Thomson makes some awesome options. I put a Masterpiece on my chisel and love it!

 

Chisel on Dakota Ridge 2

Went out on the Dakota Ridge (Mathew Winters) Loop. MTBProject rates Dakota Ridge as expert (black / double black). I rate as a huge challenge (for me) and tons of fun.

The majority of the ride is on top of a ridge with fall off on your left and your right. Big mental ride.

Here are a few photos ...

Chisel is a killer machine!

 

Went out on the Dakota Ridge (Mathew Winters) Loop. MTBProject rates Dakota Ridge as expert (black / double black). I rate as a huge challenge (for me) and tons of fun.

The majority of the ride is on top of a ridge with fall off on your left and your right. Big mental ride.

Here are a few photos ...

Chisel is a killer machine!

How is the Chisel on rock beds/rooty trails? I love my Timberjack 27.5 plus bike because it smashes through them, but would like to be able to ride a little farther with a lighter faster bike. Would be an addition to my plus bike. i pretty much ride a lower Wisconsin trail system, not real big into jumping or anything.

Thanks!

 

I'm in Virginia, all we have are rocks and roots. Keep your hands light, weight the pedals, and float across everything. I am running a 120 fork, dropper, and 2.3 tires.

It's not going to do chunk like a Stumpjumper, but it's the best riding xc hardtail I've been on.

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Good deal!

 

A lot of it will also depend on tire selection. My bike is much more compliant with 2.3 Fast Traks than with 2.2 Race Kings on the rear. I think running a supple tire is critical on a hardtail. The Race King Protection sidewall felt stiff on the hardtail but I barely noticed it on my full suspension bike. A supple tire will also roll faster on choppy terrain.

My plan for the Chisel going forward is to either run 2.3 Fast Traks or Renegades, or Bontrager XR2 in the 2.35 size. Those are some of the most supple tires out there. I have heard Maxxis Aspens and Ikons are supple as well.

 

Trying to post my XL California Fade in the Classifieds; its giving me issues though.
If anyone is looking for a complete bike, frame only, or somewhere in between PM me.
I will get the post up ASAP.

 

Chisel comp 2x creaking solved

If anybody has experienced creaking from the bottom braket area on any 2x Chisel, yesterday i found the culprit.

There is a bracket on the seat tube that the front mech attatches to. Three bolts hold this braket in place, its the bolt on the rear of the bracket behind the seattube that works it way loose and with the frame flex moves from side to side resulting in a creak on evey pedal stroke. I re torqued the three bolts and applied a little grease too them, the offending bolt on the rear of the seat tube also should have a small o-ring behind it so check the condition of it periodoricaly.

Sorry the post is a bit drawn out but because the sound and area of the noise replicates the bottom braket i figured it could save somebody some money.

Or it may just be another excuse to go for that 1x upgrade!😀😀

 

Sweet tip! Fixed mine!

If anybody has experienced creaking from the bottom braket area on any 2x Chisel, yesterday i found the culprit.

There is a bracket on the seat tube that the front mech attatches to. Three bolts hold this braket in place, its the bolt on the rear of the bracket behind the seattube that works it way loose and with the frame flex moves from side to side resulting in a creak on evey pedal stroke. I re torqued the three bolts and applied a little grease too them, the offending bolt on the rear of the seat tube also should have a small o-ring behind it so check the condition of it periodoricaly.

Sorry the post is a bit drawn out but because the sound and area of the noise replicates the bottom braket i figured it could save somebody some money.

Or it may just be another excuse to go for that 1x upgrade![emoji3][emoji3]

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Thank you. I just bought chisel 2x. You have probably saved me a lot of grief sometime along the line.

 

Got a 2019 Chisel Expert on the way! Raced Stumpy hardtails and Epics formerly. Excited to see how this performs. Already starting to order the upgrades.

 

Might have been mentioned but searching on my phone is futile. Does the Chisel have internal dropper routing?

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Yes internal routing

 

my 2019 chisel frame with full 2018 epic comp ht components!
... and so i have a 10t cog at the rear

 

Hello,
First, thank's for this thread, I read it around 10 times.... check if there is some news 2 or 3 times a day...
I finally bought a chisel comp 2018 blue/red. I've ride it and found it's a very good bike. I have a Trek Fuel Ex7 2015; of course it's a liitle bit less confortable but less thqn I thought for a rigide bike.
Now, I'm looking to upgrade it. So my conclusions from this forum to have a good upgrade are:
- a set of wheels: boost, XD. I'm looking for something in aluminium and around 1500g like the roval control.
- a 1 x 11v transmission: cassette sunrace 11-46, ...

It's very complicate to have precise informations on the bike. So I need your help.

My questions:
- Where I can find the roval control? I've checked the web but it's always carbon wheels. I saw also the Asterion wheels XC.
- What I need exactly to switch to 1 x11v? Can I keep the stout crankset and add a chainwheel 32T?

Thank's in advance!

 

Does anyone run a 44mm rake fork on their Chisel? If so, how does it handle?

 

Great thread; that has encouraged me to start my new Chisel build

Small frame weighs in @ 3.24lbs

Im hoping I will be able to add two rings to my drives side bottom bracket so I can use a new XTR 9000 X 1 (non boost) crankset with this frame.

 

Bad News - Possible Reba Fork Failure Might Have Caused Crash

As you may know, I have been a huge Specialized Chisel fan. Love the bike.

However, 3 weeks ago I had a terrible experience.

Still not sure what happened.

Cruising down a blue run on my local trail that I ride often. (Been riding some black runs during the summer ... so mild run for me.)

Double drop (drainage rock walls) about 20 feet apart. Each drop about 1 foot high plus slope.

Cleared first drop.

Compresed fork for second drop. Did not feel push back.

Went off lip. Felt like nose dived.

Front wheel hit first. And locked up.

Went over handlebars. Smashed head (helmet on). Tried to roll somersault. Slammed shoulder into ground. Ended up on back with feet down trail and bike 15 feet down hill.

Passed out cold.

(Riding alone.)

When awoke, head hurt. Glad I had my helmet on.

Shoulder started aching. Could not lift my right arm. Moved my left hand over and felt my shoulder.

Collarbone snapped in two and pitched up like the roof to a house. Even though I've never broken a bone, first thought, "I broke my collarbone."

Tried to get up. Could not because no power in right arm. Had to roll to left.

Finally got to feet. Tried to walk towards bike. Knees buckled. Fell to ground. Out again.

Woke up. Got up. Pulled bike up with left hand. Started to walk down hill. Stumbled and fell off trail into weeds and rocks. Passed out again.

When awoke. Could not move my leg. Pined under bike. Started to worry I might not get out of this.

Slowly moved around (without use of right arm) until I could stand. Got bike up on trail. Eyes filled with white stars. Got very dizzy.

Stood still. Then started walking with very small baby steps (any fast steps jarred my shoulder and created sharp pain). Moving so slow I must have looked like a zombie from the living dead.

If I kept walking (baby steps), I was ok. If stopped, felt like I'd pass out. So I just kept walking up and down trails for the next 90 minutes (usually a 15 minute down and out). Fell into a bush or two, but made it out.

Could not stop to call anyone. Bad reception. Fear of passing out.

Strange thing ... this trail is always busy. That day. I did not see anyone on trail (mid morning on weekday). No one to help.

Went to hospital.

Bottom line. Broke my collarbone.

Due to location of break (towards outer end), needed surgery.

Surgeon (did great job) put the bone back together and held in place with a stainless steel plate, 9 screws, and a cord with button holding bone down.

Medical bills are 50k and counting (medical industry way over charges).

First, I wanted to share story with group (thanks for reading).

Second, I want to get your thoughts.

and ..

From the pictures above, does it look like the Reba fork failed?

(Notice the seal/cap on the top of the upper tubes near the crown and the leaking oil. I store bike hanging upside down in garage over car.)

Thanks for feedback.

 

Wow, that's harsh! Sorry to hear it! Yeah, we've missed your detailed and enthusiastic ride reports.

Glad you were able to make it out on your own and that your injuries were not worse. Broken collar bones are common in cycling crashes, but generally heal fully. I'd be more concerned about head trauma, concussion, cerebral hematoma, in such a crash and hope they gave you a thorough check up. Get a new helmet as the foam is likely damaged. Heal well.

It's hard to tell why the air side fork seal failed without inspecting the seal and fork. How much air pressure did it lose? Did the air cap fail (this has been seen before in some brands*)? Will it now hold air? I'd ask your shop to file a report with Specialized and Rockshox and ask that they exchange the fork for a new one. Rockshox should be made aware in case there is a bad lot of air caps, seals or Reba lowers or an assembly problem. It might also be worth cross-posting this in the Rider Down and the Shocks & Suspension forums in case someone there knows about a similar type of failure.

Let us know how you do and what turns out to have been the problem assuming they figure it out.

Also, if you going to ride alone consider getting some type of tracker (e.g., SPOT or Garmin) for safety.

Best wishes!

*Ohlins safety recall last month:
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/ohlins-recall-rxf-36-29275-and-rxf-34-forks.html

 

Levity, thank you for the kind words and excellent advice. I'll keep you posted.

 

I ordered a Chisel Expert in Gloss Story Gray earlier today. I have been thinking about getting a hardball for a while now to give me something more efficient at hill climbs and easier to ride on the local bike/walking paths. I think I will be happy with this one for what I want it for.

 

Anybody running a non boost crank ?

 

I have, no problems except a little extra drivetrain friction.

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Levity,

Update. Posted in Shocks and Suspension per your suggestion (good idea).

Got lots of input.

Based on that, just checked.

Air pressure in fork is way down. Was set at 135. Now at 80. This is a 41% drop.

Pushed handlebars to compress fork. It did go down and came up, but slow to rebound.

I think their theories are correct.

Air trapped from past compression. Then some type of failure on trail on landing. Air escaped up, popping the seal out and dropping the fork height while under compression (lost most rebound) ... and threw me over the top when handlebars dropped instead of bouncing back up.

Not sure how to handle in future. Only had bike for 90 days. Bought brand new.

Guess I'll have to "burp" future forks (saw video on dirtlabs.com). Not sure how often?

Have ridden my 2003 Epic for 15 years. Never had to burp that fork (Fox). Strange. Still ride that bike.

 

Dang, that sure seems to fit with what happened. However, I don't understand why rebound is slow - seems like 80 psi would be enough to push it back up unless the damper circuit was damaged. I only run 70psi.

Now the scary part is whether this an issue, albeit not common, with all Reba forks, or was due some problem specific to yours.

If the shop or Rockshox can't find anything wrong or out of tolerance with your fork/seals, it should make us all a bit concerned about ours. Even after a rebuild I would not want to use your fork again!

Thanks for sharing the info. Let us know what you're able find out about your fork and how they resolve it.

 

I'd roll that thing right back in to the shop you got it from and get them to warantee that fork.

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I'd roll that thing right back in to the shop you got it from and get them to warantee that fork.

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Mike2MTB,
Hope you heal fast!
I agree. Take it back to the store and have them replace the fork under warranty.

 

Who is riding with a 120mm fork in his Chisel?, finally the frame only option in the Netherlands has arrived here, really nice purple colour and want to put a Reba in it that I have.

Does it void warranty? Screw up the handling? It’s only 2cm..?

Thanks!

 

Who is riding with a 120mm fork in his Chisel?, finally the frame only option in the Netherlands has arrived here, really nice purple colour and want to put a Reba in it that I have.

Does it void warranty? Screw up the handling? It's only 2cm..?

Thanks!

I'm running a 120 Sid, I think it's great. I've only run 120 in it, so I can't say how different it is from 100, but I can say the handling isn't screwed up.

ETA 20mm is ok for warantee in the US, Specialized does it themselves on the Epic.

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Thanks for your reply, I just ordered the frame, will see if it works.

 

Anyone seen this color before?

Looks like a grey/pink combo?

-edit-
Come to think of it, it's probably just the regular Gloss Story Grey/Rocket Red paint scheme with an instagram filter.

 

Update. Took bike to LBS yesterday. Shipping fork back to SRAM to investigate. I'll let you know what they discover. Should find out in 1-2 weeks.