Santa Cruz Chameleon now 650b!

So... At the end of the summer I started to build an on-one 45650b, to cut a long story short I fell off my trials bike going quite fast down a hilly road, ate the Tarmac, smashed my face and chipped tooth, lots of grazes and a broken hand, I've just come to the end of 7 weeks off work! It's been nice to be off but a bit boring not being able to ride! I had to sadly sell the on-one as I was running out of money and unsure when I'd be back at work.... Anyway, I've managed to jiggle round a few finances now, sell a few bits off and I started some online window shopping, I want a good do it all hardtail, fairly modern I guess as I want to run some big forks, it just so happens that stif are selling off 26er chameleons at £350 which I found very hard to resist, after a few days of constantly obsessing over it I took the plunge, I had an older model last year but it was a tiny one and was just too small for general xc/trails etc although it was fun to hack about town on and to bust a few trials moves! ...I also have a little zaskar in the loft which is being put on hold for now

This pic is off the net, just to give you the general idea:



I'll post some pics of the frame when it arrives!

Re: Santa Cruz Chameleon (work in progress!)

So it's here! Here are a few pics...

More to come as I get it built, hopefully within a couple of weeks!















And the nice thing is I don't have to spend £70 on a hope headset as the fork crown has enough clearance from the down tube! (I'll get a hope eventually but with Xmas round the corner funds are a little tight!



The bars belong to a mate of mine, he's letting me borrow them to get the build going! I think a renthal fat bar lite will be on the shopping list in the new year!




I'll update this as often is I get more bits, the build will be a hope wheel set, a mix of trusty mid range Shimano stuff (Deore/SLX/zee) and XT Brakes 1x10 set up with a narrow wide and hope bash ring

Really looking forward to getting this going now!

Re: Santa Cruz Chameleon (work in progress!)

The red bash ring was originally bought for another build but I think it looks quite good on this frame!

Re: Santa Cruz Chameleon (work in progress!)

Cool bike. Should be fun!

Been there with getting broken and taking time off. A crash for me 13 years ago totally changed the path of my life. In a good way to. And still riding bikes!

Re: Santa Cruz Chameleon (work in progress!)

Yeah I will have to take it easy for a few months when I get back on the saddle... Can't wait to get this finished now though!

Re: Santa Cruz Chameleon (work in progress!)

Thats a sweet bash ring

Re: Santa Cruz Chameleon (work in progress!)

Get deore brakes chap. Don't think xt warrant the additional outlay unless you are really hardcore.

Re: Santa Cruz Chameleon (work in progress!)

Already got the XTs! I got them at just under £90 so not too bad

Deores are awesome though for the money, I would have definitely got some if the XTs hadn't been at the price they were!

Re: Santa Cruz Chameleon (work in progress!)

So I went for a hope headset in the end, just waiting on a few more bits to arrive, it should be ready by next weekend!

Re: Santa Cruz Chameleon (work in progress!)

Coming on nice there bud,
I've got surplus Mint xt crankset