Well, I was afforded a lengthy test ride of a new Chisel (not Comp), size S, in both an urban setting and on paths and park space. My initial impressions are that I would definitely need to get used to the wheel size. I do love the smoothness of 29ers, but I am coming from 26ers and have to play catchup. By the way, it's worth mentioning I was riding on cheap test pedals that looked and felt quite vintage.
* The riding position was interesting. I felt very upright, legs suspended. I felt like I needed to get up out of the bike to get it going. And, this could be my bias, but I felt like 60mm is too short a stem even for the size S. Medium and up get a 70mm stem. Opposite, the 170mm crank arms were a surprise to me. On my old bikes, 170mm is the sweet spot, but on this bike the crank arms felt somewhat long. It's possible I had the seat a little too high, though. I notice size XS has 165mm cranks and I do wonder if I would switch to those if I was to buy the bike.
* The SRAM drive train was surprisingly quiet and smooth in shifting, but there was this weird sort of kickback feeling when I would abruptly stop pedaling. Also, it liked dropping at least one gear upon backpedaling. The rear hub is loud to an annoying degree. I appreciate the higher POE than what I am used to, but the noise got to me.
* The cockpit was fine, brakes are nothing special but they bite well. The handle bars are a little wide, at 750mm. Anything wider than 740mm seems too wide. The lock-on grips were awful, but I won't count those against the bike nor Specialized, because bikes don't usually come with amazing grips. The SX shifters felt nice and crisp and I liked the single direction up/down shifting and the multiple clicks allowed at once for downshifting.
* The Rockshox Judy was pretty good, for a 100mm fork with 30mm stanchions. It helps that the modern riding position is more centered on (or in) the bike. A similar fork on an old bike wouldn't have felt as nice. That said, the lack of adjustable compression damping made me just reach for the lockout when necessary. It's also a fairly heavy fork, and that's really the main reason I would change it out.
* The bike felt very planted, albeit somewhat heavy, when rolling. That must be part of massive feeling of 29ers, which is something entirely new to me. But, when the tire(s) left the ground for a very brief moment, the bike felt like it was flying. It does take a little effort to get 29ers going, but the bike turned into a rocket by the time I was finished with rapid initial acceleration. The frame feels strong yet pretty much as compliant as an old aluminum frame is and very comfortable overall. The seat was somewhat less comfortable, but not bad at all for a stock seat. (I might have needed it adjusted further back on its rails.) The tires the wheels were wrapped with felt both wonderfully grippy and fast rolling, and I would feel no reason to change them out. I would very much like to try them tubeless, though. No complaints about the wheels themselves.
* The bike's group set does not do its frame justice, but we all know this. I would not go crazy with upgrades, but I would definitely change out the group set (minus the brakes) and the fork.
In conclusion, I know it's a lengthy review, but hopefully it provided some good insight. I would very much like to know if anyone else here finds the crank arms (170mm for size S, 175mm for size M-XL) a bit too long.
As a "TL;DR" here is a summary of what I personally felt bothered me the most: for a size S, the bike's cranks should really be 165mm (the default for size XS) instead of 170mm.
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