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aight so i posted in the gear madness support thread about a transition set up, was gonna chill and not get one, but i saw that heated wheel sale and ended up getting a 9" deck for cheap. i have the parts in my spare bin to throw ace classic 55s and some spit 99 54s on it, and also some maybe some risers? the thing is i have a set of old plastic rails that i ran at one point on a street setup for like a week and ditched because i didnt see the point.
so my question that doesnt deserve its own thread is - if someone was just starting to skate more bowls, would you recc that they start with rails or add them later? this would be for a bowl specific setup. im the kind of person who likes to get my setup locked in and then not change it, so id really rather not be taking the rails on and off
personally i think rails are overall unnecessary, unless you're going for Grosso distance rock n roll slides, or you just like them
I never really liked the feel of rails on disasters and rock to fakies. I skated one board with rails until it died and i set a new one up; the rails are probably still on it
OP, are you good enough for needing rails in a bowl?
Properly applied, they assist in curb trick combos.
Both these replies have valid points, so although it is an interesting addition to a board, I also don't really like the feeling of rails compared to the concave of any normal board on coping, and that is coming from a bowl / transition lifer.
At least you can always take them off if you do try them and the rail holes in a board are not an issue at all - I have plenty of used boards from people full of rail holes that have no problems in skating, even if some people don't like the look of rail screw holes all down their board.
Regarding riding rails though, the first thing to note is that they make everything super slippery, compared to a normal board, so take care in that regard. Some people go find a raw curb and rub them down some to stop them being quite so slick, while some others run a single rail, almost always on the toe side, which makes boardslides and smith grinds easier to a point, but they are very trick specific and work best for those people who are very used to going fast and long in lip tricks, otherwise rails in general are unnecessary and often just something people put on boards to keep the graphic from getting scratched.
Rails can be reused too, so even just putting some on an old board to feel what that is like might sometimes be the best thing to do, if you don't want to risk putting them on a brand new board if you don't like having holes if you did take them off.
There are taller ones, lower profile ones, some that will leave the middle of the board to wear, others that sit up a mile, running them right on the edge of the board or a finger or even thumb in from the edge, even having them running from close to the edge at the front tapering in towards the back, all for different reasons / purposes, of which I won't get into right now, but that is probably too much to think about anyway.