S&M Rail Slide Pipe Review

S&M Slide Pipe V2 Review

The original Slide Pipe came out several years ago and was not on the market long before it was unfortunately discontinued due high manufacturing cost.

Now, S&M has completely revamped the Slide Pipe lineup and it’s coming in two different versions: fixed leg or adjustable. We opted to test out the adjustable. Out of the box the Slide Pipe V2 does requires some assembly as you would expect. We did noticed there were no assembly instructions included. It was pretty straight forward, but there are a couple quirks so let’s do a quick rundown.

Start with the rubber foot pad inserting the base firmly into place. These rubber pads are extremely thick and look like they will hold up for years to come.

Insert the legs. From what we can tell the legs are not directional, but our sample did seem to line up the holes ever so slightly better one direction. Now insert your first bolt and washer, making sure you have a washer on each side of the bolt.

All bolts are the same other than the shorter bolts used for the center joining tube. At this point keep everything hand tight. So far not come across anything that says you specifically have to put the bolt in at the bottom or the top, the same goes for the direction of the bolt.

Either way is fine as long as it’s secure. Slide on the upper rail section and insert your bolt and repeat this same process for the other side.

Now you’re ready to combine both sections using the center joining tube and bracket. This can be a bit of a pain to line everything up the first time, but after this you will likely never have to do it again. What we found worked best was to tip one section of the rail on its side, place a bolt at the end of your bracket, align everything together and thread it in my hand. Swing the bracket up and thread the next bolt in. Slide both rail sections together and thread in the two remaining bracket bolts.

Go back and tighten all bolts using a 6mm Allen key and a wrench.

Right off the bat, you can tell this thing is solid. It barely moves, if it all, when you hit it and we chalk that up to the beefy leg construction and extra think rubber padding used on the feet. Even 180s in and out of grinds, which usually cause some rails to move, don’t seem to affect the Slide Pipe more than maybe a slight wobble.

As far as grinding. The Slide Pipe slides reasonably well with no wax and that’s likely due to the black rust proof coating S&M is using on this V2 model. Once you wax it up, especially if you have plastic pegs, you better hold on because it slides fast. Crazy fast.

In fact, with the Slide Pipe being only 8’ long you’re often on and off the rail so fast that it makes doing tricks in and out of grinds more challenging. 8ft of rail is still sufficient in most cases and it is pretty standard when it comes to portable grind rails like this, but we all came to the same conclusion that it would be nice to see an optional rail extension at some point to really take advantage of it.

Let’s talk about the height adjustment. The standard fixed, non-adjustable version comes in at 18” tall. This makes it just low enough to learn new tricks on, but not too low where you feel like you’re going to constantly over-hop it.

The adjustable leg version can be positioned between 18” to 24” tall, and at only $20 more (at the time of this article we might add) in our opinion it’s the one to go with. And while we did adjust it some. It pretty much stayed as an uprail that went from 18” to the full 24”. Pricing for the rails (again at the time of this article) is $239.95 for the fixed and $259.95 for the adjustable. We have heard that this may change in the future so keep that in mind.

bmx bike rider doing a front wheel grind on slide pipe

To get additional feedback on the rail we brought it to a USA BMX Freestyle event and then passed it around to some of the local riders to try out. Overall everyone loved the rail and there’s not much to really dislike about honestly. One thing we have noticed by reading your comments, and it’s the same thing when the Subrosa Street rail came out, is the price... We get it. It is fairly expensive but hear us out.

professional bmx riders using the slide pipe

Most of these comments center around something like, “My uncle’s best friend’s cousin knows how to weld and can make the same thing for like $100.” Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but yes. You can certainly try to make your own rail for cheaper. We have seen some pretty good scrap rails before, but often these rails are of poor steel quality with poor welds, and not worth the time and hassle. You likely won’t save as much money as you think, either. Not to mention, the Slide Pipe is both portable and adjustable. Not something you’ll find in a DIY rail. With the Slide Pipe, and the Subrosa Street Rail for that matter, we can fit a bike and a rail in a small hatchback just by separating the two rail sections.

Now you can’t mention the Slide Pipe without mentioning the long standing Subrosa Street rail which this rail borrows heavily from. Both are constructed very similar, they’re the same length, the same height when you compare the Street Rail to the fixed height Slide Pipe, and both have a similar black rust-proof coating.

So if you’re looking for something fun to session in front of your house, or maybe you want to take it to your favorite skatepark or street spot to add a little extra to it, we we highly recommend the Slide Pipe V2.

<Home

>Next: Dan's Comp Review Bike