Regarding the comment made by someone (short term memory fails me, badly) in the constreuctor thread about replacing overpriced French parts with SunTour:
Well, why not? After all, that's what we were doing back in 1972-73, when the Huret Allvit, Simplex Prestige, etc., that our bikes came with crapped out. And immediately discovered that the cheapest SunTour produced matched or bettered the best the French were bringing over.
I got reminded of this a couple of weeks ago when the body of the Simplex Criterium front on my Tour de France cracked. Just wanting to keep it on the road in the interim, I stopped by the local re-cycle shop and pulled a SunTour Hero (ugly stamped piece of metal, I believe fugitive from a Wal-Mart bike) and installed it.
I'm starting to get desperate to find another Criterium before I get too used to the Hero. It works so much better.
Then when I built up the Magneet, I didn't bother sourcing another set of Campy Valentino - I put on SunTour Honor long-arm/Compe-V front. Hey, when I've got the three pannier setup loaded, I don't want to have to fiddle with shifts.
I just try to keep it period plus the normal owner modifications done within the first three years, when I build 'em up.
I guess all this changeover back then had a lot to do with our riding eyes straight ahead, rather than nose in the air.
George R. "Syke" Paczolt Montpelier, VA USA Deranged Few M/C
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