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Re: [OM] [OT] (way off topic) Bicycles WAS: Italian trip

Subject: Re: [OM] [OT] (way off topic) Bicycles WAS: Italian trip
From: Joshua Putnam <josh@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 10:00:29 -0800
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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