![]() It seems silly to talk about efficiency on a hardtail. It’s not a huge deal, but something to be aware of. That rearward position can make getting around tight switchbacks tricky too if you’re not shifting your weight over the bars. If you don’t consciously keep your weight forward, the front wheel tends to want to wheelie and wander. The short chainstays and seat tube angle might have something to do with this. The body position on the climbs feels fairly centered to maybe a little rearward. Avoiding rocks on a hardtail is huge-you don’t have suspension to keep things smooth. You can pick your line through the rocks instead of having to go over the top of them. The quick handling keeps the bike agile when the climbs get technical. You can actually steer the bike around tight corners instead of having to lean, hope, and pray that you make it. It’s lively and quick, easy to get around a tight switchback, and overall makes the bike feel very responsive. The handling is my favorite thing about the uphill performance. The geometry and components selection reinforce that as well. ![]() It is happy to sit on the fence between the two. ![]() Right from the get-go, the Chameleon shows its lack of bias for either uphill or downhill performance. Santa Cruz Chameleon Ride Impressions Uphill The shorter reach and steep HTA keep the wheelbase nice and tidy at 1237mm. It’s designed to go everywhere-bikepacking, pump track, neighborhood rides with the kids, steep and rugged trails, and jumps. This bike isn’t designed to be a brawler, though. The reach is a little on the shorter side at 490mm in XL. I’d bet when you sit on your 77° full-squish bike, it ends up getting pretty close to the Chameleon’s seat tube angle. That seat tube angle might look slack compared to full suspension bikes, but keep in mind, a hardtail doesn’t have any rear travel to sag into. It has a well-rounded 65° head tube angle paired to a 74.6° seat tube angle. For a bike named the Chameleon, you’d expect it to be versatile and adaptable to a huge variety of trails, terrain, and riding style-well, it’s exactly that. While the Chameleon doesn’t dazzle on the components, it absolutely crushes the geo charts. They’re durable, reliable, and aren’t going to blow up in 5 rides. The great thing is, they’re still quality bike-shop-brand components. It’s no surprise that most of these components are on the lower end of the competent grade spectrum. For your hard-earned cash, you’ll get an aluminum frame, RockShox Recon RL fork with 130mm of travel, Sram Level T brakes, a Sram NX/SX drivetrain, and some cheaper WTB rims. That’s still a pretty penny, but relative to full suspension bikes it’s a fraction of the cost. This exact build, out of the box costs $2399. Why does the color matter? Because this yellow is amazing-think early 90’s Trapper Keeper vibes. In this case, we have the Santa Cruz Chameleon D AL 29 in Golden Yellow. We are talking about price, so the actual build now becomes relevant. This review is a little different, however. Anywho, that’s an argument for a different day. Frankly, the level of components you get on your bike makes a very small difference to the overall ride quality in my mind. We try to keep it about the bike as a whole and not so much the individual build. We don’t normally dive too deep into build and price when we review a bike.
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