Best Suntour Groupset

[Agency_Scum]

What were the compatibility issues? As far as I can recall, the 8 speed thumbies worked with Shimano drivetrains but not the 7 speed. Is that right?
Also, the same went for the 8 speed hubs and Shimano cassettes. True?

 

[Radoslaw]

Had Suntour Thumbies mixed with 8 speed Shimano cassette and it worked exceptionally good.

 

[terryhfs]

Hmmmm, maybe I should mix'n'match from my Suntour stash.

Be careful! One of the reasons suntour failed was that there was no upgrade path as different groupsets were incompatible. With a Deore or Exage bike you could buy an XT mech and it would work. With Suntour, such mixing was almost doomed to failure. Complete set from same group or nothing.

 

[dyna-ti]

Where did the superb versions fit into the suntour range?

Superbe and Superbe Pro were the top road groups, both excellent. The name wasn't used for mtb gear.

Superbe pro,that was it
Chap i know has the complete groupo on his P7

 

[FluffyChicken]

Hmmmm, maybe I should mix'n'match from my Suntour stash.

Be careful! One of the reasons suntour failed was that there was no upgrade path as different groupsets were incompatible. With a Deore or Exage bike you could buy an XT mech and it would work. With Suntour, such mixing was almost doomed to failure. Complete set from same group or nothing.

Since when ? A LOT of the parts between the MTB groupset where shared, not just similar but the same one.
It all ran along the same technology, their own though different and often incompatible with Shimano. They failed due to money issues and probably not help by the constant owner swapping, put in the sudden MTB boom and R&D clout of Shimano it just got too much for them to keep up. Of course they would be replaced by a small startup making twist shifters...

 

[velomaniac]

My alternative might be a full Shimano Exage build as I have lots of bits of that kicking about. What level were exage in the Shimano Heirarchy ?

 

[Radoslaw]

Depends what Exage, I had Exage Mountain and later Exage ES in my Peugeot bikes and were pretty good, something like today's Deore. Apart this groups were Exage 500,400 and 300 LX and CX, I'm very confused with hierarchy of these.

 

[StealthDJ]

Around 91/92, the Shimano MTB range went (IIRC)

SIS -> 100GS -> 200GS -> Exage 300GS -> Exage 400GS/LX -> Exage 500GS/LX -> Deore LX -> Deore DX -> Deore XT

400 and 500 definitely had both GS and LX variants, can't remember whether 300 did as well.

Tony

 

[Radoslaw]

GS not CX, my mistake but I'm pretty sure GS verions were lower than Exage LX :?:

 

[FluffyChicken]

1992 Bike
So it went
top to bottom
XTR
Deore XT
Deore DX
Deore LX

of which I consider the MTB groupset
LX beign entry level one.

Below that there is the large recreational setup of Exage (your Alivio/Aceria/Altus etc in the modern world)
500/400/300 LX's
then
500/200 CX's (these targeted at a different market to the LX ? so not really ATB)

then we drop to the world best groupset
200GS followed by 100GS and 70GS
and the the staple diet of you £50 special Tourney on SIS ...


anyways so many groups at this time of year and they changed names a bit but still sat in that position, not sure how they made them crapper and cheaper but I guess they did.

One min I'll get a link so you can geek yourself out
http://www.fa-technik.adfc.de/Herstelle ... uppen.html


You should hopefully know XTR/XT/DX/LX
so

Exage 500/400/300 LX
http://yfrog.com/c91992exageseriesj


200/100/70 GS
http://yfrog.com/7d1992shimanogsseriesj

(thanks to Pitor)