Actually Suntour was very innovative. They used sealed cartridge bearings before
many in the industry. Suntour was also the inventor of the slant parallelogram
derailleur, probably the true major bicycle innovation of our time. This
derailleur design turned out to be the key to reliable index shifting.
Unfortunately suntour did not capitalize on this. suntour also did not do a good
job of marketing. Other innovations were a ratcheting shifter that balanced the
spring tension of the rear derailleur, and a reverse spring setup on the front
derailleur so that shift lever pulled the same direction to reach high gear as
the rear shifter. They were plenty innovative, just didn't have the marketing
punch to follow through. I would say that the analogy to Olympus holds up rather
well. It is especially notable when you understand that Shimano had more
employees in their marketing OR R&D DEPARTMENTS than Suntour had WORLDWIDE!!!
Jim Couch
Chip Stratton wrote:
> Suntour is/was sort of like the 'Olympus' of bicycle componentry. There was
> a time when they made very high quality, high end componentry. It never
> received quite the recognition that Shimano did, partly because of
> marketing, and partly (here is where the analogy breaks down a bit) because
> it didn't seem to be as aggressively innovative as Shimano. At some point
> they appear to have conceded the top of the line market to Shimano &
> Campagnolo.
>
> It was almost always an excellent value, though.
>
> Chip Stratton
> was a bike racer, now a 'Fred'
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