My Suntour Superbe has about 60K miles and going strong. Also a touring derailleur like a Suntour VGT luxe has a much tougher job than a Campy per shift. Lots more lateral load into those pivots from a long cage and big jump.
Another thing- we all own too many bikes to wear anything out! Except maybe a Jubilee.
Joe Bender-Zanoni Great Notch, NJ
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch NJ
> Stevan opined
>
> "So what? Remember that all the Japanese derailleurs shifted
> their best only
> when new. Performance then degraded AND they were impossible
> to rebuild so
> you got to buy a new one in about a year. "
>
> I dunno what derailleurs you're referring to Stevan, but I
> have thousands and thousands of miles on a first generation
> Suntour Cyclone I bought new in about 1975, that I raced on,
> and now use occasionally on my old race bike. It still
> shifts about as well as it did when new, which is to say,
> better than any Campagnolo friction derailleur ever made.
> And my Suntour V-GT Luxe has been abused way beyond what
> any derailleur should have to endure (three winters in
> Alaska, used nearly every day, often in two or more feet of
> new powder...I used my feet as stabilizers as I coasted down
> the gravel hill to work... ;> ), and until I removed it
> from my old Falcon, it worked perfectly.
>
> So you might want to rethink your statement above. My
> experience says it's wrong.
>
> Charles "Campy's sexier, Suntour works better" Andrews
> SoCal