Often times, carbon gets all of the attention, but as our Senior Advanced R&D Engineer, Chuck Teixeira, says, "If you haven't ridden an aluminum bike lately, you haven't ridden an aluminum bike." And with its D'Aluisio Smartweld frame, the Chisel Expert with two-by gearing is no exception.

Traditional welding methods create frame joints by connecting tubes to cylinders, leaving the performance and security of the connection up to the skill of the welder. D'Aluisio (DSW), however, allows us to move the joint away from the area of the highest stress, making for a lighter frameset that's stiff, compliant, and incredibly strong—the optimal characteristics of a hardtail XC rig. So what does this mean for you? You'll be powering up climbs, shredding singletrack, and everything in between on a bike that has you questioning why alloy as gotten such a bad rap.

And to further improve this feel, the Chisel also features our XC 29 geometry which took our previous XC race geo and added some trail DNA to the mix. This equates to a longer top tube, a shortened head tube, and a slacked out front end, the result of which is a tremendous increase in downhill stability, plus a wider range of fit. And just as importantly, this doesn't require any sacrifice of climbing proficiency.

The build on this Chisel features a mix of Shimano XT and SLX components, a wide rang of gears that come courtesy of a two-by drivetrain, powerful hydraulic disc brakes, and 25-millimeter-wide alloy wheels that are optimized for weight and traction.