Great vid. I have a simpler wedge-bolt EBB without the cover plate. My wedge was very wedged. I simply used a technique similar to how the crank arms are taken off... I grabbed a few loose items to skewer on the wedge bolt and screwed it into the fat side of the wedge. The wedge pulled out quite easily. In my case I loaded the 'skewer' with my steel crank caps and part of my crank puller tool. I used a blade on the frame to ensure the skewer was not tightening against the wedge but pulling it..
@dabombcreator - LOVE IT MATE, and I almost got myself a white one as that looks just as good. I run hope hubs as well and they sound so sweet. My mates know when I'm catching them up on the downhills. They lose me out the back as soon as we hit a climb again though :)
@Bfreeskier Thanks mate, I'm trying to do whatever I can to be as helpful as poss. Especially with the Santa Cruz stuff as I love it to bits. So thanks again and glad you like the vid and the nomad
@rucka12 PART 2 - right in the video I'm running a Hope Ceramic External BB, with race face Atlas cranks. You can choose external or internal BB's but that will be dependant on what cranks you are using, Some cranks will come with a BB, so choose your cranks first and the BB question should answer itself. I currently run Aerozine Ceramic Bottom Brackets as they run just as good as the hope ones for less than half the cost, and liek I said drop me aline and I'll help all I can. Hope that helps
Lovely Cham mate, I want a green one :( lol just finished building my second Cham with the EBB and just uploaded a vid if ya wanna check it out? I loaded up my EBB with grease this time round when building her up, my last one did suffer the creak but it was more of a click than a squeek/creek, but so far so good with this one, so its definitely worth doing with any Chameleon build with an EBB, new or not. Nice one for uploading the vid, wish I'd seen it when trying to work out my clicking lol
I wonder how hard it can get to replace a square-taper inner BB with an external bearings (like on the video). Because removing square-tapered BBs can be a pain after some riding time.
Don't mean to be a jerk, but there's a better way - and a way that doesn't require removing the cranks and bottom bracket. Anyone who owns a bike or tandem with a wedge eccentric will benefit from my advice below. On wedge eccentrics, the wedge gets firmly wedged into the BB shell. They don't "break free" after loosening the cinch bolt and applying rotating force to the eccentric, right? Of course it doesn't break free, the wedge is in there really tight and has to be - you're applying major pedaling forces to the eccentric, it has to be tight! Well, there's a REALLY easy fix to dislodge it without bending the cinch bolt. First, disregard ANY advice that suggests hammering on the cinch bolt to dislodge the wedge. This will only bend or damage the long bolt, the barrel nut and/or the eccentric and frame. You'll eventually smash your frame, too, so NO hammers ! Instead, simply thread a water bottle cage bolt through the OTHER side of the eccentric as you back out the long cinch bolt. Ever notice the cinch bolt hole extends ALL the way through the eccentric body? Now you know why! But first, you have to run the bottle cage bolt through something flat with a hole in it first. (A small Park cone wrench works perfectly.) This will stop on the BB shell and brace the bolt head so you can apply force on the wedge to dislodge it. Also be sure to apply ample grease to the bolt threads and even the head. Screw the bolt into the barrel nut in the eccentric from the other side as you remove the cinch bolt from the other side. Don't just remove the cinch bolt all the way. Back it out as you screw the bottle bolt in from the other side. You want to do this so the barrel bolt doesn't accidentally rotate inside the eccentric, making it impossible to thread in any bolt from either side! Once you've gotten the bottle bolt threaded, remove the long cinch bolt. Then tighten down the bottle bolt until the flat surface of the cone wrench stops against the BB shell. You now have a ready-made "eccentric wedge puller!" Turn the bolt until the wedge breaks free and you can now adjust your eccentric. Use a green Park pin tool for easy tension adjustment. However, before adjusting tension, remove your custom puller and reinstall the original wedge cinch bolt - with ample grease of course! (And if you haven't had the eccentric & wedge out in a while, you should probably pull lit and slather it with waterproof grease EVERYWHERE (on the sliding surfaces of the wedge, the barrel nut, and the BB shell and wedge exterior so that it does not seize in place! This will allow for easier future adjustments.) Now with the wedge bolt threaded back in place, you can make tension adjustments and lightly cinch the bolt to hold that position to check chain deflection. Then tighten it down firmly, wipe off the grease that has oozed out and you're off to the races!
@rucka12 Hi mate right firstly send me an email if you like through here or on contact@mtbtv.co.uk. Right then moving on, yep you need a BB that is 68mm and TBH I wouldn't worry about anything else, if you get a 68mm bb it will fit. I'm not going to say all the threads of the screws etc are pretty much standard cos I know that somewhere out there, there will be some manufacturer that makes its own BB specifically to fits its own frames. So moving back to the Chameleon its all standard.
Great vid. I have a simpler wedge-bolt EBB without the cover plate. My wedge was very wedged. I simply used a technique similar to how the crank arms are taken off... I grabbed a few loose items to skewer on the wedge bolt and screwed it into the fat side of the wedge. The wedge pulled out quite easily. In my case I loaded the 'skewer' with my steel crank caps and part of my crank puller tool. I used a blade on the frame to ensure the skewer was not tightening against the wedge but pulling it..
Cool video! Thanks for making this it really explained a lot to me!
Love that drum n' bass track you've got going on in the background :)
Awesome! I was just going to do this, great walk-through. Oh and Nice Nomad.
@dabombcreator - LOVE IT MATE, and I almost got myself a white one as that looks just as good.
I run hope hubs as well and they sound so sweet. My mates know when I'm catching them up on the downhills.
They lose me out the back as soon as we hit a climb again though :)
@Bfreeskier Thanks mate, I'm trying to do whatever I can to be as helpful as poss. Especially with the Santa Cruz stuff as I love it to bits. So thanks again and glad you like the vid and the nomad
@MrJackPuddle Thanks mate and glad you like the vid. That's tip is possibly going to be a life saver for someone along the way I reckon :)
@rucka12 PART 2 - right in the video I'm running a Hope Ceramic External BB, with race face Atlas cranks. You can choose external or internal BB's but that will be dependant on what cranks you are using, Some cranks will come with a BB, so choose your cranks first and the BB question should answer itself. I currently run Aerozine Ceramic Bottom Brackets as they run just as good as the hope ones for less than half the cost, and liek I said drop me aline and I'll help all I can. Hope that helps
Lovely Cham mate, I want a green one :( lol just finished building my second Cham with the EBB and just uploaded a vid if ya wanna check it out? I loaded up my EBB with grease this time round when building her up, my last one did suffer the creak but it was more of a click than a squeek/creek, but so far so good with this one, so its definitely worth doing with any Chameleon build with an EBB, new or not. Nice one for uploading the vid, wish I'd seen it when trying to work out my clicking lol
I wonder how hard it can get to replace a square-taper inner BB with an external bearings (like on the video). Because removing square-tapered BBs can be a pain after some riding time.
Don't mean to be a jerk, but there's a better way - and a way that doesn't require removing the cranks and bottom bracket. Anyone who owns a bike or tandem with a wedge eccentric will benefit from my advice below.
On wedge eccentrics, the wedge gets firmly wedged into the BB shell. They don't "break free" after loosening the cinch bolt and applying rotating force to the eccentric, right? Of course it doesn't break free, the wedge is in there really tight and has to be - you're applying major pedaling forces to the eccentric, it has to be tight!
Well, there's a REALLY easy fix to dislodge it without bending the cinch bolt. First, disregard ANY advice that suggests hammering on the cinch bolt to dislodge the wedge. This will only bend or damage the long bolt, the barrel nut and/or the eccentric and frame. You'll eventually smash your frame, too, so NO hammers !
Instead, simply thread a water bottle cage bolt through the OTHER side of the eccentric as you back out the long cinch bolt. Ever notice the cinch bolt hole extends ALL the way through the eccentric body? Now you know why! But first, you have to run the bottle cage bolt through something flat with a hole in it first. (A small Park cone wrench works perfectly.) This will stop on the BB shell and brace the bolt head so you can apply force on the wedge to dislodge it. Also be sure to apply ample grease to the bolt threads and even the head. Screw the bolt into the barrel nut in the eccentric from the other side as you remove the cinch bolt from the other side. Don't just remove the cinch bolt all the way. Back it out as you screw the bottle bolt in from the other side. You want to do this so the barrel bolt doesn't accidentally rotate inside the eccentric, making it impossible to thread in any bolt from either side!
Once you've gotten the bottle bolt threaded, remove the long cinch bolt. Then tighten down the bottle bolt until the flat surface of the cone wrench stops against the BB shell. You now have a ready-made "eccentric wedge puller!" Turn the bolt until the wedge breaks free and you can now adjust your eccentric. Use a green Park pin tool for easy tension adjustment.
However, before adjusting tension, remove your custom puller and reinstall the original wedge cinch bolt - with ample grease of course! (And if you haven't had the eccentric & wedge out in a while, you should probably pull lit and slather it with waterproof grease EVERYWHERE (on the sliding surfaces of the wedge, the barrel nut, and the BB shell and wedge exterior so that it does not seize in place! This will allow for easier future adjustments.) Now with the wedge bolt threaded back in place, you can make tension adjustments and lightly cinch the bolt to hold that position to check chain deflection. Then tighten it down firmly, wipe off the grease that has oozed out and you're off to the races!
Man I wish I could hire you
I have the same frame at 2020 😆
Same here 😁
@rucka12 Hi mate right firstly send me an email if you like through here or on contact@mtbtv.co.uk. Right then moving on, yep you need a BB that is 68mm and TBH I wouldn't worry about anything else, if you get a 68mm bb it will fit. I'm not going to say all the threads of the screws etc are pretty much standard cos I know that somewhere out there, there will be some manufacturer that makes its own BB specifically to fits its own frames.
So moving back to the Chameleon its all standard.
The bike looks awesome, but the price is kinda high.
BTW, your eccentric and BB shell(s) are REALLY dry! Grease, grease, and more grease!!!
Clean your bike and take pride in your equipment you didn't even clean your work area or the area were your bottom bracket is looks like crap