I have exactly the same bike - different fork - Fox 36 Factory and the running gear is all Sram, but other than that very similar. I do use my Chameleon Carbon for multi day rides - but rather than bike packing I tend to find AirBnB or cheap BnB so that I can have a decent shower and bed each night. I normally do say 110 miles over 3 days with a mixture of off-road and gravel - but also plenty of hills. Certainly interesting what you say about sore neck and back - hmmmm..... I use quite a flat Thomson bar - and I am now wondering if that is the problem. Certainly interesting to see / hear about your set up - and as I think you were saying the Chameleon is a very good all round platform for many types of riding. Furthermore, I sold my Bronson this year - as I found I was just using the Chameleon more and more. Certainly is quite nice not having lots of linkages & pivots. Makes cleaning this time of year much easier / quicker. 🙂
I can certainly appreciate having the warm shower option at night! It’s such a versatile bike. Thanks for the comment, and I think it’s well worth trying out a few different handlebars with varying amounts of sweep. Easily the single most impactful change and relatively affordable! Be sure to use a longer stem to offset the sweep of bars like this, otherwise the weight balance will be very wonky!
Much appreciated, and I really love them for any gravel / commuting type of riding. I don't use them for regular mountain bike rides because I prefer the precision of regular MTB bars with 8 or so degrees of sweep. The VO bars can certainly handle mountain biking but it's not the right position for dedicated technical MTB riding (I would still use the VO bars on bikepacking or gravel trips that include lots of singletrack). The one CRITICAL setup element I may have forgot in the video is to make sure you get long enough stem to offset some of the sweep - I run a 60mm stem and that's the absolute minimum I'd recommend before it becomes difficult to properly weight the front wheel.
@@RootsRocksRaffi I see.. that makes sense for both bars and stem! I'm still looking for a bike that would be good both for single-track/gravel rides and bikepacking/7-10 touring on both tarmac and gravel. I was thinking to get a Surly Karate Monkey but the SC Chamaeleon would be definitely a better HT. and your bikepacking set up seems perfect for a week touring 😉
@@ralby83 I do love steel bikes! Can't really go wrong with a hardtail any which way, and I think a similar setup would work great on any hardtail. Good luck deciding!
Great question! I currently have a 60mm stem, simply because that’s the longest one I had on hand. In a very small percentage of occasions when descending technical stuff I do feel it’s difficult to get weight as forward as I need, but I prioritize the upright position overall. I wouldn’t go any shorter than that but something a little longer would help balance out the sweep of the bars for sure.
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Beautiful
Smooth. Love it :)
I have exactly the same bike - different fork - Fox 36 Factory and the running gear is all Sram, but other than that very similar. I do use my Chameleon Carbon for multi day rides - but rather than bike packing I tend to find AirBnB or cheap BnB so that I can have a decent shower and bed each night. I normally do say 110 miles over 3 days with a mixture of off-road and gravel - but also plenty of hills. Certainly interesting what you say about sore neck and back - hmmmm..... I use quite a flat Thomson bar - and I am now wondering if that is the problem. Certainly interesting to see / hear about your set up - and as I think you were saying the Chameleon is a very good all round platform for many types of riding. Furthermore, I sold my Bronson this year - as I found I was just using the Chameleon more and more. Certainly is quite nice not having lots of linkages & pivots. Makes cleaning this time of year much easier / quicker. 🙂
I can certainly appreciate having the warm shower option at night! It’s such a versatile bike. Thanks for the comment, and I think it’s well worth trying out a few different handlebars with varying amounts of sweep. Easily the single most impactful change and relatively affordable! Be sure to use a longer stem to offset the sweep of bars like this, otherwise the weight balance will be very wonky!
Exactly the video I was looking for! thanks for sharing this awesome set up! how you find those orange bars when riding your SC without bikepack gear?
Much appreciated, and I really love them for any gravel / commuting type of riding. I don't use them for regular mountain bike rides because I prefer the precision of regular MTB bars with 8 or so degrees of sweep. The VO bars can certainly handle mountain biking but it's not the right position for dedicated technical MTB riding (I would still use the VO bars on bikepacking or gravel trips that include lots of singletrack). The one CRITICAL setup element I may have forgot in the video is to make sure you get long enough stem to offset some of the sweep - I run a 60mm stem and that's the absolute minimum I'd recommend before it becomes difficult to properly weight the front wheel.
@@RootsRocksRaffi I see.. that makes sense for both bars and stem! I'm still looking for a bike that would be good both for single-track/gravel rides and bikepacking/7-10 touring on both tarmac and gravel. I was thinking to get a Surly Karate Monkey but the SC Chamaeleon would be definitely a better HT. and your bikepacking set up seems perfect for a week touring 😉
@@ralby83 I do love steel bikes! Can't really go wrong with a hardtail any which way, and I think a similar setup would work great on any hardtail. Good luck deciding!
What size stem are you using with this bar combo?
Great question! I currently have a 60mm stem, simply because that’s the longest one I had on hand. In a very small percentage of occasions when descending technical stuff I do feel it’s difficult to get weight as forward as I need, but I prioritize the upright position overall. I wouldn’t go any shorter than that but something a little longer would help balance out the sweep of the bars for sure.