Kip: Personally I love the '85 Suntour XC derailleurs and shifters... Overbuilt, bombproof, and they look awesome. I also love the older Deore "deerhead" derailleurs and the brushed aluminum friction shifters... equally fine; I own sets of each. For my Bomba, I use a 1998 Shimano XTR m951 (low normal) derailleur with the built-in rollamajiggy, and I use friction/indexed Deore thumbies (from the late 80s). I run a 7-speed touring cassette on a Phil Wood freewheel hub. This setup (except for the low normal) is near perfect. (Also, the brake levers from this era were unmatched). Here are a few pics: Shifters: http://tinyurl.com/3kyxtfu, Brake Levers: http://tinyurl.com/3m3n9w6
Bottom line: Shimano stuff (through much of the 90s) remained good, but there's nothing that compares to that mid-late-80s stuff... It was built so amazingly well. Good luck! BB On Apr 5, 6:49 pm, Kip Otteson <kip.otte...@gmail.com> wrote: > Just curious about your opinions. I've looked a little on eBay and > I've found many Suntour XC Pro and XC Expert derailleurs and thumb > shifters there. By many I mean 5 or so. I remember back in the day, > 1988/89, that friends that were really into mountain biking loved the > Suntour stuff. I currently have a Nooodle bar on the Bombadil and am > thinking about moving my current dirt drop bar setup to my wife's > Heron and going with a Bullmoose Bar. I'd put the thumb shifters on > the new set up and get rid of my squeaky Deore derailleur in the > process. I saw the XT rear for sale on the list and I'd buy it today, > but I was wondering what you guys/gals thought? I want to get a 7 > speed rear wheel built up by Riv so that would be the wheel it would > work with. If I put the derailleur on my bike right now (9 speed) > would it work if I just use friction mode? > > Thanks for your insight and opinions. > > Kip Otteson > Chiang Mai, Thailand -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
