With all due respect, my opinion differs regarding combining Suntour bar-cons with a Crane rear derailleur. That is exactly the combination I had on my Jack Taylor beginning and 1974 and continuing for over 25 years. I loved it! It always worked well for me. I'm about to put that combo on my 1975 Colin Laing.
David
David G. White Burlington, VT
Mark Stonich wrote:
> [snip]
>
>> 2) Crane/DuraAce are age-appropriate, but Berto/Dancing Chain says
>> they don't work as well as Suntour. Votes?
>
>
> Berto was a big fan of Suntour BarCons, and he was into huge
> freewheels. Suntour's slant parallelogram gave them a real advantage
> on really big freewheels. But Cranes were OK up to about 30t and were
> more durable.
>
> In those days SunTours shifters and rear derailleurs were designed to
> work with more cable travel, and less cable tension than their
> competition. (A superior idea IMHO) If you hooked a Crane up to ST
> BarCons, a small amount of lever travel translated into overly large
> movements at the rear. And the increased cable tension of the Crane
> meant the Barcon friction had to be adjusted too tightly, making it's
> movements jerky instead of smooth. Combine the 2 directly and
> shifting was crap. However, if you put a Simplex Demultiplicator
> Relias between them, all was sweetness and light.
>
> [snip]
>
>
> Mark Stonich;
> BikeSmith Design & Fabrication LLC
> http://bikesmithdesign.com