Maeda Industries / Suntour freewheel - date?

[Dead Rats]

Picked up an early '80s Sun road bike last week (a bitza wreck!) off Gumtree.

Bear with me..

I think the bike is from 1984 based on the rear hub wheel being an '84' stamped Maillard and it's been (horribly) converted to flat bars with cheapo plastic SIS thumbies

I wonder if the freewheel is also from 1984? Upon stripping the bike down I found that the freewheel is a 13-32 Maeda Industries Suntour Japan unit. It's 6 speed, unramped and needed a Park FR-2 two pin jobby to remove. It's in really nice condition now after a clean.

Have I found something rare - ie a mid '80s Suntour MTB freewheel? Or not?

I'm not after a valuation, I'm going to use it on something else (the bike in question is much more suited to a 12-26 or similar) possibly my ongoing '84 Saracen project if it's period to the latter.

:?:

 

[FluffyChicken]

Maillard
there should be for numbers stamped. 84 would certainly be the year and the first two the week of the year.

Freewheel
Wouldn't think they are rare.. Suntour where big back then* There may be a date code on it near one of the pin hole on the back plate, something like AK .
Or it could be a moderner replacement, freewheels where still using in to the early 90's in the Suntour range.



*They even apparently made freewheels for Shimano


Also we should be in the Retro Road section, it's a road bike after all and get some pics up.

 

[Dead Rats]

Maillard
there should be for numbers stamped. 84 would certainly be the year and the first two the week of the year.

Freewheel
Wouldn't think they are rare.. Suntour where big back then* There may be a date code on it near one of the pin hole on the back plate, something like AK .
Or it could be a moderner replacement, freewheels where still using in to the early 90's in the Suntour range.



*They even apparently made freewheels for Shimano


Also we should be in the Retro Road section, it's a road bike after all and get some pics up.

cheers FC... yes, the hub is defintely an '84 Maillard. I found two threads on here regarding Suntour - interesting reading. The freewheel is stamped 'A 32' on the back of the largest cog if that provides any clues - ?
It could well be non-original to the wheel as 32 seems an awfully low gear for a road bike, although having said that it would be a useful size for touring as, given that this bike was utilising an original looking Sugino No.6 crankset with 40/52 rings, the 32 cog would give the touring rider a lowest gear of a 34"

 

[juice]

Rare or not in my opinion you have found the best quality freewheel there ever was. Over the last year or so i searched for the best solution for my Ringlé freewheel hub and therefore talked to a lot of bike shop owners about this topic. (In my case a 7speed one.)
The first thing mostly everybody came up with was some Dura Ace freewheel.
And i think that is because nearly everybody of these guys had some of them laying around somewhere. One guy i talked to showed me a 6speed Suntour Winner Pro and from there on it was clear to me what to look for.
So my very personal experience is that a Suntour Winner Pro freewheel is harder to come by than a Shimano Dura Ace at least over here in Germany.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Deadrats, not sure exactly where it is, think it's more the pin holes you used to take it off.
That's just the tooth number as I assume you guessed.

I thin Sugino have date codes as well (given they also made for Suntour)
hang on I remember a good site for this

http://www.vintage-trek.com/component_dates.htm

 

[Dead Rats]

Deadrats, not sure exactly where it is, think it's more the pin holes you used to take it off.
That's just the tooth number as I assume you guessed.

I thin Sugino have date codes as well (given they also made for Suntour)
hang on I remember a good site for this

http://www.vintage-trek.com/component_dates.htm

Bingo (maybe?)! Cheers, mine is stamped AD so it's looks like April 1984

thanks again FC