In a message dated 3/10/2004 6:12:20 PM PST, steve@sburl.com writes: Also, the SunTour rear changers seemed to be the most fragile, often snapping off when the bike was dropped on its right side. Shimanos would do this with a bit harder bump. Huret derailleurs would just bend in, ready to go into the spokes and trash the changer, wheel and maybe even the dropout on the next shift into first gear. Obviously, this made the French changer far superior to the Japanese ones, even though the SunTour and Shimano units set a new standard for shifting. It was so annoying to have some dweeb claim that his V-GT derailleur shifted better than your Nuovo Record and secretly know the jerk was right. I once saw a Raleigh get sold on a Friday and come back on Monday with the SunTour front cage worn through by the chain. I can't say that my experience was the same as yours, and it sounds pretty intense. But I can tell you that my first "high-end" bike was a 71 Nishiki "Semi-Pro",,,, that was the model name. This bike had a Vx rear derailluer. It came with wide 30T to 14T 5-speed Suntour "Compe" freewheel, given the "oro" treatment. It shifted fine for 4 straight years on that freewheel. I ended up switching it out to a 6-sp Suntour Ultra 23T-12T freewheel and upgraded to (what I think was cyclone model) some Suntour down-tube friction shifters. [the bike originally came with bar-end shifters] The bike shifted like butter and i used the very same set up for the next 4 years until I switched out the pulleys to the ballbearing ones. I then put another 4 years on the same Vx derailluer until I sold the bike in the early 80s. I can't say anything bad about that system. In fact, IMHO, if enough people had used that same set-up, I think index-shifting would never have hit the scene as quickly as it did. Butter,,,,,, crisp from one cog to the next, dead-on with no chain chatter. However, as you hinted at above, no one wanted to hear that, let alone wanted to believe it. cheers-
Dave Anderson Cut Bank MT
Dave Anderson
Cut Bank MT