Specialized Releases Artsy Limited-Edition Chisel Framesets
The Earth design
Specialized has pursued an unprecedented level of artistry with the new Chisel LTD frameset, which aims to represent the elements of earth, air, fire, and water in four colorways. The theme and inspiration, according to Specialized, is the idea that the natural world is decaying as the digital world expands, hence the series name Disrupting the Decay.
From the Specialized website:
 | Just as the Chisel rides a thin ribbon of dirt through the landscape, we are riding a thin line between a physical and digital reality in our daily lives–a line that is becoming increasingly blurred every day. As our natural world decays and our digital world continues to expand, we challenge you to question the relationship of the two with our latest Artist Series – Disrupt the Decay. We used the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water as inspiration to push against the digital world to create four unique, limited-edition Chisel frames that beg the question, “Where does one world end and the other begin? |
The Chisel is the Epic Hardtail’s alloy sister but has marginally more aggressive numbers than the race-bred carbon version. It has internal cable routing, BSA bottom bracket threading, and 12x148 rear hub spacing. Each frame comes with a coffee-table book that showcases the art and thought processes of the artists.
The Air design
Specialized explains each design:
EARTH: The subdued colors on the Earth frame are inspired by the ceramic-like tones and textures of the desert landscape interrupted with a digital glitch effect, creating a gap in the information. The glitch appears on areas of the seatstay and the collage photography of the seat tube.
AIR: The luminous wash on the Air frame symbolizes the fog rolling over the hills off the Pacific colliding with Silicon Valley. Just as the fog envelopes you in the natural world, the digital world can also envelope you in its technicolor infinity, which is represented in the colorful and glitch-filled logos.
FIRE: Fire can be overwhelming and creates a barrier, with only small gaps between the flames to pass through. Similarly, digital firewalls are a barrier, only allowing small pieces of data to pass through. Reflective foil pieces under red tint on the Fire frame represent data passing through, while the Chisel graphic on the seat tube melts from the heat of fire.
WATER: The flowing layers of color on the Water frame are inspired by the shifting blues of Icelandic lakes. This flow also takes place in the digital world through the binary code of 1’s and 0’s. Binary 1’s and 0’s create the Specialized downtube logo and the S head tube badge. When translated to English, the binary reads “Nature Digital Nature Digital…” over and over again.
EARTH: The subdued colors on the Earth frame are inspired by the ceramic-like tones and textures of the desert landscape interrupted with a digital glitch effect, creating a gap in the information. The glitch appears on areas of the seatstay and the collage photography of the seat tube.
AIR: The luminous wash on the Air frame symbolizes the fog rolling over the hills off the Pacific colliding with Silicon Valley. Just as the fog envelopes you in the natural world, the digital world can also envelope you in its technicolor infinity, which is represented in the colorful and glitch-filled logos.
FIRE: Fire can be overwhelming and creates a barrier, with only small gaps between the flames to pass through. Similarly, digital firewalls are a barrier, only allowing small pieces of data to pass through. Reflective foil pieces under red tint on the Fire frame represent data passing through, while the Chisel graphic on the seat tube melts from the heat of fire.
WATER: The flowing layers of color on the Water frame are inspired by the shifting blues of Icelandic lakes. This flow also takes place in the digital world through the binary code of 1’s and 0’s. Binary 1’s and 0’s create the Specialized downtube logo and the S head tube badge. When translated to English, the binary reads “Nature Digital Nature Digital…” over and over again.
The Earth and Air framesets are available now for $1,500 USD, and the Fire and Water designs are expected to become available in June.
Fire
Water
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jesus thats accurate
I'm with @brianpark ...I'm not a roadie and my only Spesh is an all-black AWOL (that I've owned for 4 years already), but some of their road bikes come in some really nifty colourways. And the last Stumpy I looked at on our shop floor was a super-rad blue-cleared carbon. If colour is your dealbreaker then go your own way or grab some Spray.Bike.
Don't get me wrong, I love good kit with good paint jobs, but let's not pretend this was anything more than someone saying "brah! wouldn't it be cool to paint these designs on some of those frames?!?! RAD."
Just make a raw carbon enduro s works frame already
For a non-custom paint job? DAAAAAAMN thats a bad deal. I had almost gotten over hating Specialized but this definitely brings it back. Remember kids, the "S" is for "sucks".