Show us your early-not-quite-retro Santa Cruz's

Max P

Senior Retro Guru
Feedback
View
Following that lovely old Heckler lets see some more nice old 'made in the USA' late '90's Santa Cruz's.

Posted mine before but here goes - a '98 Chameleon:

chfx.jpg


chf9.jpg


scc1-1.jpg


scdisplay1.jpg
 
Thats very nice Max.
I've started looking around for a singlespeed frame, with canti mounts so I can use my Maguras.
Thin on the ground arn't they.
Might have to go down the disc route.
Frames I have seen....any thoughts
dialledbikes
singular (29er)
soulcraft ..... mmmm, lovely, want want want..
Any others ?
Carl
 
Love that Chameleon - seen a few listed on eBay which have tempted me. I won't post up my Heckler as it's in readers bikes but anyone else here with any Santa Cruz's?

btw Max - are those stock decals on yours? I'm looking at getting Gil to do me up a spare set as I may get a fresh powdercoat on mine at some point. Would you mind taking a close up of your downtube and headtube decals for me at all...pretty please :LOL:
 
Oh well, looks like it's just me in this club then!

:LOL:

Harry - quite a few frames out there and you can pick up an older Chameleon as above for £100 or less on ebay which is a steal. Mine was £80 but a cleaner one went for only £105 or so a fortnight ago.

I would also recommend a Surly 1x1 - that was my first specific SS frame and will run discs, V's etc.

Will sort those pics Haribo, all original decals. Can you email me? (in profile).
 
i had a 99 chameleon for quite a few years before going back to more 'traditional' retrobikes - it was a hell of a lot of fun! it never let me down and still looked great and hard as nails covered in chips and scratches. i sold it on ebay a while back for about 120 - they're well worth the money.
 
Really fancied replacing my Identiti with a Chameleon, are they really as versatile as they say? The Dr always feels stodgy unless battering down a hill, or shooting round a track which it does do well at.

I ended up with this bullit (2003? I dunno!) off a mate and yogged some monies on retro style bombers at xmas, hasn't got very far yet as Ive got the cars to fix first.
DSCN1547.jpg

EDIT: Made in USA? not really retro i know, though the new one is out. ;)
 
Nice Bullit, very tough looking.

Max P - have pm'd you with my email addy. Yeah - I was watching a few Chameleons on eBay and think I remember seeing an older, non disc mount one in that green going for about a ton.
 
Max, love your bike. In fact it was the reason that I got a '98 Chameleon in the same colour a few months ago. Its currently undergoing a rebuild from SS to geared and I'll post some pics when its done.

It seemed to me that the natural replacement for my Zaskar was a Chameleon, they're both hard as nails aluminium hardtails touted as 'do-it-all' bikes.

I've got a real soft spot for early Santa Cruz bikes, love them.
 
Cheers guys. Will try and get those pics sorted and emailed to both 'requesters' this weekend.

I finally got a disc mount and disc brake for it recently but the whole thing looked so shonky and heavy I went back to the XTR V. As above it comes in around 22.75lbs.

Also bought some Marzocchis but after mounting them to trim the steerer, feeling the weight and then having another 'rigid' ride I'm sticking with the Pipedream forks. Grew up on rigid and reckon I'll stay that way.

Chameleons are very versatile - run them rigid/suspended, geared/SS (simply brilliant drop-out adapters), vee's, discs, lightweight XC build or beefy 'all-mountain' - whatever suits you.
 
Max P":3bumddb9 said:
I finally got a disc mount and disc brake for it recently but the whole thing looked so shonky and heavy I went back to the XTR V. As above it comes in around 22.75lbs.

Oooh, I don't suppose you still have the disc mount and want to shift it in my direction do you? :)
 
Back
Top