T-Mar,

It is Suntour Powershift lined compressionless housing. The poor shifting comes from the fact that Suntour didn’t have HG cassettes and so the chain literally has to climb up above the teeth and drop down into them. I’ve been riding Hyperglide cassettes for so long now I’ve forgotten how to shift pre-HG, and in this day and age, why on earth would anyone want to anyway?
Not trying to be a smart a$$, just sayin is all. I do appreciate the input, and am still excited to have this bike!