Thinking about an Airnimal Chameleon Performance Sport

[AikenDrum]

Anyone want to dissuade me? 

The attraction is the portability for train/plane travel without all the fannying around making bike-specific reservations (which aren't always available).

The nagging voices in my head say:

• Tyre choice severely restricted with a 24" wheel  (do they even do a 24" folder?).
• Do Airnimal owners find that, in practice, trains companies/airlines get arsey about their bagged bikes- e.g. Has anyone actually managed to take their Airnimal as carry on luggage on a flight without some paranoid jobsworth insisting that it's a potential weapon and must go in the hold
• Are the cracking frames reported in earlier incarnations of the Airnimal a thing of the past?

Those are chief amongst my concerns - anything else I ought to be worrying about?

Or shouldn't I be worrying at all?

Opinions of all kinds gratefully received!

Thx,

Don

[Si]

I found the tyres fine - 28mm panracers were comfortable, nippy, and reliable.  The 23mm(?) Kenda tyres that came with it were a bit unforgiving at the front and had the odd little and controllable slide on white lines etc, but the panracers sorted this out.

Cracking frames: dunno about the frames themselves but the early problem with the seat masts coming apart has certainly been fixed.

Only ever took it on local trains that didn't need reservations.  Folding is not as quick as with some other models, and it's not actually a folder as such as you have to remove the front wheel.  But with a bit of practise it can be more or less as fast to fold as a Dahon or R & M and comes out at almost the same size.

Overall - a very comfortable bike that can go a bit quicker than you'd think.  Not a race bike, nor a full an expedition tourer, more like an audax or light tourer.  Apart from the price, the early frames cracking and the STI levers failing I really liked them.

[AikenDrum]

Thanks Bodger. No one else got an Airnimal then?

[mtrike]

Thanks Bodger. No one else got an Airnimal then?

Yup.  I use mine in the light weight bag to put in the car as I work away from home 5 days a week.  The first fold and bagging is fairly quick, -under 5 minutes.  I also have the hard case and this can be loaded in 10 minutes but doesn't leave space for any other luggage but will go under a 25kg allowance.  However I usually book it as a bike separately from my  luggage it's a lot easier to handle than a full bike bag and there are no worries when the hire car company give you an unexpectedly small vehicle because the one ordered has run out-my wife always refuses ti catch a bus in these circumstances..  Haven't tried the carry on but it would be above most airlines weight limit anyway and needs a substantial amount of dismantling incuding removal of the forks.

I ride on some foldable tyres schwalbe duranos but mostly panaracers-on wheels this size the weight differences in the tyres is negligable.  Thed handling is a little different from my race bike I always notice it at first possibly due to the lesser gyroscopic effect of the smaller wheels as it seems to bank over more than you first expect.  I'm also uncomfortable at anything more than 35 mph because of this (downhill following wind obviously).

Mine has a triple and sometimes the small ring won't change due to the cables routing changing when unfolded.  It's also difficult getting a water bottle out if you use a saddle bag.

[Si]

I had my water bottle clamped to the back of the stem - made things much easier, although it does depend on which type of stem that you use.

Never noticed any handling difficulties at speed, but then I replaced a R&M with it, and also ride a tandem so am fairly used to swapping between a wide array of bikes with quite different handling.

I also got problems with shifting on the triple, but not sure if this was solely down to the rubbish STI shifters that I had or whether the cable routing played a part.

[Ian H]

I bought a second-hand Joey. Single chainring, eight-speed. The wheels and tyres are okay. I got new tyres - Panaracers - from Richard at Airnimal. He's always very helpful. Apart from a couple of broken rear spokes it's fine. I don't like the twistgrip changer, but I haven't yet got round to doing anything about it.

[AikenDrum]

Thanks all. I think i'm going to give one a go, but build it up to my spec rather than put up with the vanilla flavour of the standard offering (Shimano 105 etc).

[jogler]

I crossed paths in Cornwall with a guy doing aJoGLE on an Animal with drop bars & STI's.
He was very pleased with his as a tourer.He had a bar bag  up front & two Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus on the back pannier:which suggests that the Airnimal is capable of touring satifactorily

[AikenDrum]

I'd like the option of a bar bag too, so i'll go with Campag shifters.

[rogerzilla]

Haven't Shimano gone all Ergo-like this year?

[jogler]

^^^^^
yes,I saw some in Longstaff's last week

[AikenDrum]

Still prefer friction shift over indexing, but if they've changed the way that the cables exit the levers then it has to be a good thing for die hard Shimano fans.

[PeterM]

I've got a Chameleon built up with Campag bits.

If the whole fleet was stolen, I'd probably start the replacement process with the Airnimal.

I've done a couple of hard tours (7x200k days) on it, and used it as a foldable bike for holidays abroad.  It's as good as my Omega to ride, maybe even better since the elastomer rear suspension takes out a lot of road buzz.  It's pretty quick too, and there's no compromise in the handling.

I carry luggage in a Carradice bag on an SQR block.  The Airnimal's main drawback is the useless placement of the single bottle cage, so I use a Camelbak when I ride it.  This takes a little getting used to (no more than a few minutes, really), but has pros--I drink more; there's a handy place to put stuff--as well as cons.

The Panaracer tyres are pretty good.  As a worrier, I carry a spare on long rides since I can't expect to find them in a local shop.  I also carry plenty of spare tubes.

[tiermat]

Haven't Shimano gone all Ergo-like this year?

Ult and DA already are, the new 105 which is out (officially)in July does. 

[mtrike]

Thanks Bodger. No one else got an Airnimal then?

The handling is a little different from my race bike I always notice it at first possibly due to the lesser gyroscopic effect of the smaller wheels as it seems to bank over more than you first expect.  I'm also uncomfortable at anything more than 35 mph because of this (downhill following wind obviously).

I have just put a handle bar mounted water bottle on and oddly this has improved the handling got up to 40 mph yesterday with no problem (very downhill).

[wilbt]

Just got back on my Airnimal after a season on my steel framed tourer.
It felt wonderful, so much more responsive, more comfortable on the back seat.
I have carbon forks and carbon steerer.  These were flexible in taking road bumps.
The folding is good for getting it in a car boot, or in its case ready to fly.
I have flown to France, Italy, Spain, Alaska, all checked in as a suitcase.
Just have to watch the weight limits.

[AndyK]

I know this is an old thread, but for not a lot more the OP could have got the more versatile Moulton TSR30.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The TSR doesn't fold into quite as small a package as an Airnimal, though HK and I have been thinking about Moulton packing options for train and airplane.

[AndyK]

True, but the Moulton will more easily take racks and panniers. It takes about three minutes to separate a Moulton, a little more if you remove wheels, seatpost and bars, but when travelling internationally, speed of fold is a non-issue.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I put my Chameleon to the test in Mallorca last week.  I've always thought it was pretty useful in the mountains but had never got around to taking it out on a club run.  To cut the story short, met up with a friend (and former national TT champion) who has a villa out there, for an 80-mile club run through the mountains.  Did 130km in 5hr 20min with a 30min cafe stop and well over 2000m climbing on the Airnimal.  It climbs as well as my racebike, descends almost as well - although there was one Tommy Voeckler moment when I had to go straight on down a dirt track overcooking it on a tight turn trying to get back on after being dropped.  The only bit where I struggled was on the 40kph tailwind bash back to Pollensa where I would say that the suspension was causing me to lose a bit of momentum. 

Also had bragging rights over the coolest and most studied bike whilst we were sitting drinking coffee in Bunyola.

And it travelled there in a suitcase with no excess baggage charges because the family's 4 checked bags averaged under 20kg each.

What isn't there to like?? 

[mtrike]

I put my Chameleon to the test in Mallorca last week. 

Also had bragging rights over the coolest and most studied bike whilst we were sitting drinking coffee in Bunyola.

And it travelled there in a suitcase with no excess baggage charges because the family's 4 checked bags averaged under 20kg each.

What isn't there to like?? 

I took mine to Mallorca last August and in the 35 degree heat I had problems.  The suspension softened and it was all over the place on the descents.  I also found problems with the brakes in that heat.  Being small the rims couldn't loose heat fast enough on hairpins.  I had to take to a dirt track on the descent from Pollenca to Formentor and it gave me the willies a few times on the cliff edge hairpins as well.  The descent back down to Pollensa was hairy as well I could see smoke from the rims/ brakes as I approached the 180 hairpin.  I've never had these problems in cooler weather though and it does climb well.

[akin]

I recently built up a chameleon for taking abroad.

Just rode the 1200k in the massif central. 33 degrees + and plenty of climbing. I found that it performed really well.

I am going to invest in the case for flying, currently using it on european train services.

Off to ride the raid pyreneean route and a 1000k in the alps on it in a few weeks. 

Great bike so far.

[teamonster]

Just resurrecting this old thread again. Seriously looking at getting either the chameleon perf sport or the Joey Elite drops. Wonder if anyone has a view on differences. Also should U really worry about the cracking frame stories and issues with changers for front ring, or have both these been sorted. It seems they occurred on early models, given how long they've been around now Id hope they'd cracked it (pardon the pun !)

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

I've not had any problems with my Chameleon, bought in 2007.  It has only done about 1400 miles but these have been in Cornwall, Barbados, Annecy (French Alps), Mallorca, and last year around Basel and Zurich when I was working over there.  Utterly brilliant for sanity on consulting business trips.  And cycling on Barbados was one of my rare ventures into the sub-zero side of a cool wall.

[clarion]

I was salivating over the Airnimals in On Your Bike yesterday, and looking sadly over at my Dahon.