New Chameleon...

[Faust29]

If the number of frames that folks here have had replaced is any indication, than that would be correct.

One Highball and one Chameleon here... They both had about 4500 miles on when they let go... The Chameleon was a design defect that they fixed in later runs of the frame. Of course, they never admitted to the defect or fixing it... The warranty frame with the beefed up dropout area is over 5000 miles now, which is the most I've put on a bike. And it's going down the front range again tomorrow.

The Highball... I'm not sure what happened on that one, but whatever happened was enough of an impact to bend the seat post, which is where it cracked. Right at the junction of seat post and top tube. Santa Cruz replaced it with a carbon frame at no extra cost. At the time, the carbons were double the price of aluminum...

Contrast that to the warranty that Salsa provided. They agreed that the el Mariachi should be replaced under warranty when the steel cracked near the chain stay and bottom bracket area. They were going out of production, though. Salsa's solution was for me to accept a $450 credit and fork out another $700 for a Warbird frame. I took their check and bought the Highball.

 

[JordanHMay]

Loved my Chameleon. With that being said, if you currently have one I don't see enough here to justify a new frame purchase. Really isn't much of an upgrade. Curious of availability considering the state of the bike OUT OF STOCK on everything issue.

 

[Cyclotourist]

Chameleon meets all my needs splendidly... it's a good bike! I would have liked to have bought something steel, but the bikes from Stanton and Cotic at the time were just missing a detail or so that the lizard met.
Got a great price from Mr. F and was able to have a serious upgrade over my 2010 Gunnar 29er.
I miss it as a geared hardtail... which has me thinking...