As someone who failed at math so bad in school that I opted out of math as an elective altogether in year 12 I sometimes surprise myself.

The 27.5″ wheelset has obviously completely altered the Chisel’s geometry (not that I really care as the bike feels great to ride!), but curiosity and the savage -18mm bottom bracket height (more pedal strikes) on the smaller wheels got the better of me so I sought to correct it.

This geometry calculator made it easy for me to figure things out (it even lets me enter in the 51 fork offset of the current forks vs. 44 offset of my other forks).

With my 140mm Fox 36 SL fork from my Torrent hardtail replacing the 120mm SID the geometry is looking much more like a standard non EVO Chisel. The BB height is still lower, but I gain 5mm more height from putting the flip chip in the high position and also a few mm from the super fat tyres.

I’ve got the Fox 36 SL on now (easy swap thanks to split crown race on both forks). The orange is OTT (too much IMHO), the steerer tube is WAY too long too (will not cut until I’m sure) but the 36 is only 143g heavier than the SID which is surprising.

Keen to get out and test this setup some time this week!

Rolling Resistance – I thought slower grippier and more aggressive tyres made a huge difference to rolling resistance, but I put some Forekasters on the Starling (which are known for being faster rolling than an Assegai) and the Starling just felt sluggish to me on my first outing. One my second outing with the Starling I was with a mate who was on an old 26″ bike. We swapped bikes a few times. His old bike felt like a race car. The Starling felt like a powerful luxury car. No doubt about it, the Starling rolled faster but it didn’t feel faster.

27.5″ vs 29″ – For the record I’ve never gotten along with 29″ wheels. I’ve always felt like they make a bike feel like a tank. I gave up on them years ago and stuck with 26″ up until late last year when I bought my 1st new MTB since my 2008 Giant Reign. Since then I’ve had an Amflow (settled on mullet and I love it), 2 x Norco Torrent Hardtails (tried both in mullet and 29″ front and back) and the Starling Murmur (29″ front and back).

Today I felt that sluggish feeling again on the Chisel with a 29″ wheelset. It wasn’t the tyres, it’s the wheel size. I failed to get up a pinchy tech climb that I easily got up yesterday on the 27.5″ setup because I lost momentum and I didn’t have enough power to crank it up. I think there’s something in this. IE: I don’t make enough power to get the most out of a 29″ setup. I feel that as soon as I slow down the bike asks me for more power to get the wheels moving and each pedal stroke just feels more laboured than when I am on the 27.5″ setup. Fire trails are where I like to recover. On the 27.5″ setup I can just spin (I’m a spinner more than a grinder), but on the 29″ setup I feel like I need to get it up to a certain speed in order to spin.

Frame Size – One thing for sure is that I’m really happy to have sized down to a small frame from a medium. The 27.5″ felt really playful yesterday but way less playful on the 29″ setup today. The bike felt more like any other bike to me today with the bigger wheels. Yes I could bomb down the rocky descents more comfortably with the 29″ wheels, but the bigger wheels just make the whole bike feel bigger.

Strava – looking at the data from yesterday’s ride and today’s ride my average speed was 1.6km/hr faster on the 29″ vs the 27.5″ setup but I was still faster on the tech climbs with the 27.5″ setup, but overall I got a PR for Cliff Trail so I was faster on the Chisel with 29″ wheels than the Starling or the Torrent hardtails. So no doubt about it the 29″ setup is faster but I also feel way more wrecked after today’s ride than yesterday’s ride.

OK that’s my brain dump. My brain is fried and I’m quite confused. I don’t race. I make little power and I just want this bike to be super fun so I’m going to stick with the 27.5″ setup. The smaller wheels lower the BB by a huge 18mm. I can put the flip chip in the high position to get 5mm back. I’m already running HT pedals which have a super low stack height. The massive 2.8/2.6 Specialized tyres measure 5mm taller than the 2.35 Hans Dampfs but I’d low this 5mm if I went for some fast rolling XC tyres (not that I need them as the bike just feels so fast on these fat tyres but I am curious). If I was to get some 160mm cranks I’d actually have more clearance than the stock 29″ setup but the only 160mm crankset as light as my 170 SRAM XX1 Eagle Carbon cranks are the Race Face Era SL’s which are damn expensive. That said, as a weight weenie it hurts me to say this, but maybe I’m starting to believe that weight doesn’t really matter as the bike just felt so much more fun on the smaller wheels (heavier setup by 200g).

The boys from Specialized did an awesome job of packing the bike in that they made it very easy for me to rip all the protection from the frame and components.

First thing I swapped out was the short 40mm stem for an 80mm Kalloy UNO stem I had in the parts bin. Reach is now actually longer than my Amflow (which I feel most dialled in on fit wise). I’ve got a lot of stems with different angles and lengths and these bars have been cut down to 700mm, so I’ll take my time to get the fit right.

Ergonomically I like these short levers. They’re very similar to the Magura MT7’s which I like, but these feel very squishy.

Fat 2.8 tyre up front.

Roval Traverse SL Fattie 27.5″ carbon wheelset.

NX shifter, GX mech. I don’t mind the NX shifter, it’s the lightest out of all the mechanical 12-Speed SRAM shifters and feels so clicky and direct in comparison to the Shimano XT shifter on my Starling.

Bike came with a super heavy and short 100mm TranzX Dropper. The strange thing is the end of the cable is on the lever side. I’ll most probably look into a longer and lighter dropper later on.

FFS another bike? I need to get an N+1 tattoo ASAP, but seriously, building bikes and new bike day makes me happy; I get to research the shit out of parts, flex my creativity, problem solve, shoot and document the build process and best of all I get to ride and tune the build to gain more experience too.

Before buying the Amflow e-MTB I was looking at a Specialized Stumpjumper (I’ve looked into them ever since to be honest), but at some stage I came across the Specialized Chisel, found one on sale that was available in a light grey colour which I liked that was listed as “in stock” at a local bike shop. I called the shop to ask if I could pick it up that day but they put me on hold for ages only to tell me they’d call me back ASAP.

That ASAP never came that day. I called them the next day only to have them tell me that sorry, but they couldn’t find one in stock (grrr!), so very soon after that I bought the Amflow.

I’ve been on again off again about owning a short travel dual suspension MTB for a while now. There seems to be a few niche bikes which tickle my fancy, that being a short travel bike that’s designed to be most of all fun to ride as opposed to built for outright speed. The latest Santa Cruz Tallboy is even marketed as “the downhiller’s XC bike”. Marketing talk which I feel is aimed directly at me.

Whilst a friend is trying to get me an insider quote on a Tallboy frameset I’ve been looking deeper into a Chisel. Why? Well it’s an aluminium frame instead of carbon and because I expect to play harder on a playful bike I also expect to drop it more (I’m fine with carbon for road bikes, but I suffer from carbon paranoia when it comes to mountain biking). The Chisel is also very light (in typical Spesh marketing they’re claiming that it’s the lightest aluminium dual suspension frame in the world) and it’s affordable. Above all it has that underdog vibe that I get off on.

The Chisel is basically an aluminium Specialized Epic and like the older Epic 8, they offer it in an EVO model too with a longer 130mm fork. Spesh state that the max fork for the Chisel is 130mm, which on the Epic being a carbon frame I’d abide by, but I weigh 60kg’s so I’d be more than willing to overfork an aluminium Chisel with the FOX 36 SL fork currently on my Norco Torrent hardtail (which is up for sale).

I was thinking I could put everything I’ve got on my Torrent onto a Chisel frameset. The 140mm fork, carbon cranks, carbon rims, etc. The build would come out to about 11kg’s (which is wild as the Torrent’s final weight is 12.56kg’s). Not batshit crazy light like the S-Works Epic 9 LTD which weighs in at an impressive 8.5kg’s claimed weight, but a weight I know I’d appreciate out on the trails.

The Chisel frameset sells for $3,200 AUD RRP but I spotted a size medium for sale interstate at BAM Cycles for $2,760 shipped. I let it marinate in the cart for 2 days but thought I’d search Facebook Marketplace for a Chisel and I found an as new complete custom build for $3,300. I have a thing for finding second hand bikes in as new condition I swear! This seller says she’d only ever ridden it once.

Couple of things though, it was a size small and it was interstate. I thought I’d reach out anyways as we had a shared friend who I met when I used to work at MC Cyclery many many many years ago. We talked about a frame only option, but in the end I made an offer for the whole bike as is with shipping and she accepted. Aw shit, here we go again!

So in the end I got a complete bike for just a little over the price of a new frameset. Pretty happy with that as I get to ride the bike first and mod it as I go. I’m not at all worried about it being a size small as I really miss my size small Giant Reign (and my 15″ GT Avalanche is a hoot to ride!). I appreciate the stability that I get from my medium sized Amflow and Starling Murmur, but I think sizing down for a bike made specifically to be poppy, agile, playful and fun makes sense and will feel like home.

PS: Turns out the lady I bought the bike from works for Specialized. Quite embarrassing as I did pay out Spesh in our earlier chats for being overpriced on their framesets a few times when negotiating price on the bike!

She’s built it out with 27.5″ Roval Traverse SL Fattie carbon rims with huge 2.8 front and 2.6 rear tyres. Pretty rad as I skipped the whole 27.5″ craze and went straight to 29″ from 26″.

The plan from here, in no particular order, is to get the fit dialled in, weenie it a little, ride it as is to experience what a full 27.5″ setup feels like I want to get my lightweight 29″ carbon DT Swiss wheelset on it too with some fast rolling XC tyres (and if I don’t like that I can always go back to the 27.5″ setup, or mullet?!).

SPECS:

2025 Specialized Chisel Size S

Fork: Rockshox SID Ultimate RLC with 120mm (1501g)
Shock: RockShox Deluxe Select+ 190x40mm (340g)
Wheelset: Roval Traverse SL Fattie, DT240 internals, 54T (1550g)
Tyres: 27.5 2.8 Butcher Grid Trail T7 (1100g) / 2.6 Purgatory Grid (970g)
Crankset: SRAM XX1 Eagle Carbon 170mm (358g)
Chainring: Race Face 30T (63g)
Pedals: HT Components ME03 Alloy (263g)
BB: SRAM DUB (76g)
Derailleur: SRAM GX Eagle (290g)
Shifter: NX Eagle shifter (112g)
Cassette: PG-1230 Eagle 11-50 (615g)
Chain: GX chain (244g)
Brakes: SRAM G2 RS (260g/280g)
Brake Rotors: SRAM Centreline 180mm/160mm (141g/114g)
Seatpost: TranzX Dropper 100mm 30.9mm (580g)
Saddle: WTB Volt Carbon (161g)
Handlebar: Crank Brothers Cobalt 3 700mm (270g)
Grips: SRP (17g)
Stem: Kalloy UNO 80mm (90g)
Spacers: Carbon 10mm (2g)
Top Cap + Bolt (9g)

WEIGHT: 13.18kg
Original Weight: 13.51kg

She’s an early riser, but that’s OK! This old man is up anyways!

Took the Starling out to Loftus with Eugene who was on his old school 26″ TREK Y Frame and we did the 16km XC loop through to Engadine and back (mostly single track and fire trail). Just wanted to share some thoughts.

I was wrong about the coil shock feeling just like the air shock. The air shock just feels way more squishy, and the coil feels much more invisible. When I’m just pedalling at slow speeds I can look down and see the coil compressing with every single pedal stroke, but it’s only compressing a very small amount and I can’t feel it compressing or robbing me of energy. Where my Amflow feels like full squish, the Starling feels like my hardtail with suspension. Sounds silly, but the Starling just seems to mute everything without feeling squishy.

The Lyrik is amazing. I’ve always run Fox forks, but this thing is so active and plush on the small bump stuff. I was surprised at the end of the ride to find that I used up most of the travel too (not even possible for me on my Fox 36). Checking to see if my headset is loose is impossible with this fork without locking it out because when you hold the front brake and push down in the slightest the fork dips (VERY smoothly too).

The bike still feels heavy and sluggish but I managed to make it up the steepest fire road climbs without issues. Surprised me as I 100% thought I’d be walking up them. I was in the very lightest gear, but in that gear (30/50) the bike was happy to just slowly get to the top. I think the weight of the bike plus the muted ride feel and how silent the bike is are it’s main characteristics, but it’s got really fast steering, changes direction really well on single trail, plenty of grip on fast corners and small berms. It’s an interesting ride.

Eugene and I swapped bikes, man his Trek was a hoot! Full XC race position with arms locked out, the thin tyres and tiny wheels made it feel like a road bike on the trails. Unlike the Starling you could feel every single bit of the trail, and it felt super efficient too. Hopping back on the Starling I instantly felt that muted and heavy sensation again, but it rolls way faster than the Trek with less effort which further confirmed the Starling’s characteristics for me.

Eugene hasn’t owned a modern MTB yet, but he’s ridden my Norco and Amflow. His thoughts on the Starling were that the steering is damn fast and the ride was smooth and stable. The position was wild to him. He felt like he was leaning forwards so much more. He really loved the Starling and said the Amflow felt more like a tank in comparison.

I did notice that when we swapped bikes he pulled away from me. He’s a super strong rider (I average 30km/hr at Centennial Park on the roadie, he averages 35km/hr) so I think I just need to get stronger to get more out of the Starling so I can get into a heavier gear to get the bike moving.

We were having such a chill ride and so happy to be out on the trails (only shit thing that happened was running into a group of 4 old guys on e-MTB’s and the guy on an Amflow yelled out “time to get a real bike mate!” to my mate). The Starling rolls fast but it doesn’t feel fast. It’s not a rapid, poppy and nimble machine. It gets off the ground OK, but I’ve really got to work to get it off the ground. My hardtail feels faster, but Strava shows that I’m faster on the Starling with 4 PR’s on yesterday’s ride (and we were just chatting and chilling the whole way). All that said, the second (and much longer) ride on the Starling was great!

Featured on The Radavist Readers’ Rides: https://theradavist.com/readers-rides-justins-starling-murmur-v3

Fixed up my friend Abi’s Merida Juliet so we can get it up on FB Marketplace. She paid 99 Bikes $1,000 for a service (insane!), and recently her rear derailleur snapped. Thinking she would have to fork out another insane amount of money to get the bike back on the road for her next triathlon she instead bought a new bike, which she did not have to do as a new derailleur hanger costs only $40.

It’s a great little bike worth saving so I’ve replaced the bent derailleur hanger with a new one. Turns out the rear derailleur cage was bent so I also replaced the entire rear derailleur with a brand new one. I’ve also put new bar tape on as well as a new specialized Power saddle.

Nick and I dropped in to check out O’Spire in Mosman as they’re officially open now. The shop is looking really fleshed out! Lots of awesome trick bits on display too so be sure to drop in: 57 Harbour Street, Mosman, NSW 2088.

Bit of a muddy one, but absolutely had to get out there this morning to avoid a mental breakdown.

I had the fork and shock set up with the default settings. The coil feels great, but no better or worse than the Fox Float X Factory on my Amflow. The Lyrik however does feel way more plush than my Fox 36 Factory forks on the Amflow. I think the Lyrik works better for my 60kg weight (I have an issue where when I drop pressure on my Fox fork for a more plush ride I lose fork travel).

The bike is VERY quiet! No rattles, the drivetrain is dead silent in every gear and the Project 321 hubs are more quiet and a make a lower note than the Industry Nine Hydra2 hubs on my Amflow (which for this bike, I like!). The bike is very stable over roots and rocks. It climbs really well up tech when out of the saddle but man I can feel the weight of the bike. IE: I’m just not strong or fit enough to get up all the stuff I can get up more easily on my (much lighter) hardtail.

Fit and position is bang on. I feel very centred on the bike. So much grip! The Hope brakes are insanely powerful (and quiet even when wet). Much more powerful than the Magura MT7’s and a much lighter lever feel too (ergonomics wise I still prefer the Magura MT7 levers but those brakes give me arm pump). Absolutely no pedal strikes at all, very happy about that.

All in all I’m really happy with the bike. It’s not playful, but it is stable. I can really feel the weight of the bike once I’m pointing upwards, and on very slight fire road inclines it feels draggy and slow. I think a super light weight set of carbon wheels would help, but I’d like to keep this build carbon free, so for now I’m committed to the silver rims (I’ll just have to get stronger!).

Hangs at CCACHE today to have mechanic Jordan bleed my Hope brakes and also to gawk at Alan’s wild Starling Murmur! Jordan did a killer job on the bleed. Brake lever feel is so damn good. I’m excited to hit the trails next week!

Worth the wait!

My Starling Clutch stem custom painted to match my Starling Murmur frame came in the mail today. It’s beautiful. I love it!

Silver Protaper A50 bars from CCACHE also came in the mail. I really like how black bars tie in with the black fork, but I had to at least get these bars on to see what they looked like, and hey. I think I like them!

Bleeding brakes tomorrow, ride and a photoshoot out on the trails next Monday!

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