Suntour Shifters.
 

I purchased this bike for a beater and it showed up today with a snapped rear derailleur. I am now working with the seller to resolve. I have some stuff lying around here but most of it is Shimano 8 speed. So my immediate question is...will a shimano derailleur work with suntour shifters?

Here are the specs for the bike. It is the 720 at the bottom.

http://www.vintage-trek.com/images/t...tainspecs2.jpg

It will work, but it will not index correctly.

The specs you linked to are not complete. Nevertheless Steev is probably correct. No harm in trying it though, maybe play around with cable routing at the clamp on the derailer.

So I need Shimano shifters to work with shimano derailleur? I have an 8 speed derailleur with worn out jocky pulleys. Can i swap pulleys from the suntour to the shimano? Next problem is the 7 speed hub. I assume i can't use it with 8 speed cassette?

Can i just use the 8 speed shifters, on the seven speed setup?

You can use any shifter with any derailluer in friction mode. For indexing you more-or-less need to match components. The suntour pulleys have a different bolt-through size so no. If that has a suntour cassette hub you can't put a shimano cassette on it.

They may fit but the Shimano indexing top pulleys have a small amount of float (side-to-side play) to allow the pulley to line up exactly under the proper cog. I don't think the Sun Tour pulleys will work as well.

An 8-speed cassette will not fit on a 7-speed freehub. You probably can use the 8-speed shifters on a 7-speed cassette as the spacings are fairly close. It may not be perfect but it should be adequate. Use the derailleur limit screw to lock out the 7th (lowest gear) click of the 8-speed rear shifter.

The simplest, most cost effective solution is to get another Suntour derailer. They're not too hard to find.

You should have a shop check the alignment of your derailer hanger.

This is a cheap, grocery getter bike. I already have a set of more modern 8 speed shifters and rear derailleur. That is why i was leaning that way. The suntour shifters that are on there look like crap but maybe they work?

Maybe i'll scour ebay for a suntour derailleur. Will ANY suntour derailleur work? I guess it needs to be long cage but beyond that?

Make it into a single speed.

I think he's got vertical dropouts. That makes it harder, but not impossible.
http://thumb9.webshots.net/t/55/55/9...9ZmdEeX_th.jpg

I've tried mixing Suntour and Shimano indexed stuff and never worked quite right.
Here's a set of Suntour derailers:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Suntour-XCM-fron...ayphotohosting
The Yellow Jersey has nos Suntour X-1 long cage mountain derailers for $49.95.

I think I've got an old Suntour XCE that was on my Bridgestone somewhere. I'll try to find it tomorrow.

If i get shimano 7 speed shifters and a shimano derailleur, will it shift the suntour freewheel ok?

The problem is that Suntour freewheel spacing is different from Shimano. So is the der pull. Suntour freewheels actually have closer spacing between the first 2 cogs than the other 5. You have to use Suntour 7 speed parts to get indexing. The only Shimano part you can use is the ft der. Best bet is to buy a 7 sp SunTour der online. Good luck

Tim

OK. I get it. I guess that is probably the best option unless i wanted to spend a little more. I could buy a new wheel with an 8 speed free hub body. I have shifters, cassette, and derailleur for 8 speed. I imagine the only issue would be dropout spacing which would be easy to check.

Man, it's February! That's project bike month. If it was my bike I'd convert the whole bike over to Shimano.

What do you need to make that happen and what do you have for tradeing stock?

Not much for trading stock. Most of my stuff only gets replaced when it is worn out. But I do have a set of cheap ef29 rapid fire shifters, and an alivio rear derailleur that just needs new jockey pulleys. Plus i have tons of 8 speed cassettes around with various amounts of wear.

I thought i could use those items to fix this old girl up, but not sure. This was a spur of the moment ebay purchase and i really pretty much regret buying it. I thought it would be a good bike to learn on. My background mainly is with newer bikes and i wanted an older bike to see how the frame geometry differed from my Trek 4300 and my Trek 1000.

Now it shows up with a busted derailleur and is probably too large of a frame although it is hard to tell with out riding it. Standover is ok, and reach seems to be ok as well, but I'm just not used to a seat being clear down against the top tube like this one is. So i guess i don't know what to do with it.

Good thing is, i didn't spend much on it so I am under no pressure. That's also why i don't want to invest much in it. Hopefully in the next few months, my schedule will clear up so i can play with the bike some. Right now, I have no time to work on this bike, let alone the ones i currently ride.

I probably have 2 days worth of tuning up my current rides that i have let slip behind this winter. Plus the road bike will need to hit the road soon too.

Also, if the bike has a Suntour Cassette hub, you will be unable to fit Shimano pattern cassettes. I'm sure there are many who know better, but I seem to recall that there were two different patterns of cassette hub that Suntour used (just as Shimano did).
I am going to attempt to get Suntour shifters working with a Suntour rear mech and a Shimano freewheel. It might work, but if all else fails, there is always friction.
You should check the for trade thread in Classic and Vintage. I got my XC Pro from there for 15$.

This should solve your problem. You can have it if you want it. Suntour made some great friction derailers but I can't be bothered with their indexed stuff. PM me an address and I'll mail it to you.
http://thumb9.webshots.net/t/58/158/...9TjkOSb_th.jpg

PM sent.

Suntour = great quality. Good luck!!!!!