Most the Schwinn Approved Sun Tour barcons had the grey covers. Black was the standard color for the SunTour branded barcons. Also, I think the Schwinn ones had no lettering molded into them, while the regular SunTours had their name on the covers. That way, the SunTour name would not appear on the barcons, just Schwinn Approved. Schwinn Approved items were sometimes a little heavier duty or had some slightly different features than the non-standard version. Sometimes, the difference was only cosmetic, and sometimes the part was actually worse. I think the real reason was so that Schwinn could source a part from multiple manufacturers and keep up the charade that they were making their own bikes from soup-to-nuts, something they did with very few bikes, after the 1950's.
Steve Barner, Bolton, Vermont
> Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 19:31:29 -0500
> From: "John Hawrylak" <jphawrylak@phd-computers.com>
> To: "rocketman531" <rocketman531@earthlink.net>,
> "ADP" <aphillips9@mindspring.com>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Subject: Re: [CR]the bike gods and my Schwinn
> Ann, Rocketman, & Others,
---Snip---
> My 1975 Schwinn approved Voyaguer II (same bike) had black hoods on the
> Suntour shifters and the shifter housing is stamped "Schwinn Approved".
The
> 1975 colors were opaque red (my color) and silver, so perhaps the black
went
> better than the grey. The handlebars were also wrapped in a black
textured
> vinyl tape which held up very well.
---Snip---
> John Hawrylak
> Woodstown NJ