Category Archives: Bike

All this rain has got me going bat shit crazy, but the sun was up so I just had to ride. I went out to Loftus to see how the Chisel would go on Holy Trail. Sadly the trail was pretty damn wet, rocks and roots were slippery AF on these XC tyres and one part of it was 1ft deep. Confidence to do some of the more rocky techy stuff kinda went out the window, but happy to have cleared at least some of the janky features on this trail.

By the end of the ride I was just so happy with the bike.

My cousin Adam was with me, he just bought a second hand Polygon Siskiu T8 so it was awesome to swap bikes throughout the day. He commented that my Chisel felt like riding a road bike haha, and yeah for sure his Polygon felt much more planted and confidence inspiring, mainly because of the higher and wider bars + slacker front end, but the Chisel feels so much lighter, it climbs SO good and accelerates so much faster. Over the janky tech stuff I can actually control, lift and push the bike around so much more, something that I don’t even bother to do on my Amflow e-MTB or Starling Murmur (which is more a case of just commit and plough over shit).

I did get hung up on a rooty section where the front wheel got caught up and shot the rear wheel up in the air. Wouldn’t have happened on a 29er or mullet setup, but that was just one bit of the trail so I think I’ll stick with the smaller wheels front and back.

It’s a confused build for sure. If I put the fat plus sized tyres back on it would have been way better on Holy Trail, but I didn’t build the bike for trails like this! That said, it’s a capable bike and clearing some of the more janky features on it felt so much more rewarding than clearing them on the Amflow.

I think overall the bike has well and truly done what I hoped it would do; and that’s to forever replace a hardtail.

Man SLIK Graphics makes it SO easy hey? Legit you can choose the EXACT same coloiur your bike is via their pulldown menus. In this case, Specialized ION to match my Chisel.

The first set got lost in the mail, well… stolen as DHL’s final leg partner DAI left it out on the street at 11pm at night. I got a full refund from eBay though, and thought I’d try to buy them again through a different eBay store which, after some convincing, agreed to send them via FedEx for signed delivery.

Cranks are 155mm, carbon and made by a Samox. I appreciate that the graphics aren’t over the top, but to make them even more subtle I tracked down some longer crank arm boots from AliExpress and they cover up the “platinum” logotype and graphical stripes which I’m really happy about.

Went out to Loftus today for a shakedown ride and MAN! It’s such a fucking relief to be able to pedal up tech now without pedal strikes. MTX Gold pads are definitely an improvement to initial bite. The new fashion saddle is a pain the ass and I could probably raise it up a little, but apart from that the bike is now super dialled in! I love it!

More style points for the Chisel.

OK, now we’re having fun!

Can’t remove the brake pad pin without removing the entire brake caliper. Sloppy design work here Specialized!

MTX Gold pads which seem to be the most commonly recommended pads for SRAM G2 brakes.

Thanks to O’Spire I got a Media pass thanks which allowed me to shoot everything for an hour before the doors opened to the public. The show is on over the weekend at Carriageworks. For event details, visit: www.spoken.bike

27.5″ Conti Trinotal and Dubnital tyres came in the mail. Was really hesitant to put them on initially as the fat 2.8 and 2.6 Specialized tyres look so rad, have so much traction and felt so cushy out on the trails in comparison to the thin 29″ Specialized Fast Track and Air Track tyres, but since I had them in my hands I thought I might as well at least give them a go.

Turns out what sealant was in the tyres had turned to water and man, just like the super wide Roval CLX II front wheel on my Tarmac SL8, the tyres were near impossible to get on and off these rims. I got the front tyre on AOK, but the rear was a prick and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get the bead to sit so I put the rear Dubnital (which was even harder to get off the rim than on) on a ZEN Carbon Bike rear wheel I had in my parts bin and voila! Went on easy as.

Turns out the ZEN rear wheel is way lighter than the Roval and it’s brought the total weight down to 11.1kg’s. The Conti tyres also don’t look as anemic as I thought they would look with the front Trinotal looking quite round and chunky.

I’m happier with the bike with the smaller wheels. Excited to feel the difference in weight and rolling speed with these vs. the Butcher and Purgatory setup. Still waiting on some much needed shorter cranks to claim back some of the -18mm BB drop.

I suffer from arm pump and being the sucker I am I bought some of these. They look stupid AF as expected, but they feel instantly weird, in a good way! Not ridden the bike with them out on the trails yet, but will do ASAP.