with Float plushness I reckon the ability to drop the front for climbing would be great as well as the rear mino-link which raises the BB and steepens the head angle would make it a do-it-all bike for UK trails and steeper stuff too. The circa 30lb weight doesn’t bother me; I’m not a cross country rider but someone who enjoys riding up for the purpose of having a blast on the way down.

What do you reckon? Who’s riding one and what do you think of it? How do you use yours and would I get bored with it riding it around local loops and welsh trail centres as well as on proper mountains?!

Get a 2nd hand downhill bike.

Until recently I had a 2010 remedy 8 and found it to be the consummate all rounder. I built it up to be 26.5lbs 1×10 with chain device and 150mm revs with 20mm axle and it was great. I raced enduros and 10 hour and 24 hour xc with it and it was decent at both. I ran it with 36s (TALAS) for a while too.

The Slash looks great and would be better for uplift days and gravity-orientated trips but you can’t get past the poor value for money and the fact it’s likely a bit much for most UK riding (unless you’re a ‘winch and plummet’ type who cares not for the uphills and flat). I reckon it would be great for Welsh mountain affairs and the like but maybe a bit much for trail centres (though it’d be a blast at that new rocky DH one Festinog(sp) and some stuff around Dyfi)

My advice would be to try and demo a remedy and slash on the same day/ weekend and see what the differences are, both are great bikes but the remedy will be a bit more versatile coming from your fuel while the slash might instill more confidence to be a gnarly bas****. Have fun!

Thanks- I had considered a full on DH bike, I’m just not sure how often I would use it. Even in the alps I think id rather be on a bike I could hit single track with.

I’d considered the remedy but 2 things are putting me off; I demod one in 2010 and didn’t really like it(I realise they’re different now but all the same the feeling is still there) and secondly the thought that’s nagging me is ‘is it too similar to the fuel’? Would I spend all that cash changing and then want to spend even more on a new fork and front wheel. Remedy is only 32s after all.

I’m going to demo the slash, I’m not too hung up on the price- yes it is expensive but likely to be ballpark the same as a similarly specced alpine 160 or spicy.

Off t Blaenau Ffestiniog tracks next weekend with the fuel and mate with his 100mm Giant … Can’t wait!

Canyon Strive half the price of the Slash with v. similar spec. Worth a look?

I run a 2012 Remedy with coil Lyriks. Did a week in the Alps in July on it and it handled it okay. Okay, it’s no DHer but it was good fun nontheless. It’s stiff enough to be thrown about, especially with a maxle back end.

For UK stuff it’s about right I think. Not too heavy but pretty burly. Not too slack to be a handful cross country. For me the Slash is in a bit of a grey area – a bit too burly for trail riding (up and down) but not a proper Alps bike either.

In the end, it’s always going to be a compromise if you want something to handle the Alps and local trails.

Whilst I love fuel ex’s and remedy’s, ive not heard good things about the slash. I think it was aimed at the build kits (TALAS on a bike like this?) but still relevant. Look out for a review in dirt fairly shortly.

Dirt had a long term review from a guide in the alps who had been given loan of one for a good while, it was a good, comprehensive and honest review. Def worth reading as the bike def had its shortcomings – in particular with parts of the build.

Yep, it was Ady from Rivierabike. He wasn’t impressed with the build kit.

You could easily get a RS Revelation maxle fork and front wheel for sub £400 and probably new at that?

Not sure a revelation would suit that bike at all. marzocchi 66 rc3s and a CCDB and we’re in business, but it isn’t a cheap bike (at all!) and shouldn’t need upgrading.
That review was the one I was referring to, didn’t know it had already been published.

Good mate has a slash he bought to be his enduro race bike. He plans to sell it due to it being a bit compromised… too heavy for what he wants and the internal cabling is causing him problems every few rides. He really hates the chainguide as well… suspension feel is nice though. Wishes he’d bought the carbon remedy… but he’ll change his mind next week.

Wrecker – the OP has a Fuel Ex and was considering a new fork. I wasn’t suggesting a Revelation for the Slash!

Apologies tomo. I really should RTFP!

Yeah saw the dirt review, in a way it made me want the bike more! A guide’s bike is always going to get hammered and he’s got to be at the opposite end of the scale of who this bike is aimed at compared to myself. I can understand in his place how the talas fork isnt much use- but for riding the bike at trail centres as well as proper mountains it could be brilliant?

Messiah- thanks for the info- does your mate have any specific comments about the cable routing?

The dirt review does mention the chain guide not being much use.. I’d be swapping the brakes to my xtr’s and depending on how I got on with the transmission might go 1×10 XTR. At that price you would expect things to be perfect, having said that brakes etc are personal things.

Thanks also for the heads up on Canyon- not something I’d considered rondo.. They’re certainly good value- just not sure if I’d feel uneasy about buying direct and warranty concerns.

No worries Wrecker, I think I get “RTFP” 🙂 But yes indeed, a Marzocchi 66 would be up on my list too for something more heavy duty!

roadwarrior – I don’t know the Talas would be much benefit on tamer stuff? Wouldn’t you just end up with a steeoer head angle, so you’d only really want to use it on long climbs?

Can someone please paste the link to the Riviera bikes review? I’ve had a Google but no luck.

It’s in dirt mag Steve. I would trust adys words, he knows his stuff.

Also a fuel ex rider, moved to it from a spesh enduro with a 20mm hub. Loved the bike, but hated the front end flex.

I changed the set up to RS revs with adjustable travel and a 15mm hub, made a huge difference and works well with the tapered headset.

Stick with your bike and looknat on one or merlin for a deal on a good set of forks.

Oh silly me I completely forgot about the mag lol thanks though

YT industries wicked ltd is worth a look. Bos suspension front and back, xo kit, mavix crossmax, and 29lb £2350!! A good all rounder which make other 160mm bikes look drastically overpriced.

When in morzine earlier this year a resident guide from where we were stayin demo’d it and was blown away.

The slash is lovely and I see the attraction but abit much for most uk trail riding in my opinion, plus all that bontrager finishing kit at that price puts me off.

http://www.yt-industries.com/shop/index.php?page=categorie&cat=21

After reading the OP and ady’s review, I think the OP should get. A commencal Meta.

The new meta looks great but I could never buy one after the experience my friend had. Snapped 3 frames I think, warranty took forever to sort too. No doubt they’re fine bikes but I’d always be wondering!!

The circa 30lb weight doesn’t bother me;

insert ‘plus’ instead of ‘circa’…

Alpine Bikes in Innerleithen have an ex-demo for sale, saw it today.

tbh I’d just buy a new fork/wheel for your Trek.

I had a carpark ride on a slash 8 which was certainly heavier than the fuel but I didn’t think it was horrendous. The 9 must be a little lighter due to the X0 stuff..

New fork for the fuel is still an option, I guess either a 32mm fox float with 15mm axel or a rockshox of some sort? I know nothing about RS though!!

Messiah- thanks for the info- does your mate have any specific comments about the cable routing?

Hi, just spotted this question… From what he described the problems with the Slash is the way the cables are built into the frame means you cannot run a solid cable (or even goretex jobs) and hence will always have the crap getting through the gaps between the cable sections. We live in the muddy north east of Scotland and not sunny Califonia; therefore any gaps between cables means crap gets in and leads to maintenance nightmares. FWIW… the solid cable runs on my Nicolai have been on there for two years, he is changing cables every two weeks and still cursing it. Maybe there is a way to improve the cabling on the Slash but I’ve not had a look so cannot say.

As mentioned above the double chain guide on it is a piece of crap.

Would Gore cables (or Mudlovers(?))not sort the issue, they run a full length liner, regardless of where the outer sections are?

Wheelbase in Kendal had a couple of slash’s with a decent discount last time I was in there about a month ago.

Would Gore cables (or Mudlovers(?))not sort the issue, they run a full length liner, regardless of where the outer sections are?

Don’t know as I didn’t have a look but from what he said the liners are built into the frame so there is no option other than to run short lengths of outer to link them up… not sure if other Trek’s are the same or if the liners in the frame can be removed/replaced? As I said it’s not mine and knowing this chap the shop involved will probably be trying to fix it for free while he stands in the shop stamping his feet (having bought a £4,500 bike from them I can see his point).

Hi Guys

That was me who did the test for dirt….

to the OP I would suggest you go for the Remedy its an excellent and well proven bike.

The slash9 is a good bike dont got me wrong, its just mainly down to the spec choice, and the suspension that let it down to what could be an excellent alp eater..

The DRCV is the biggest culprit.. it seems its a shock that tries to mimic a coil again IMO a frame should be designed around the characteristics of an air can, otherwise stick on a coil.. It lacked mid range support that when ridden hard into corners the “second chamber” would open giving the feeling that a tyre has just popped off the rim, people have often experienced similar things with a large volume can…just that this is worse!!! I did try a fuel with a DRCV and it was great, so maybe some tweaking to give better mid travel support may be the answer!!

biggest gripe is that you can only use a DRCV unit with this bike as BOS told me (was going to get Bossed up) only rockshox do a unit to fit, as lo and behold Ross Schnell their top enduro rider doesnt use the DRCV!! funny that.

The talas 36 is all over the net as to why its not the best fork….swap the internals for float and that problem will be fixed easily enough… I ran mine with a 180 float wound down to 170…worked great..

As for cable routing full outers inside means rattling and noise in the frame, We dont get mud much here in Italy so no issue for me…. the stealth reverb is ace tho..

XO i like just wished they got it enduro ready with 1×10 and use the money saved for a XX or X0 casette…I guess with SRAM’s new 1×11 I would expect to see that on a 2013 model.

I can see why Trek went for that spec, as lets face it the market is much bigger in the US and very different to Europe, and I do ride bikes to extremes, and the slash did survive….nothing broke except the tyres..

I enjoyed my time on it like a mistress….but it was my nukeproof mega i always ran back home to…

I could go on for ages with pro’s and cons but drop me a line if you want any info…address in my profile.

Wow, Nasher- thanks for the response. Great to hear it from the horses mouth!

I have DRCV on my fuel and like you say it just seems to work- I cant notice any non-linearity with it and I regularly hit near to full travel so the second chamber must be opening. Given the Slash is a very similar setup; i.e. just longer travel I wonder why there is that difference? Perhaps with the longer travel platform encouraging you to ride it harder the air can is simply underpowered.

Out of interest how to you have the suspension on your Mega set up; CCDB shock? Float on the front or something else?

On another note there are lots of threads on MTBR about people fitting coils to their remedy’s- maybe it’s possible to fit them to the slash as well. I see what you’re saying though; shouldn’t a bike like this come set up right to begin with..

I’ve got a test ride booked so we’ll see how it rides and if it suits my style/abilities/commitment 😀

I’ve got a remedy and have considered the slash as a frame upgrade. I put a coil on my remedy and it turned it into a different bike! I really didn’t like the DCRV air shock but with the coil I kept up or overtook almost everyone I came across in the alps. Big jumps and drops were no problem (big is relative, but I mean 25ft jumps and 15ft+ drops) I am almost certain you could follow the same instructions that I posted on my blog to do a coil conversion to the slash. In fact, that is exactly what I plan on doing IF I get a slash frame for a decent price.

Check out my write up here; http://www.unclesomebody.com/blog/?p=691

Cheers uncle somebody- I’d seen your blog before when looking at the remedy. That’s a tidy install! What makes you want to change from the remedy to the slash?

Rode a slash 9 yesterday- got to say it felt pretty great.

+1 unclesomebody

I have the same size Remedy so I’m tempted to try the coil conversion for next years Alps blast.

Do you still have the spare bushings and wanna sell?

reggie; I still have the spare bushings. Drop me an email, it’s my username at gmail.com

The only reason I’m thinking of changing to a slash is because I’ll be in the states and could get one for a semi reasonable price, plus I think I started to take the piss a little for what a 150mm travel bike should be doing. The other thing is that I only have 1 bike so I need an all rounder (rather than just get a trek session for example!).

Remedy coil conversion is another league… A completely new bike in my opinion.

ygm usb

Just as a bit of a follow up I rode the Slash 9 and really liked it- however I didn’t really like the price! I missed out on a good deal and was not going to purchase a year old bike at near RRP out of principle- especially one that is already so expensive and imo a little overpriced.

Looked at the 2013 Trek Slash offerings but they’ve switched to a Fox 34 which has a shorter axle-crown measurement making the bike steeper, less stiff and only ~200g lighter. Not to mention they’ve kept the same RRP which does nothing for the value proposition!!

Anyway, I’ve just seen the pictures of the 2013 Mega and it looks amazing! 1×10 drivetrain, CCDB shock and a 170mm air fork.. all for £3600 rrp. Could be the next bike although being heavier/burlier than the Slash which I think I could have run as my only bike I think this might have to live alongside a more trail suitable bike… either that or perhaps I could get dual position forks and a monarch air shock to swap to for big days out…. hurmmm, options!

I colleague of mine just told me about this thread. I currently have a 19.5″ Slash 9 which I’m looking to sell. The spec is standard and will come with new tyres, grips and BB. The Fork and rear shock are currently with Mojo being serviced. Great bike, I just work in the trade and sell my bikes after 12 months.

Let me know if you’re interested. I’m looking for £2750.

Thanks
Dave

Dave- can you drop me an email please. Matthew DOT c DOT Austin AT gmail DOT com