What is your favorite SunTour derailleur model?

[ridelover9941]

My favorite SunTour model is the VX, but I'm a huge lover of all of the other models as well, except the SunTour Wide. What is yours?

 

[midlife]

No brainer....the Cyclone . 1976 rings a bell

 

[Grant Fondo]

Yes the Cyclone is the Lamboughini Miura of derailleurs!

 

[wonderdog]

Yes the Cyclone is the Lamboughini Miura of derailleurs!

Very similar to the first generation Superbe - probably the only diff is the branding. People go all wet round the willy over DuraAce but I don't think it compares. I run the RD 5200 rear mech on my Viscount along with a matching FD. Recently sold a mint SB00 F&R set which in retrospect was a silly move. Still, this activity keeps my beloved smiling as yet another package of stuff arrives from far off places.

 

[midlife]

While I remember there was a Suntour made Sugino 75 which was quite smart

 

[carpenter]

No brainer....the Cyclone . 1976 rings a bell

View attachment 414670

Hi, does that go for the front derailleur as well?
I have a Cyclone rear and was wondering if it would be best to go for the same model.

 

[Alan O]

My favorite SunTour model is the VX, but I'm a huge lover of all of the other models as well, except the SunTour Wide. What is yours?

VX for me too - I have a short-cage one on my road bike and long-cage on my tourer. Never used a Cyclone, mind.

 

[GuyBoden]

Mid priced Raleigh's good Suntour V GT derailleurs. (Excellent for the price.)

 

[Tenacious Sloth]

This thread definitely wins ‘Geeky Thread of the Year’.

It’s so sad, it’s not sad.

Keep it up!



Graham

 

[Ivo]

For me it's the Cyclone 7000.

 

[ChrisEyles]

Nice thread!

I'm with @Dogtrousers, the Skitter is a lovely little derailleur - I think I'm right in saying the first slant parallelogram design? @Dogtrousers is right in saying it's low normal too, I have one on my best bike, and whenever I use friction shifters on a different bike I get confused that they go the same way.

Interestingly, the similar vintage Suntour Spirt (that's not a typo.... I think something was lost in translation over in Japan) front derailleur I have is high normal, so again the friction shifter works the "wrong" way around.

 

[midlife]

Disraeli gears do a good suntour round up, indeed it's a good site all round

http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/SunTour_derailleurs_-_the_Skitter_story.html

 

[Alan O]

Disraeli gears do a good suntour round up, indeed it's a good site all round

http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/SunTour_derailleurs_-_the_Skitter_story.html

Yep, it's a derailleur fetishist's dream

 

[ChrisEyles]

Ooh, @midlife nice site, I've not seen that one before!

Mine's the 3rd style skitter (didn't even realise there were so many iterations).

 

[ChrisEyles]

Haha, just read this on the site:

"SunTour had a long obsession with the idea that both gear levers (for the front and the rear derailleur) should operate ‘the same way’ - i.e. you should either push both levers forward for lower gears or you should push both levers forward for high gears. At the time (and for several decades afterwards) the convention was to push the right hand lever forward for high gears at the rear derailleur, but to pull the left hand lever back for high gears at the front derailleur. The low-normal design of the Skitter was an attempt to solve this problem."

But since both my front and rear suntour derailleurs work the "wrong" way around, the friction shifters still operate in different directions - d'oh!