SSMTBs

Oh I cant remember if theres been any Chameleons here.

In about 2007/2008 the bike shop I worked in was a Santa Cruz dealer. The fourth generation Chameleon came out in 2008.
One of my pals in the shop built up the 4th gen one single speed. Frame colour was a real nice dark blue. But what I really loved was him putting on Dura Ace 7800 cranks. The colour of those cranks looked great on it. I've seen a million nice bikes but that SS Chameleon always sticks in my mind.

The shop I worked in had quite a large fleet of Santa Cruz demo bikes. A perk of the job was that staff got to take the demo bikes out to the trails any time really. The demo bikes weren't really used as often as you'd think. Some of them could sit on the shop floor unused for weeks at a time. I had the demo Blur bike live with me at home literally for weeks before I had to take it back.

This access to all these sweet bikes to ride is really what started my love of the Nomad. On the staff shop rides I'd always take the Blur for an xc ride. But I took the Nomad out once instead and instantly loved it. The mini-dh feel yet you could still just about horse it around a longer xc ride.
At the time I didn't have the cash for the first gen Nomad. Years later I got the second gen Nomad second hand. Then in 2017 I got a good deal second hand on the third gen Nomad.
Earlier this year I sold the third gen when I got the opportunity to get the fourth gen frame new with warranty at a price which made it impossible to ignore! Thats its built up single speed up there!

I really miss those days working in the shop having so many bikes to pick and choose from. Good times.