Originally Posted by
zukahn1
I have never had an issue with the reverse action Suntour stuff other than it doesn't match up work well without matching same era Suntour shifters. One of the best shifting vintage bikes I ever owned a 73/74 Nishki Competition had a VX paired with SL front and Racheting/retro fristion barends which where stock. For when it came out it was as good as it gets.
As a paid mechanic back then, the problem was twofold, the spring was doing all the work, you needed to "slap" the shift to let the spring do its job without delay. Then even if you did that and the bike was not well maintained, the excess friction was holding back the cage, slowing the shift. Later as these wore out the spring tension became reduced, sometimes so much that the shift would not complete. In my mind this reverse action was not one of Suntour's better ideas.