Long story short; I miss my old 2008 Giant Reign and once a week I ride with my old mate Eugene who refuses to get a new bike and insists on riding his 26″ bikes. (I’ve know him since we were 3 and he got me into mountain biking in 1990). I figure there was an opportunity to build up a 26″ bike to level out the playing field a little when riding with him (IE: ride slower ).

I’ve done a lot of research over the past few months, watched a lot of YouTube vids, admittedly wasted some people’s time on FB Marketplace (BAD!), posted on reddit as well as here. I came really close to buying an awesome Banshee Spitfire and I had just given up on finding a Yeti SB66 as they never pop up on FB Marketplace or eBay, but yesterday an SB66 popped up on eBay Australia, sadly it was a size large.

Brian Cahal’s review of the SB6.

QuarterHP vid on the SB66.

I spent the entire day out West shooting cars at JDMyard and halfway through the day I got a PM from a Rotorburn Forum member Haylex who was wondering if I’d be interested in buying his SB66 frame in size medium which he’s had sitting in a box for the last 10 years. I think I went Interstellar. The right colour, the right size, the power of manifestation! I was spiritualized. We’ve agreed on a price (frame is interstate), and it turns out Haylex is also a car guy. He sent me through some images of his highly modified EG6 and I fucking remember it from back in the JDMST Forum days! What’s even more wild is that he has a JDMyard sticker on his car and I was at JDMyard at the time. Can’t help but feel this was all meant to be

Haylex’s EG6.

Love Haylex’s backstory on the bike too. He bought it as a frame new in 2014 after watching Jared Graves nearly win the 2013 world champs in South Africa on one. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I vaguely remember a video where they did a bike check on Jared’s bike and it was running a 180mm fork for DH races?! I’ve found old threads on MTBR where owners at the time thought that 150mm was the more balanced option, and even someone at Yeti suggesting that a 160mm fork worked for him, but probably wouldn’t work best for most people. I’m pretty keen to get a 160mm fork on it though.

Anyways, super chuffed! I was having such a rad day shooting out at JDMyard and Autoroe yesterday and getting Haylex’s PM was the icing on the cake! Can’t understate how pumped I am to get the frame in the signature Yeti turquoise. That colour has always been the dream and I wouldn’t ever consider buying a Yeti that wasn’t a Turq no matter how good the deal. Frame is not in my hands yet (first photo is a shot Haylex just took last night) so first step is to get the frame, put it in the stand in my lounge room and like a blank canvas, live with it for a bit to let the ideas flow.

Interestingly I’ve been chatting to a fellow Weight Weenie forum member on Discord who says they’re quite unwanted in the UK and widely available on FB Marketplace. He sent me through a fair few listings.

JOIN: https://jdmst.cc

Weighed as a mullet setup with a 29″ front wheel and 27.5 rear wheel. Over-forked in this setup and it’s thrown the geometry out by quite a lot. Super steep fire road climbs are harder now (have to put a lot of weight over the front wheel but also noticing the rear wheel slipping) but I like how it rides down the steeper techy stuff!

My ZEN Carbon Bike 27.5″ front wheel finally came in, and it’s super light at 589g, but with a heavier front tyre the weight comes to the same weight as the mullet setup (only 10g heavier). Swapping out the front wheel is easy as so I expect the run a full 27.5″ setup from time to time.

SPECS:

2025 Specialized Chisel – Rebel Pink Tint Organic Brushed / Satin Ion Metallic / Size S

Headset: Works Components ZS44-ZS56 Angle Headset -1° (102g)
Derailleur Hanger: SRAM UDH (26g)
Fork: Fox 36 Float SL Factory Shiny Orange 140mm + Kabolt SL axle (1745g)
Fork Top Caps: Better Bolts Orange (+1g)
Shock: Fox Factory FLOAT SL EVOL SV 190 x 40mm (249g)
Shifter: SRAM NX Eagle (112g)
Derailleur: SRAM GX Eagle (300g)
Chain: SRAM GX (244g)
Crankset: Samox Platinum TM-1 Carbon 155mm (378g)
Crank Arm Boots: Viaron (19g)
Chainring: Race Face 30T (63g)
BB: SRAM DUB (76g)
Pedals: HT Components ME03 (263g)
Brakes: SRAM G2 RS + MTX Gold pads (260g/280g)
Brake Caliper Bolts: Wanfiya titanium (-18g)
Brake Rotors: Trickstuff Ultralight 180/160 (119g/87g)
Rotor Adapters: Chaser 6-bolt to centrelock (8g/8g)
Seatpost: OneUp Dropper 120mm 30.9mm + Ti bolts (364g)
Seatpost Clamp: Hy 34.9 (9g)
Dropper Lever: OneUp (24g)
Saddle: Berk Dila 140mm (105g)
Handlebar: Procraft PRC Carbon 31.8 x 760mm 9° (136g)
Grips: Procraft Superlite + bar end plugs (20g)
Stem: Kalloy UNO 60mm + Ti bolts (74g)
Top Cap + Bolt: (4g)
Bottle Cage: Celoco + Ti bolts (9g)
Tools: Daysaver Essential8 + Carrier mount + bolts (40g)
Cassette: ZTTO SLR Gen3 Ultimate 10-50T XD (297g)
Sealant: Silca Ultimate (90g)
Front Wheel: DT Swiss XMC 1200 Spline, DT180 (650g)
Front Tyre: Specialized Fast Trak Flex Lite T5/T7 TLR 29×2.35 (633g)
Rear Wheel: ZEN Carbon Bike 27.5″ (689g)
Rear Tyre: Continental Dubnital 27.5 x 2.4 Rapid Trail (647g)
Ratchet: Goldix 60T helical ratchet (14g)
Valves: CushCore/Muc-Off 44mm (10/6g)
Rotor Lockrings: Chaser/7075-T651 (5g/3g)
Rotor Lockrings: 7075-T651 (3g/3g)

WEIGHT: 10.90kg
Original Weight: 13.51kg

27.5″ Setup:
Front Wheel: ZEN Carbon Bike (589g)
Front Tyre: Continental Trinotal 27.5 x 2.4 Grip Trail (702g)
Rear Wheel: ZEN Carbon Bike 27.5″ (689g)
Rear Tyre: Continental Dubnital 27.5 x 2.4 Rapid Trail (647g)
Ratchet: Goldix 60T helical ratchet (14g)
Valves: Muc-Off 44mm (12g)
Rotor Lockrings:7075-T651 (3g/3g)
WEIGHT: 10.9kg

Mullet Setup:
Front Wheel: DT Swiss XMC 1200 Spline, DT180 (650g)
Front Tyre: Specialized Fast Trak Flex Lite T5/T7 TLR 29×2.35 (633g)
Rear Wheel: ZEN Carbon Bike 27.5″ (689g)
Rear Tyre: Continental Dubnital 27.5 x 2.4 Rapid Trail (647g)
Ratchet: Goldix 60T helical ratchet (14g)
Valves: CushCore/Muc-Off 44mm (10/6g)
Rotor Lockrings: Chaser/7075-T651 (5g/3g)
WEIGHT: 10.9kg

29″ Setup:
Front Wheel: DT Swiss XMC 1200 Spline, DT180 (650g)
Front Tyre: Specialized Fast Trak Flex Lite T5/T7 TLR 29×2.35 (633g)
Rear Wheel: DT Swiss XMC 1200 Spline, DT180 (835g)
Rear Tyre: Specialized Air Trak Flex Lite T5/T7 TLR 29×2.35, (617g)
Valves: CushCore 44mm (20g)
Rotor Lockrings: Chaser (5g/5g)
WEIGHT: 11.0kg

Fucking LOL my cousin forgot to bring his shoes so he rode in his slippers. I made sure to point this out to all riders we came across today for the lols. #SOASIAN

Better bolts Fox fork top caps in orange and a FOX Factory FLOAT SL EVOL SV 190 x 40mm which I picked up from CCACHE today. The FOX is 88g lighter than the RockShox Deluxe Select+, should be a bit more plush too!

Link: https://www.vitalmtb.com/community/justinfox/cannondale-super-v-active-3000

Photos from last night’s 2nd JDMST.CC EOMM at Entertainment Quarter. Sadly the carpark was full, but the few of us that were there hit the pub for a beer and some food. Lots of laughs, great vibes! Thanks to all who came out!

Just a before and after of a stock 2026 Specialized Chisel FS 29er in size small vs. my bike with 27.5″ wheels front and back, 140mm fork and angleset.

I used a piece of string tied to the seatpost to eye and mark where centre was to align the cups.

Rode Loftus with Eugene yesterday. Was good to get Eugene’s opinion on the build as he’s ridden my other bikes and always found 29ers to feel too big.

He loved the Chisel. In his words it was crazy light, wants to get airborne off everything. Super efficient. Climbed like a goat.

I think we both agree that 27.5″ feels more like a spiritual successor to 26″, and a lot more like 26″ than 29″

All that said I came home to a package from Great Britain. A Works Components Angled Headset which slackens (or steepens!) the head tube angle by 1°.

I thought about not installing it as I’m happy with how the bike rides as is, but it’s here now, and hey I’m all for experimentation so I got it on.

The Chisel now has a 65° HTA (67° stock with 29er wheelset), 75.7° STA (+0.2°), -1.5mm reach, +10.9mm wheelbase and -1.8mm BB Height.

I doubt I’ll feel a radical difference, and if there is a difference I’m sure I’ll adapt to it pretty quickly.

Was a bit muddy out there.

Screenshot

I rode the Epic yesterday, today I took my Chisel out for a back to back comparo.

Lots of PR’s!

Put 40mm risers bars on and yup. It’s pretty much a trail bike now, albeit a really light and poppy one! Comparing Strava data to yesterday’s ride on the same loop with Gina’s 29er Epic EVO I was more than 2km/hr average faster on the Chisel with the smaller 27.5″ wheels. What’s interesting is that I got 4 PR’s (got none yesterday on the Epic), of note a PR on the 3 minute Kirrawee Burning Legs Climb.

I think the data (I have a lot of it now) is confirming that I just don’t make enough power to make the most out of bigger 29″ wheels and I especially struggle to crank the bigger wheels (and weight as my Starling Murmur is almost 5kg heavier than my Chisel and the Epic is 2kg heavier) up tech features vs. shifting my body weight to more easily shove the Chisel up the technical stuff with the smaller wheels.

I hate the matchy matchy grips to pedals that most people do to their bikes, but the orange fork on this pink bike is doing my head in so I’m trying everything (in this case some matchy grips and heavy alloy bars). Functionally the bike is awesome, but visually I think it looks like balls. Keen to try some higher riser bars though, could be even more fun!