bloom87

Hi all..

A couple of things were off on the $100, mostly full Dura-Ace 7400, Columbus road bike that I got.

The brake levers were old Dura-Ace AX (which is not good-looking at all, methinks), and for some reason the seat post was a Deore XT made out of cr-mo.

I needed a 27.0 seatpost, so I found a vintage carbon seatpost on ebay for $20.

Later, I find out it's a Sugino 75 (missing its sticker). Do a little search on the group. Find out they also made brake levers, which I go get on eBay for $60 this time.

I am just curious : what bikes were speced with this rare, special carbon group ? Did any pros race on it ? They're not ground-breakingly light or anything, but they sure look nice, being at the same time, classic and made out of carbon.

VeloBase page for Sugino 75 Road :
https://www.velobase.com/ViewGroup.as...7-144a61c60987

(mine don't have the decals !)

Snydermann

Around 1987 Lotus offered the Sugino 75 equipped Elan 75 as one of their Racing Series bikes along with the Lotus Prestige (Dura-Ace) and the Lotus Design Cinelli Supreme (Campy SR). The Elan 75 was priced to the LBS at $950.00 (wholesale).

More info and photos on the Elan 75 page on the Vintage Lotus Bicycles website.

Lotus made a lot of cool bikes that you rarely see.

Chombi

Last year while looking around in eBay, I remember finding an NOS Sugino 75 group "carbon" chainring for sale. What got my attention was, it looks identical to the carbon laminated chainring on my Stronglight Delta cranks:

Coiuld they have shared the rings with Stronglight?

Chombi

bloom87

Wouldn't surprise me that they were sourcing from, or to Stronglight.

My brake levers are marked Dia-Compe (clamps) and the Sugino 75 brakes were known to be Dia-Compes. The derailleurs were from Suntour, I think.

Very funny how competing companies would allow others to re-brand their products.

GrayJay

Suntour/Diacomp/Sugino were not necessarily competitors, there was minimal overlap between the products that each actually produced. They comprized a marketing alliance to sell thier parts together in order to compete with Shimano and Campagnolo wich each had thier own complete supply lines. Suntour did not manufactur all the components in a suntour labeled gruppo, thier expertice was fairly limited to deraillers, freewheels and shifters. The hubs, cranks and brakes in a "suntour" gruppo more typically were made by thier alliance partners even if they wore a suntour name.

Similarly, sachs+modolo produced a few grouppos together in the late 80's, one even including campy ergo shifters.

bloom87

Nota Bene.. all the carbon from the group is essentially carbon fairing, meaning it's wrapping an alloy structure.

For instance, the Sugino 75 "Carbon" levers only weigh a few grams less than their Dura-Ace 7400 counterpart (that have return springs in extra).

It's kind of a sham, but a nice one.

Iowegian

I didn't know there was an entire group. I have a Sugino 75 BB, all alloy and very nice, much like a Campy BB of the era. I thought it was from some sort of track group

frenchbikefan

I have a sugino crankset with a suntour stamp on the back, guess that explains it.

Chombi

Were they all linked to "Maeda Industries"? I think that was Suntour's parent company.

Chombi

Catnap 

i have a full Sugino 75 road group on my Zunow Z-1. It took about 2 years to collect it all up - very rare and hard to find. it rides and shifts great - pretty much the same as Suntour Superbe Pro. The only parts I'm not a fan of are the shifters and the pedals. being made of some weird carbon composite, they are not very durable. i keep the pedals in storage and use some Time ATACs instead.