http://www.disraeligears.co.uk

It wasn't light, was a little bit noisy, but you could pound rocks with it all day long and it would still shift gears reliably and did not cost an arm and a leg.

The Huret Allvit that came with your bicycle must have seemed pretty primitive and crude compared to this new Suntour derailleur that was almost a full pound of steel and chrome but you didn't care because it shifted much more smoothly than the Allvit and it didn't cost very much. Unlike the Allvit the action was light and it didn't have the same tendency to ghost shift because of those heavy return springs, which also liked to eat shifter cables.

The Allvit had been the derailleur for the masses since the late 1950's and it sold extremely well and then Suntour came along and re-wrote the book on how a derailleur should function, the Honour was not some super light piece of kit that would impress your snobby friends, but rather, an absolute workhorse that could work day in and day out.

Compared to the Allvit it must have seemed marvelous as it had adjustment screws you could turn with you fingers, it had a b screw so you could use to fine tune the derailleur position and chain tension, and routing the cable and setting it up is like child's play.

The French never knew what hit them and many a Simplex Prestige that exploded got replaced with a Suntour Honor and the Allvit all but vanished from the landscape as a derailleur who's best days were long behind it, and it was never really very good to start with.

And some 42 years later a Phillip's Glider that had an Allvit found itself wearing a new piece of kit that could pound rocks all day but works pretty well at making the chain go back and forth. I tried a Svelto but despite it's charming looks and smoother shifting it has a problem with cogs over 26 teeth.

The first generation Honor I found was so dirty and covered in grime that I was pleasantly surprised to see it clean up so well and shine so brightly. I could have used something exquisite like a V series or a Cyclone but thought the Honor was the right derailleur for the bike (which is no high end racer) and despite it's age the old Suntour still runs smoothly, shifts well, and is rather quiet.



The Allvit and Svelto...



The Allvit was pretty much new and finding one in this condition is a rarer occurrence (for me)... most that I see are battered, rusty, and have not aged well over time and the Svelto is still a little gem.

If I wanted to crush rocks I might have used a Shimano Eagle (which also shifts very well) but thought the Suntour was a better fit.