Santa Cruz chameleon... The dream bike has landed!

[konaben82]

I have ALWAYS wanted one of these ever since they first appeared in MBUK back in the late 90s, at around £500 in those days they were well out of my league and being a spotty teenager who's only income was from a Saturday job at the local co-op, (£2.21 per hour!) I was never going to be able to afford one :cry:

I have been semi after one ever since but never got round to it...

I recently decided that I was going to build a 'hardcore hardtail' and picked up a dmr trailstar long travel off pinkbike for £55 (which is now for sale) but when I saw this chameleon up for sale yesterday at a bargain price I couldn't resist and to top it off the guy only lived 2 miles away from me!!! :shock:

The build will start today and will consist of rock shox revelations, a mix of deore/slx/xt, hope bulbs on 321s, renthal fat bars and what ever else I can dig out of the treasure trove

I think a race face crank will be on the cards at a later date

Here she is this morning:

 

[trxrincon]

I'll be watching this one, sounds an awesome build.

 

[jimplops]

Same model and colour as mine, will have to stick some pics up.

 

[konaben82]

here she is at the moment... left my bottom bracket spanner at work! :x :facepalm: :cry:

a raceface atlas crank in black is on the cards I thing as I only have a deore one at the mo...

any positive/negative pointers are welcome - I want to get the most out of this frame!!!







the steerer will be chopped accordingly once I am happy with the bar height... also I have some Nobby Nic tyres which will go on in the winter... too much drag for the sort of terrain I'll be riding for now.. (hard pack tank tracks on salisbury plain and maybe a bit up the skate park if im feeling brave!)

 

[BertR00t]

Like the look of this, got Atlas cranks on my daily ride and they are nice and solid.

 

[konaben82]

Yeah they look cool too!! I can't wait to get this finished!!

 

[trxrincon]

Thats awesome!

 

[Mindmap3]

I can't believe how cheap that frame was....

Any way, I had one that year in dark blue and it was one of the best bikes that I ever had and one I really shouldn't have sold. It handled everything from long XC rides to jumps to be pushed up and ragged down the local DH runs.

Yours looks in really good nick too. You'll have a blast on it.

 

[Kevhl]

I had an original medium one in black and loved it, then got a small red one around the same age as yours ran it on pike 454 coils (found 115-120mm the nicest all round travel setting!), hope mini monos, pro2s on 521s, middleburns, and raceface bits, 1x9 setup! What an awesome bike, built it as a 4x bike but rode a fair amount of distance as well. If it wasn't for my tazer and chuck I'd have another one! You're going to love this bike!

 

[konaben82]

I love it already, can't wait to get it built tomorrow and get it out for a spin!

More pics will follow....