Hello again good people of bikefourms. I am building up an old frame and for for the first time I want to do it properly rather than just throw on whatever I can find. It is a late 80's Japanese frame and I am pretty sure I want to put on suntour cyclone or similar derailleurs and shifters. I want it to be friction but I know indexing had gained popularity by then. Here are my questions:
Is there a way to tell when a derailleur is friction or indexed just by looking?
The downtube has 2 shifter bosses so I need shifters without a clamp, right?
What other brand/models would you recommend?

I have shimano 600 pedals going on it and a Sugino crank. I am hoping to only make it a partial frankenstein.

thanks.

generally a rear derailleur used for friction shifters will not have a barrel adjuster on it (where the shift cable goes into the derailleur). Indexed will have a barrel adjuster, so you can fine tune the shifting detents so the chain will index correctly with each click.

Lots of options out there for DT shifters. I have Shimano '600' friction shifters on my Centurian which shifts an 8-speed cassette thru a '600 tri-color' index derailleur.

Any rear derailleur can be friction. Not all can be index. The shifters make the derailleurs index not the derailleur itself. The amount of cable pull in the shifter decides the make of derailleur that will work with that shifter. Roger

Thanks everyone. I am going to make sure that the bike is all matching for shifters/FD/RD. Might even buy as a set if possible.

That's the best approach. And some of us (me included) feel that indexed Suntour components are on the shaky side.

Superbe Pro, Superbe, Cyclone, Sprint, BL (blue line) are all very worthy choices. Suntour Cyclone generation 1 is like eye candy to me, but older than the era you are looking for.

The disraeli site will give you insight into which Cyclones were indexed. Cyclone 7000 was the first indexing Cyclone.


https://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/Home.html

I have seen that site and it has given me much info. Thank you for the list of components worth looking at. I have had my eye on these but as you said, I think they are too old for what I'm putting them on... https://www.ebay.com/itm/321149719574...84.m1423.l2649

Or this... https://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-Suntour-...-/321142985488 Is this a good deal?

Side question-can top mount shifters be converted to regular dowbtube shifters?