Originally Posted by
jmeb
I'll also add OP -- if you have the original wheelset it contains a verrrry odd Suntour hub. It is some weird mash-up of a freewheel and freehub in one. Not exactly replaceable as far as I could tell. The good news is that the XCD shifters can be made to work quite well with a Shimano HG cassette.
Yeah, I thought the wheels were probably later additions. They're almost not even worth throwing away.
This bike had Deore indexed derailleurs and I had a set of wheels in the parts bin with a 7 speed HG cassette, so I never intended to use the wheels that came with the bike. Thank goodness for donor bikes. It's astonishing what you can pick up an 80s MTB for if there's one wrecked component in order to repurpose all the rest that's functional.