Talk:SunTour

Wow, this is an opinionated statement
"They are known for making very durable components at a low cost"

I've removed this since, frankly, it's just an opinion. I encourage people to repost it if they can prove it.

This entire entry is chock full of opinion words. One of the more egregious... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.138.15.156 (talk) 08:43, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Is this statement true?
"SunTour was the first component maker to introduced indexed shifting (ahead of Shimano)"

Shimano introduced Positron, a low-end index shifting system, in 1977 or so. SunTour may have had something earlier, but I can't recall it (or easily find mention of it). Could change above to say "...aimed at mid-range and high-end bicycles" if that's accurate. Is it? Jim Feeley (talk) 22:50, 30 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm a little late with a reply, but I'd point out that Sturmey Archer shifters were also indexed, well before the '70s. --Keithonearth (talk) 03:18, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Continuity of the company
I find the claim that SunTour "was" a cycling component manufacturer unreferenced and probably wrong. THe possible change of ownership (if true) doesn't necessary mean the disappearance of the manufacturer, as far as the company keeps an important part of its employees, factories, and product lines. The statement that "As of 2004, the SR Suntour brand has returned under new ownership" is stupid. It hasn't returned because it hadn't gone. I owe a bicycle purchased in 2002 with a suspension fork with the brand SR SunTour, at that time this suspension brand was well-known in Europe, it sold more forks than RockShox, mainly because the products of the latter were more expensive. Many bicycle reputed manufacturers equipped their models with SunTour as a more affordable model with suspension fork. Heathmoor (talk) 12:05, 31 August 2010 (UTC)


 * You are incorrect. Suntour ceased to be and its facilities were sold off, its tooling scrapped and its employees out of a job.


 * The only thing that survived was the name, which was purchased by an unrelated company and applied to their products. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.213.197.42 (talk) 10:50, 5 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Both of the above writers make correct statments. Suntour went bankrupt, it's tooling was sold for scrap, factories closed and only it's name passed on to the new the new owners.  (I've got refs for that, but not at hand.)  I don't think this constitutes a continuation of the brand.  The SR Suntour brand is a effectively a different brand.  --Keithonearth (talk) 19:19, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
 * In what sense is it a different brand? Tilapidated (talk) 19:09, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

larger context?
Is anyone interested in placing this in the context of the bicycle component industry? While Shimano is mentioned in this article, it seems like this should be embedded in a series about different manufacturers? Tilapidated (talk) 19:08, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

It would be great to have a citation here
A contemporary Consumer Reports test reported that "SunTour was far and away the easiest to shift and the most certain of arriving at the right sprocket." 66.194.117.58 (talk) 16:53, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

That statement corresponds with my own experience: in the early 1990s (1992-94-ish) I was looking for an MTB. Tried a Suntour equipped Trek and Shimano equipped Cannondale. The former was cheaper by $100 or so (& a nicer color) and its Suntour gears shifted exceptionally smoothly, the latter Shimano gears never did (I still own the latter, 20+ years later) - a keen cyclist friend persuaded me to buy the Shimano-equipped Cannondale against my own better judgement & experiences, on the basis that Shimano was the up & coming brand & Suntour wasn't, on that point he was unfortunately right. Suntour produced good, innovative & affordable products and it is a shame (and rather unfair) that they went under IMHO, and I say that as the owner of several primarily Shimano equipped bikes (in fairness, the gears on my Shimano-equipped road bike is super-smooth - but even that bike depends on an unusual & now rare Suntour quill seatpost). I would be interested to read more info. on the Suntour MicroDrive & Superbe Pro stuff.