Would love to know the same. Seems due for an update.

 

The new chisel fs in the “evo” flavor comes with 4 piston brakes. I don’t think they made any changes to fit them but maybe they did.

 

Hoping for opinions in selecting a wheelset for 2022 Chisel.
Would these be suitable? Which hub would you pick?

Thanks

 

What size tyres are you planning on using?
Most modern rims are now 30mm internal.
Is that an option?

 

I personally favor DT Swiss wheels, so no idea what you should pick there, but regular Shimano 10s/11s works with Sram 12 Speed NX and SX cassettes. You only have to remember: The smallest sproket a regular Shimano freehub body can take is 11t. As soon as its 10t or 9t it is made for another system. Maybe there was some cassette that used some trickery, to do it, but don't take my word on that.

 

Thanks but these are pricey - esp in Australia. As per my other reply, considering i25 carbon from Ali - not sure if links are allowed but it's these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004907858799.html
for NX 1230, 11-50.

Also considering Alu alternatives, but I'm not sure about the GDX370 hub and wondering if these would be an improvement over Chisel's stock? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003193675696.html

 

If you want aluminum wheels I would check out the industry nine trail s wheels. I have these on my chisel they are great wheels and currently on sale.

Industry Nine

Industry Nine manufactures high-end bicycle wheels, hubs, stems and headsets. Made in the USA. Customize your wheel set with Industry Nine.

industrynine.com

 

These look great but I'm in Australia, so shipping these would cost a fortune, so I'm resorting to half-reasoble Chinese carbon options.

 

Personally i dont trust carbon very much. Hence why i have a chisel as my light bike. Chinese carbon i trust even less. My strategy is always to wait for sales where western companies unstock stuff to make space for the next batches. So i have always replacement parts and do not overpay for slightly lighter/better stuff. The hubs of the goldix brand seem to be basically copies of DT Swiss hubs with ratchets. I don't see why it should not be fine and plenty of replacement parts for it, when u want to maintain it yourself. I don't know if the wheelset is better than the stock one. The stock one does look like low end specialized generic stuff. Never looked at it closer tho.

 

This ali rims are not upgrade but side grade at best.

If you are looking for upgrade chose some high end 30mm internal width aluminum rims around 420 grams.
Duke wheels and one Italian company makes them this light.

Never cheep out on rims, the weight savings there are more important than the weight of the hubs.

Speaking of hubs, chose dt 350 at least, or higher end (lighter with more POE) from any brand.

Check R2 bikes for reference. They have plenty of custom wheels build with lightweight aluminum rims and lightweight hubs at +- 1400 grams. This would be noticeable upgrade. Although a bit pricier but at least is not a wasted money on side grade.

 

I've came across Hunt's XC Wide wheelset, it's only ~300g lighter than the stock Chisel wheelset.
Hunt XC Wide - Are these worth it the $? Not sure of the hub or the spoke or the build quality.
Would these be better than Chisel stock?

 

+1 on all things chinese carbon (which makes like 97% of all carbon akaik).
I’d go with a set of dt swiss xm1700. I did that and am quite satisfied. Yeah, for the same price you can get a set of chinese wheels but some of them are not lighter so … I am not one to baby my wheels on technical descents. I like enduro-ish trails sprinkled around my rides.

 

Lower is bearing is ENDURO BEARINGS; ACB 4545 150 SS - 1-12 STAINLESS STEEL, ANGULAR CONTACT HEADSET BEARING (34MM X 52MM X 7MM: 45X45 DEG.
Not sure about the top one. The local enduro rep gave me the wrong one.

 

Chiming in to introduce myself and see if there is still any love for the Chisel HT

So, I spent most of my childhood BMX riding, later hardtail MTB. Now in my 50s, I bought a Sirrus X 4.0 about a year ago (after a 15 year break from cycling) and am now in the process of getting a Specialized Chisel Comp Hardtail in Med (great deals to be had on 2023 spec and waiting for Cycle2Work approval), intended use will be XC and flow trail riding. I did enough of the 20 foot woodland jump thing/going home covered in blood every evening as a kid on my BMX and I can't afford the recovery time these days. So I'm into less risky MTB stuff now.

I did a test fit the other day and the silver/spectraflair medium frame is pretty much in the Goldilocks zone, I'm 173cm tall with a 78.5cm inseam

Targeting sub 10kg/22lbs on the Chisel (slow build project):

Upgrades purchased so far:
SID SL Ultimate, 100mm
BikeYoke Divine SL dropper, 125mm
WTB Volt ti
CB Stamp 7 flats
Planned upgrades throughout 2025:
Roval Control Carbon 29s (if they ever go on sale again), with DT Swiss 350s and tubeless Mezcal 2.25 rear and Barzo 2.35 front, tubeless with rear insert
Sram GX carbon crank set and GX mech derailleur (deciding on length, 165 or 170, with 34t ring), XX1 10t-52t cassette.
Sram Level Ultimate 2 piston brake set
Roval carbon mini-rise bars and Roval carbon stem (may go to 60mm from 70mm)

All of that should get me to ball park 9.5-10kg

As you may have guessed I'm a tinkerer and an upgrade addict. I'm looking to build the perfect lightweight XC uber weapon for non-competitive, smell the roses type, epic days out in the country and maybe a bit of light shredding at my local bike park (if it ever re-opens, Aston Hill in Buckinghamshire UK)...

 

Looks to me like you have a great plan. Only thing I would suggest is getting shimano breaks instead of sram. Bleeding mineral oil is so much simpler and environmentally superior that I don't have to be pedantic about their performance at stopping the bike.

 

Great tip, which I hadn't given much thought to. There are lots of other options to consider, e.g. Magura, which is also an oil based system. I plan on running a dropper lever and a fork lock out lever, so part of the attraction to staying with Sram is the matchmaker clamp system. I think the brakes will be much further down the line, so plenty of time to fully research, thanks for highlighting this (I do want to do my own servicing and maintenance).

 

Apologies if I sound on repeat, but I'm now considering the Race Face Turbine SL Alu wheelset - would these be a worthwhile upgrade from the stock? Some estimate the stock wheelset weighs about 2kg, while SL's are 1.64kg and apparently have a decent hub...

 

IMO anything durable is a good upgrade. If you need the weight to make it durable then don’t go light. If you value light more than durability then I have nothing to say

 

These are meant to be for XC / trail, I'm 75kg - don't see a point getting tractor wheels...
Just wanted to know if these would be an improvement over stock.

 

Little rocket ship. This bike is so much fun.

 

Wanted to ask - the crown looks smaller than the headtube - are the bearings exposed in this scenario?

The only rigid fork with matching 60mm OD I found is this generic one made by a few Chinese manufacturers:

 

Nothing is exposed. Matches headset lower bearings and race just fine. Same as susp fork.
View attachment 2130638

nice build! whats your chainring and cog size? might give this a try too

 

nice build! whats your chainring and cog size? might give this a try too

32/14 in Houston area and 32/19 in Central Texas area.

 

Kevin, what are you using to tension the chain?

 

Phil Wood ebb.

 

I'm new to the forum. I recently got a Chisel frame for a project, and while searching for information, I came across this forum. Greetings to everyone!

Are there any Chisel v1 (2018-2020) users here, who are on the shorter side and use a size M frame?

I bought the frame online, and the seller had listed it as a size S. However, when it arrived and I compared its geometry, I realized it’s actually an M (it didn’t have the size sticker, by the way).

The issue is that I’m 164 cm tall, and the Specialized website says size M is for 165 cm and up, so I’m just on the edge. However, the few size M bikes I’ve tried felt big for me. Maybe it’s the geometry, but I’ve never felt comfortable on them, and this Chisel has a pretty high top tube.

Right now, I only have the frame and the suspension fork. I still need to buy all the other parts, but I’m a bit concerned about the size. I feel like once it’s fully built, it might feel too big for me. If anyone around my height uses a size M, I’d love to hear how it feels.

By the way, since the frame was used, the paint was in bad condition, so I took it to a great shop in my city for repainting. I’ll leave some photos later. I used the 2025 Chisel color as a reference.

One more question: I entered the frame’s serial number into the Specialized app, and it recognizes it as a 2020 Chisel. Is there any difference between the 2018 and 2020 frames, or are they the same?

 

Well the paint job came out great, that's for sure.
You can find the differences between models here. Geometry Geeks
There you can also double check dimensions to make sure what size you have on your hands.
Let me tell you that the bike will fit fine, the stand over hight on this frame is pretty generous, the question is if the fit will work for the type of use it will see. For example, for modern XC and XCM riding the M sized frame should be fine (great bike for that IME). If you are looking for a playful bike to jump at a park or something like that then it will probably feel big.

ps: did you check if the info on Spec's website show the frame size? I'd thought it should. My serial number wiped off pretty quickly from pushing bottles in and out so I can't check that.

 

The paint job turned out amazing; I’m so happy and can’t wait to see it fully assembled, even though it will still take a few months since I plan to build it with mid-to-high-end components to bring the weight down to 9–9.5 kg.
As for the type of riding, it’ll mainly be XC with some moderately technical terrain, which is what concerns me (because of the high top tube). However, it won’t be anything too extreme and definitely no jumps.
Regarding the serial number, in my case, it doesn’t show the size, but I was able to quickly verify it by measuring some parts of the frame and comparing them to the geometry on sites like Geometry Geeks. There’s no doubt that it’s a size M frame.

 

irockzle


At you height I wouldnt use a M size for any type of riding. Maybe try to solve this situation with the seller

 

Really? You think 1 cm makes that big a difference?
That turns out to be like .5 cm in stand over hight and less than that on reach.

 

Actually, some Specialized sites say 165, others say 168, etc. I haven't really tried it and I can't try it yet, it's going to be a few months before I have it assembled, I say this more with respect to other M sizes in other brands that I've tried, I didn't feel comfortable, but they weren't bikes that I've had either, I just had a few minutes of trouble, maybe getting used to it won't be a problem, the question I'm asking is more oriented to a person of my height who uses size M, I just want to know your opinion hehe

 

I won't sell it anyway, I hope the size isn't a problem, I really like the frameset and I live in a country where they aren't sold, it cost me a lot to buy and import this one hahaha, I will sell it if it is really too big for me, otherwise it's not an option

 

You should be fine on a medium or small bike. Your right between sizes. I have same issue between medium and large frames and fit both. My chisel is a medium and my epic is a large and its was just a 20 mm stem change to make either fit just right.

 

I have had good luck with DT Swiss tape. I use DT Swiss for most of the wheels I build. I also really like Tesa rim tape. Tesa tape is all black and it’s what Industry Nine uses for their wheels. You can buy it from Industry nine for a good price.

 

Thanks both, easy to clean off clothes and easy to change (every 6 months is fine) is really what I want

 

To my experience yellow tape of any brand works the best.


Years later I came to some information explaining why. It can be on some SILCA video but it was nice coincidence.

For the sealant, if you are racer, go with "RACE" sealant of any brand (stance is among the better ones). You can put small amount, it will clog the hole very very fast, but the life time will be very short. If not take care regularly it will dry and stick to the inside. Its hard to remove it afterwards.

However, racers do change tires ofter, at least per race so... it works OK. For casual rider, not so much.

I (a weekend warrior) am very happy with MucOff sealant, it lasts 6 months without drying inside, its easy to clean the tires. But its hard to clean the clothes if get sprayed on.
Also I have heard very good things about Efetto Mariposa sealants in my club (especially with the additives).

 

This is my 2023 Chisel, size large. I built it for classic xc style riding, but use it for everything from blacks to gravel.

2025 Fox 32 SC Performance
Hunt race XC Wheels
Vittoria Barzo/Mezcal
Oneup V3 dropper
Raceface aeffect crank
32t wolftooth oval
Microshift advent x shifting
Microshift Sword 11-38t cassette
KMC X10SL chain
Crankbrothers stamp 3 pedals
Enve M5 bars
Enve alloy stem 65mm
Hope dropper lever
Magura trail sport brakes
WTB Volt chromoly saddle
Deity grips
Enve bottle cages

There's still a few changes I want to make before I call it done, but it's pretty darn close right now. Sitting at 24lbs as you see it.

 

What a rich build. Very interesting looking bike.

 

Hello people!
last update. Couldn't stop changing...Fox Transfer SL and Swatbox - its wider than the bottom tube, but has everything you need, including tool. Saddle is Ergon carbon rails 180 gr, mabye this is next.