Suntour LePree derailleur
 

Can anyone tell me where this falls in the Suntour line up and the year(s) it ran, and what are the opinions on it?? The one I got on a bike I purchased for my daughter It seems nice and light and works really well.

The LePree was one of Suntours mid price units built around 1985-86. Anything that Suntour made in the mid price range was still better then anything Campy or Shimano put out as far as shifting accuracy and smoothness and reliabilty.

Thanks for shedding some light,, I have a bike with a Cyclone II and the LePree seems to be lighter and work better. You are right though, Suntour stuff was, and is still great.

Cyclone GT II, which I think was the only model of Cyclone that had the II after it is actually an earlier model to the LePree being built around 1982. Not sure what the difference is between the two though. I have some weight information on the Cyclone but not the LePree. The Cyclone GT rear derailleur weighed about 188 grms and the front was 98grms. I had always thought that the Cyclone group was the lightest offering Suntour had besides Superbe, since supposely Cyclone was one step down from Superbe. But I could be wrong as far as Cyclone VS LePree, of the two I don't know which is lighter. Either one though were superb derailleurs.

Actually, I believe the Cyclone was the lighest unit offered by SunTour. They beefed up the Superbe for extra reliability in its intended race application. The LePree I remember was the version introduced in 1985 on Nishiki models. It had three pulleys to achieve a 42T of chain wrap. It had been developed in conjunction with Nishiki and as a result, Nishiki had one year exclusive availability on the three pulley version.

My 460 has the Cyclone GT and it IS a great little changer. The ZebraKenko has the BL (blue line) which is a bit visibly clunkier and not as smooth.

Thanx for the input on these derailleurs, guys.





Olds

Thanks for the input,, I always learn so much from you guys.. They are both great units,, I use an ARx on one of my bikes and it is godd, but not as smooth it seems to me..

I've heard of the three pulley design and wondered "why" ?, so they did it to take up chain rather than a longer cage?

No your incorrect about Cyclone being the lightest, it was the 2nd lightest the first was Superbe Pro. The Superbe Pro rear derail weighed 169grms vs Cyclone at 184; the Superbe frt derail weighed 100grms (due to hefter spring for faster response) and the Cyclone was 98...so overall the Superbe was lighter. Overall the Superbe Pro group as a whole was lighter then the Cyclone...how much lighter? I don't have those figures. Also the Superbe Pro group had a better finish and used more durable parts, which you would think would make it heavier but only in the case of the front derailleur and bottom bracket. I had a Cyclone bottom bracket but switched to the Superbe because the Cyclone's was not stiff enough...Someone once said that Suntour didn't make the bb's either but I have no proof of that. Suntour did make a Superbe Tech derailleur that was quite hefty at around 300grms in an effort to improve shifting even more, did it work? I don't know that either. I know I still use and used to race using the Tech derail and never had any issues with it in it's 140,000+miles history.

And according to my book (not sure if it's information is complete), the LePree was only made in 85 and maybe 86; as far as being only made for Nishiki I have no clue...maybe that's why I only have record of it being made for only 1 year due to Nishiki 1 year exclusive rights. Suntour did do some odd things like that; for example their brakes were actually made by Dia Comp.

Regardless of all the mumbo jumbo above, the Cyclone group was an excellent group for the money...but so was the VGT. Either the VGT, LePree, Cyclone or the Superbe were FAR superior to anything anyone else made at the time.

Froze, 1985-1986 sounds about right for the LePree. However, there were both 2 and 3 pulley versions available at the same time. Nishiki's exclusive, one year deal was only for the 3 pulley version. SunTour also offered three pulley versions of other derailleurs beside the LePree.

The SunTour bottom brackets and cranksets were likely made by Sugino. SunTour, Dia-Compe and Sugino were all part the JEX association of Japanese manufacturers who had a non-competition clause with fellow members. So, when SunTour wanted to market a group against Shimano they had to go to JEX associates like Dia-Compe and Sugino for the brakes and crankests. However, we cannot rule out Takagi, who was another JEX crankset manufacturer.

As for the lighest derailleur, Bicycling lists the mid-1980s Cyclone MkII rear derailleur at 161g.

However, there is no denying that, in general, SunTour derailleurs offered excellent performance and value, across the line. At least until SunTour's slant parallelogram patent expired and Shimano was able to incorporate it with their SIS indexed shifting system.

My years and weight information came from Suntour years ago just prior to them going out of business; I think the list is not complete though because I ran into a Suntour model (can't remember the model) that I had never heard of but wasn't in on the sheet from Suntour, but it turned out to be a bottom end unit. I know Suntour was very accurate with their weights on my sheet because my Superbe and VGT series of derailleurs I had over the years weighed what they said they would, so I assume all their other components were accurate...or at least real close. So I'm not sure where Bicycling got their weights from, but according to my Suntour sheet it's wrong. In fact Suntour had two Cyclone models, the GT and just plain Cyclone the GT weighed 188 and the other 184. There was also 3 different Superbe's; Superbe, Superbe Pro and Tech, the Superbe weighed 198, Pro 169, and the Tech 290.

I went with the Tech because it was the fastest most accurate friction shifter ever made, so the weight thing wasn't an issue for me; this thing will shift while climbing a mountain grade without having to back off on pedal pressure to do so! (I lived in California for over 30 years) I had heard a few years later that they had reliablity issues with the Tech series, but like I said earlier mine has over 140,000 miles and no problems yet...but I did buy a new spare before Suntour went out of business just in case; though I never thought the darn Superbe stuff would last so long! BUT I admit that I believe I'm the exception to the rule with the durability situation, I do however take good care of the components so maybe thats why?