Originally Posted by
old's'cool
Suntour is my favorite kit from the friction era.
I salvaged an Honor RD from an absolute POS junkyard bike, and subsequently passed it onto a new at the time BF member who was refurbishing a recently acquired Schwinn Varsity (if memory serves), that had a duff Prestige or Alvit (Schwinn Approved).
I always tell people that if you are going to run a friction system that you cannot do any better than Suntour... modern (indexed) derailleurs friction shift extremely well and have a place if you are trying to run extra wide gear ranges as there are few vintage derailleurs that can work as well and not implode. I have a Huret Duopar but am very reluctant to use it on anything as I fear for my wheel's safety and any Suntour GT model is a far superior unit.
If it was not for europhile snobbery and shots of Italian Kool Aid, folks would have been tossing their Nuvo Records in favour of derailleurs like the Suntour V series and Cyclone because these would shift circles around it.
I do run an Nuovo Record on my Cooper and it works well over a 13-21 block which is great for racing... but a basic 14-28 freewheel will push it to it's absolute limits.