Who has an opinion on the comparison?

I've been riding my Nishiki Comp II with a Cyclone shifting group on a Campy 8spd cluster (12-25). I've got some Superbe and Superbe Pro derailleurs sitting pretty in my drawer. Would switching from the long cage Cyclone to the short cage Superbe Pro be:

an upgrade?
a downgrade?
negligible?

I tend to just ride with what's working and not always consider subtle improvements, but I'm easily swayed!

If they were both short cage the Cyclone would probably weigh less. Superbe's are nice and quiet, though. I ran a Pro on a 7s 12-21 and would often look down to see if it really shifted as it was so smooth.

It should be an upgrade, as 25teeth max out back shouldn't be a problem. Here is some info on suntour and nishiki from 1982.

In 1982, the year before mountain bikes became significant, SunTour equipped about 60% of the medium-priced bicycles, compared to Shimano's 30%. SunTour had 13 different lines of derailleurs. From the top they went; Superbe Pro, Superbe, Cyclone Mk II, Cyclone, BL, ARx, Vx, AR, Seven, Volante, Honor, GT, and Mighty Click. Most lines had a racing and a touring model. Vx rear derailleurs came in four different capacities.

1982 Nishiki info: ... SUPERBE - 21 LBS

CONTINENTAL - 22.5 LBS

COMPETITION - 23 LBS

INTERNATIONAL - 24.5 LBS

LANDAU - 24.5 LBS

OLYMPIC - 26.5 LBS

RALLY - 30.5 LBS

According to Sutherland's, the AR "medium cage" can handle up to 28T freewheel, has a maximum total capacity (difference between smallest and largest freewheel cogs plus the difference between smallest and largest chain rings) of 30T, and can accommodate a 16T maximum chainring spread.

For a given cage length, I have never noticed much performance difference between Cyclone and Superbe derailleurs -- both are superb performers. However, using the shortest possible cage for your cogset should give you the crispest possible shifting.

Slight upgrade, but if the rest of the components are Cyclone, I would stick with that to keep a "matched" group. Cyclone is a pretty good grade anyway.

Yeah, I hear ya on the matching compulsion. Thing is, I've already broken that up with a Superbe brakeset. I love their design, so I couldn't resist. The crankset is a Sugino Super Mighty drillium, that has red enamel in the channels, so it's all kind of mixed, outside of being Japanese. Then the wheels throw that off because I've got nice Campy there.

I suppose I'm most curious to check out the functioning difference between the cage lengths. Seems worth the experiment if not for that alone.

The silent and stealthy shifting endorsement is also very enticing!

When were the Sprint and GPX lines introduced and where do they fit in the hierarchy?

https://www.yellowjersey.org/stour89a.html

Just got a Cyclone Mk2 groupset with a Symetric shifter (that I can't use without an adaptor) and I will be putting new d's on my sister's Centurion to upgrade the existing Suntour 7 group.

Suntour Cyclone 1 and 2 are very nice components... I am looking to replace the 600 Arabesque on my Raleigh with an early Cyclone group as it nearly as ornate and will work much better.

Please share your wisdom with custermustache.

I don't know if this is as much wisdom as it is from having experience with Suntour when it was shiny new equipment on my bikes and because I still work on so many old bikes and can see how well these 80's Suntour parts hold up and how much better they work as compared to their Shimano counterparts.

They really did dominate the mid to upper end markets and it was because their parts were so well made.

There was a time many would have admitted that Suntour outperformed those Italians for a fraction of the cost and this has been cited as one of the reasons for their demise in that they never charged what the parts were really worth.

They could have put a lot more money into R&D and developed a successful indexed system before Shimano as they invented and held the patents on this technology.

I have a great fondness for the old Suntour as some of their parts were simply unmatched in quality... we can see the prices Superbe level parts bring these days as they really did live up to their name.

I saw a 1st gen. Cyclone RD sell for near $100 last week on Ebay! Cyclone and Superbe components are regularly selling for Campy prices.


I have a great fondness for the old Suntour as some of their parts were simply unmatched in quality... we can see the prices Superbe level parts bring these days as they really did live up to their name.[/QUOTE]

Maybe I should just sell all these old Cyclone bits I have kicking around... damn.