![]() ![]() This bike encourages you to try different things and I really really commend them for that. A lot of bikes are kind of locked into one wheel size and you're kind of stuck with what you've got. What I like about that is it encourages you to play around and try stuff. There's just a whole bunch of options with it. So you could run it as a single speed 29 or single speed 27,5 and 27.5+, 27.5+ geared, and geared 29er. You can swap out these adapters and run a non boost wheel in the back as a singlespeed. It's really hard to find a plus bike with super short chainstays these days.Īnother super cool part of the chameleon that makes it adaptable is you can run it as a singlespeed. At high speeds you might want to move the chainstays back to 4:30 and you can do that, so it's pretty versatile in that fact. That short rear end makes it fun to manual, fun to bunnyhop, fun to slash corners at low speeds. I talked a bit about this in other videos but what a short chainstay lets you do is play around. The second thing that makes this hardtail super special is the 415 millimeter chainstay. I don't know if it's the dropouts or what kind of voodoo they're doing, but it's amazing. They don't have a seatstay bridge, which helps it flex a little bit more and that rear end just does not beat you up. However, Santa Cruz has built this to be extremely compliant. Aluminum is cheap its durable, and it's usually super stiff in a hardtail and beats you up. So there are two things in particular that make this bike super special:įirst off is its aluminum frame. But if you're just looking to play around, ride trails, commute, have fun on it it's a fantastic bike for that. If you're looking for an enduro hardtail, I would argue it's not the right bike either. If you're looking for a cross-country race machine, it's not the right bike. It's like the Santa Cruz tallboy in hardtail form, so it rides well on a variety of trails. It's kind of a trail bike, kind of all-around. It's not very XC-based, but I wouldn't call it a hardcore hardtail either. Plus hardtails are gaining traction, thankfully, because I think they're so much fun and I think people really should get out there and try them and this chameleon kind of lands in the middle ground. That means we can fit 27.5 plus tires, 29 inch tires, and people are even fitting 29 by 2.6 tires now. Right now they're at a super short 415 millimeters but they can be adjusted back all the way to 430 millimeters. It lives up to its name it's extremely versatile the chameleon can change to match its surrounding so what I mean by that is the chain stays are adjustable. Today's chameleon is just as much fun probably more so than the old one back in the 2000s. Back in 2000 my roommate had a Santa Cruz chameleon and I was always bumming that off him to ride because it was so much fun. I've had it for a year now and I've ridden it all over the US and I want to share this long-term review with you. Hey it's Steve from hardtail party this is my Santa Cruz Chameleon.
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