Specialized's New Chisel Shows That Aluminum Isn't Just The Cheap Carbon Version
Always advocates for a good bit of aluminum engineering, Specialized has released the latest version of its popular Chisel cross-country hardtail.
Aluminum often plays second fiddle to carbon fibre composite frames and in many instances it ends up just being the cheap version of the top end fibre-ridden bikes. In reality, it's actually a fantastic material with lots of smart and clever engineering still left in its development. Specialized, amongst others, is one to see this and endeavour to up the level of its aluminum frames.
The Chisel is Specialized's 29" aluminum cross-country focussed hardtail and, while it may be appealing to people more on a budget, that doesn't mean that the frame is lacking in technology.
Frame weight is claimed to be as low as 1,400g. This starts to embarrass other companies carbon fibre offerings and actually comes in at only 610g heavier than the brands own Epic hardtail, which has a claimed frame weight of 790g. Weight claims are currently not allocated to a particular frame size or which bits of hardware are included. Either way, it shows how good aluminum can be if you develop a bike with this material as the focus.
The Smartweld idea uses extra forming on the tubes allowing them to piece together like a jigsaw and provide a natural cup for the weld to sit in, smoothing out the finished welded surface.
Specialized employed its Smartweld idea to the Chisel to use more complex tube forming and welding techniques to remove as much excess material as possible while boosting the overall look of the junctions to be smoother and cleaner. This can be most notably seen on a cross section through the headtube, top tube and down tube junction when compared to a more traditional tube forming and welding technique. It even extends to the internal cable routing entry on the downtube which, when finished, sits completely flush with the tube surface and hides the small forged part on the inside of the tube.
Specialized also sought to increase the comfort of the hardtail structure, with attention paid to the shape of the seat stay tubes to allow them to flex to provide some impact absorption while staying stiff in the directions of loads coming from cornering or hard pedalling.
The Chisel has all internal cable routing and uses a 30.9mm diameter seat post which opens it up to the possibility of running a dropper post. Frames also have two water bottle mount possibilities and lovers of threads can rejoice at the inclusion of a threaded bottom bracket too.
Also related to the Epic is the geometry, with the Chisel seeing much of the same flavours that were recently added to the Epic with changes in head angle, lengthened reach numbers and altered BB heights.
Five sizes from XS to XL are available ranging from 385mm to 480mm reach with a 68° head angle, a 74° seat angle and 432mm chain stays. BB drop is a tiny bit lower, at 68mm, on the XS compared to 63mm on the remaining sizes. The XS also uses an 80mm travel fork compared to the 100mm on the other sizes, likely done to help drop the stack height for the smallest of riders.
There are two build options available for the new Chisel. The Comp uses a RockShox Judy Gold, a Shimano 12-speed drivetrain with a mix of SLX and MT511, Shimano M6100 two-piston brakes, Shimano MT410 hubs on 25mm inner width rims clad in Specialized Fast Track 2.3" tyres. It retails for $1,700 USD or £1,699.
The Base uses a RockShox Judy Silver, a Shimano Deore 12-speed drivetrain with Specialized Stout Pro cranks, Shimano M4100 two-piston brakes, Shimano MT410 hubs on 25mm inner width rims clad in Specialized Fast Track 2.3" tyres. It retails for $1,500 USD or £1,399.
A frame only option is available for $900 USD and includes the seatpost. All bikes and frames are available now.
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@Poulsbojohnny : If you're serious about saving weight, you're going to wear lightweight garment too. Lycra is light weight but bodypaint beats them all.
I prefer aluminum frames (I also have an alloy Patrol), but got the Throttle since the geo suited me and it was on sale.
Also, XT most certainly isn't any higher quality than GX. Both are absolute workhorse drivetrains that last for ages. Pick your poison, but you're havin' a laugh to flatly say one is better. Your previous rhetoric alone kinda indicates you're more on the fanboy side of things.
What is really noticeable is the different gearing. On SRAM, the second biggest cog is a 42. On Shimano its a 45. That 45t is great for climbs when you want a little more power that your giant 51 bailout. That 42 is way down from the 50 though so it is much less useful. The new 52t SRAM cassettes probably make this even worse.
And then article shows that it actually is.
Geo looks like it would also work great with a 120mm fork. Nice low BB, 67HA, 73 SA
This bike ticks the boxes for NICA, and anyone’s first bike for XC trails.
Just look at the rear triangle of the Cannondale Slate in the pictures underneath for example, it's an (actually great working) piece of art, which makes this Chisel look like a B'twin.
Also the frame only on this aluminum Slate only weighs 1250g, al though you can't compare the weight of a 650b gravel frame to a 29er xc frame.
Top view: www.roadbikereview.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/slate25.jpg
Side view: media.flowmountainbike.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/08123844/LOW0213.jpg
Interested to find out how they isolated impacts and cornering... Impact forces tend to want to move both dropouts upward, and cornering tends to force one dropout upward and the other downward. If they're allowing the vertical compliance for impact absorption, how does that vertical compliance not compromise cornering stiffness? It doesn't seem to have an oversized axle or anything to more firmly link the two sides together.
Is is really forged? Forging is usually reserved for pieces that need extra strength, and I don't think a cable guide applies. Not to mention that forging though-holes is quite expensive, that part is usually done with post-forging machining, and for a small piece like that, one would think the entire piece would be machined in batches.
That 76mm BCD silliness? I thought they were done with that stuff. Also, those sure look like 2x cranks, with holes for mounting a granny ring. Will it fit a bashguard?
It was a size medium frame, hope this help.
Anyways it´s still an awesome bike.
I’m beginning to wonder if there is more pro-industry incentivization or brand support/loyalty than is publicly shared/known. In US medicine we have a tool to track this; would be nice to see more transparency in this area for bikes.
Better options would be the Trek Procaliber 9.5 or the Scott Scale 940. Both have a carbon frame, about the same components and are only 200$ more expensive than this. I'd buy one of those instead, if I wanted a cheap, race-ready hardtail.
Just, you should add a hyperlink to the specialized website
should have a version that is step cast fox 34 120mm, single speed and to ride it to the top of the podium
i like the NICA comments!
hell no!!! im buying a honzo st $550$ with $1000 wheels instead and if they really don't want SS, ha cotic solaris or even a stanton sherpa!!!!!!!!!
the boys will have way more fun and blow the socks off ya because their doing SS during the winter with sweet ass wheel set and fork that can keep up!!!
The fuse is a great bike, but it s a trail Hardtail, not a race bike.
grad gegen gecheckt, wo willst du da bitte ein specialized fuse als verfügbar sehen? bitte mit link, danke...
The equivalent of NICA in France has all of the different disciplines.