Originally Posted by T-Mar
Actually, I believe the Cyclone was the lighest unit offered by SunTour. They beefed up the Superbe for extra reliability in its intended race application. The LePree I remember was the version introduced in 1985 on Nishiki models. It had three pulleys to achieve a 42T of chain wrap. It had been developed in conjunction with Nishiki and as a result, Nishiki had one year exclusive availability on the three pulley version.
No your incorrect about Cyclone being the lightest, it was the 2nd lightest the first was Superbe Pro. The Superbe Pro rear derail weighed 169grms vs Cyclone at 184; the Superbe frt derail weighed 100grms (due to hefter spring for faster response) and the Cyclone was 98...so overall the Superbe was lighter. Overall the Superbe Pro group as a whole was lighter then the Cyclone...how much lighter? I don't have those figures. Also the Superbe Pro group had a better finish and used more durable parts, which you would think would make it heavier but only in the case of the front derailleur and bottom bracket. I had a Cyclone bottom bracket but switched to the Superbe because the Cyclone's was not stiff enough...Someone once said that Suntour didn't make the bb's either but I have no proof of that. Suntour did make a Superbe Tech derailleur that was quite hefty at around 300grms in an effort to improve shifting even more, did it work? I don't know that either. I know I still use and used to race using the Tech derail and never had any issues with it in it's 140,000+miles history.
And according to my book (not sure if it's information is complete), the LePree was only made in 85 and maybe 86; as far as being only made for Nishiki I have no clue...maybe that's why I only have record of it being made for only 1 year due to Nishiki 1 year exclusive rights. Suntour did do some odd things like that; for example their brakes were actually made by Dia Comp.
Regardless of all the mumbo jumbo above, the Cyclone group was an excellent group for the money...but so was the VGT. Either the VGT, LePree, Cyclone or the Superbe were FAR superior to anything anyone else made at the time.