Suntour Tandem FWs, was [CR]French Freewheel Body

(Example: Framebuilders:Tony Beek)

Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 20:09:04 -0400
From: "Harvey Sachs" <hmsachs@verizon.net>
Subject: Suntour Tandem FWs, was [CR]French Freewheel Body
To: Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, brluecke@gmail.com, johndthompson@gmail.com


Brad Luecke and John Thompson had an interesting "conversation" that led to mention of the tandem version of the Suntour "Perfect" FW. I remember that well, from about 30 years ago, and may still have one. In that period, Susan and I were pretty strong tandem riders. One day, we just plain shattered the pawls on a standard Suntour FW, wide range so we could put LOTS of torque on it. At the time, it was about the best thing going. So, I was unhappy, and decided the pawls were too weak (duh!). So, I slightly ground a couple of Regina pawls and they worked right well for a while. Until the FW body shattered. Both of these incidents happened while riding, in a pre-cell phone world...

Well, I wrote Suntour, explained that the FW were not standing up to our efforts on the tandem, and that it made me a bit uncomfortable about recommending them to our racing friends, if they wouldn't stand up to service for us tandem tourists. They were nice enough to send me two FW. Some months later, the tandem version appeared. I'm not so vain as to take credit for that innovation, but I suspect that the cumulative pile of busted FW from me and others did affect both the marketers and the designers. Who knows, maybe McCready (Santana) used his leverage...

harvey sachs
mcLean va