I think Robert covers it more extensively than what I was going to post, and I tend to agree with his supposition. The Cyclone derailleurs were introduced in 1975, but there was no crankset. The first "group" was Superbe in 1977, and within a couple years that group even included stem and seat post (manufacture red by others, like many of the components). There were numerous changes within the various product lines along the way, so there are various versions of components carrying the same name, or new models with similar names with extended designations (Cyclone II). There are seemingly endless versions of Superbe and Superbe Pro brake levers, and Superbe Pro derailleurs were introduced into the Superbe line before there was a Superbe Pro group.
While Suntour was often ahead in technology, it was always trying to keep up with Shimano from a marketing perspective (the Superbe group was in response to Shimano's Dura Ace and 600 groups). Just reinforces the value of marketing. Sony learned a hard marketing lesson with Betamax video tape, which was a superior product to VHS in every way, but lost the market anyway.
Wayne Bingham Lovettsville VA USA
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...well, that would depend upon what you mean by "...1st gen Cyclone cranks".
If you are referring to circa 1977 when the Superbe group debuted to supplant Cyclone at the top of the SunTour lineup, then the reason you have never seen a picture of a Cyclone crankset from this era is because they simply did not exist. As a member of the Japan Bicycle Parts Manufacturers Group (i.e. JEX - Dia-Compe, HKK. Maeda-SunTour, Nankai, Sugino, Taihei, etc.), SunTour and its fellow members at that time had a cooperative non-compete agreement in place (...decidedly unlike their Japan Bicycle Manufacturers or JBM counterparts - Araya, KKT, Sakae Ringyo, Shimano, Takagi, Tange, etc.). The result of this was that when SunTour did finally introduce what may well be considered its first "end to end" group with the 1977 Superbe offering (...although the pre-existing Road VX lineup came pretty close to being a "complete" group in my view), several of the individual components were actually manufactured by JEX affiliates and then branded with the SunTour logo (...MKS for the pedals I believe, certainly Dia-Compe for their brakes, and a modified Sugino Victory crankset, for example). Up until that point, SunTour's Cyclone product lineup had been limited strictly to front and rear derailleurs as well as shift levers (...down tube or bar-cons) whereas their only extended group, the Road VX family that I mentioned earlier, did include additional componentry in the form of complementary branded pedals, crankset, BB spindle, and hubs (...again, all of which were actually manufactured by JEX affiliates). Other contemporary SunTour models (...SL, Seven, Seven-GT, Compe-V, Honor, GT, Spirit, Skitter, Love, etc.) were front and/or rear derailleur offerings only (...sometimes front, sometimes rear, sometimes both) paired with various models of SunTour shifters. And of course, any and everything could be matched with the most appropriate Maeda SunTour freewheel in the form of their 333, 888, Winner, Pro-Compe, or Perfect models.
Inasmuch as I am "on the road" and away from my resource library, I cannot state with absolute certainty at what point SunTour actually began to offer a crankset labeled specifically as being a Cyclone model (...although, off the top of my head I would venture to guess it would have been in the early to mid 1980's - perhaps as late as the Cyclone 7000 series). Prior to that point in time, however, one would have "normally" seen a set of Cyclone derailleurs and shifters paired with either a Superbe or Road VX crankset in those instances where a given bicycle had "complete" SunTour componentry. Please remember though, unlike today when various bicycle models are often defined by the component group affixed (...a "Record" or "Chorus" bike, or a "Dura-Ace" or "Ultegra" bike), that was decidedly NOT the case back in the 1970's and earlier inasmuch as the notion of complete manufacture matched groups on a given bike really did not become common practice until the 1980's (...Shimano did not really begin to tout "The System" approach until late 1977 and that notion was somewhat slow to take hold of the market). True enough, there were exceptions prior to that time in the way of "full Campy" bikes for example (...although not even any of those until the 1968 introduction of the outrageously expensive but ever so sweet Record side pull brakes), but they were just that - EXCEPTIONS. The fact of the matter is that most bicycle manufacturers from the 1950's through 1970's were content to "pick and choose" between various component suppliers, and in those "bike boom" days of the early 1970's, they were often forced to use whatever they could find available simply due to supply shortages begot of burgeoning demand.
Anyway, I am starting to ramble on here, and for this I apologize. Assuming that no one else has come up with an exact introduction date or a photograph which addresses your specific question, then I will delve into my cache of vintage SunTour catalogs next week upon my return home in hopes of providing further information.
Robert "merrily mobile on his laptop" Broderick ...the "Frozen Flatlands" of South Dakota Sioux Falls, USA
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>From: LTravers <lat7575@swbell.net>
>To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>Subject: [CR]First gen Cyclone Crank pictures?
>Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:30:59 -0600
>
>A fellow lister is looking for some 1st gen Cyclone cranks. And I have
>to say I have never seen them or a picture. A search of the archives
>and Googling got me a whole lot of nothing. Anyone have a pic or a
>link they can point me to?
>
>--
>Lynn Travers