Johnny Johnson wrote:
At 02:06 AM 1/20/02 -0500, Larry wrote:
How far down the quality list does Suntour go?
They're so far down that they're no longer in business.
What's left of SR Suntour does still make mid-range gear,
but nothing like the high-end equipment that they were known
for.
Just kidding
Larry - IMO they made pretty decent components but they got left behind
with the shift to indexed shifting.
What really killed them was Shimano's ability to market
small changes as revolutionary improvements. Like BioPace--
oval chainrings had come and gone repeatedly in the
preceding century, but Shimano managed to convince almost
the entire world to use BioPace chainrings on mountain
bikes, road bikes, touring bikes, etc., leaving all the
other makers playing catch-up. Then they convinced everyone
to go back to round rings when the other makers had gotten
their own elliptical rings on the market. Shimano *seemed*
to be out front through all of this.
I put Suntour drive trains on mine
and Mitchelle's touring bikes and I've been very pleased with how
they've operated. I'm sure I'll be out of luck when they start wearing
out though.
Not for a while yet, there's still a good supply of Suntour
spare parts available, though some people have their own
private stockpiles of parts as well. I unloaded much of my
spare Suntour gear on eBay when prices went high enough to
cover the cost of brand new Sugino and Sachs equipment of
equal or higher quality, though I still have XC-Pro cranks
on several of my bikes, and kept a few dozen matching bottom
bracket sets.
--
Joshua Putnam | 25426 106th Ave SE #C6 | Kent, WA 98031
Home: 253/850-9514 | Fax: 253/850-9557 | Cell: 206/799-8324
http://www.phred.org/~josh/
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