Equipment/Product Review (1987) The Browning Transmission
03-10-21, 09:36 AM
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Equipment/Product Review (1987) The Browning Transmission
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WTB: Slingshot bicycle promotional documents (catalog, pamphlets, etc).
WTB: American Cycling May - Aug, Oct, Dec 1966.
WTB: Bicycle Guide issues 1984 (any); Jun 1987; Jul, Nov/Dec 1992; Apr 1994; 1996 -1998 (any)
WTB: Bike World issue Jun 1974.
WTB: Slingshot bicycle promotional documents (catalog, pamphlets, etc).
WTB: American Cycling May - Aug, Oct, Dec 1966.
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WTB: Bike World issue Jun 1974.
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03-20-21, 06:46 PM
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Browning would end up licensing it to SunTour circa 1990, who would rechristen it the Browning Electronic AccuShift Transmission (BEAST). With continually dwingling market share, they were getting desperate to regain some ground on Shimano and thew BEAST didn't help matters. In fact, it arguably hurt their reputation even more.
Issues? Designers didn't see the need to add an extra ~300g of weight and more cost to their bicycles. Avid cyclists didn't like to be told they didn't know how to shift properly. While, as the test states, it worked fine in the desert, I recall not so glowing reports coming out from wet and muddy tests. Lastly, Shimano was "in" and SunTour was "out".
Issues? Designers didn't see the need to add an extra ~300g of weight and more cost to their bicycles. Avid cyclists didn't like to be told they didn't know how to shift properly. While, as the test states, it worked fine in the desert, I recall not so glowing reports coming out from wet and muddy tests. Lastly, Shimano was "in" and SunTour was "out".
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03-20-21, 07:56 PM
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And now we have "Index" shifting....go figure. 
Best, Ben
Best, Ben
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03-21-21, 07:04 AM
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Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
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"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." --Theodore Roosevelt
Capo: 1959 Modell Campagnolo, S/N 40324; 1960 Sieger (2), S/N 42624, 42597
Carlton: 1962 Franco Suisse, S/N K7911
Peugeot: 1970 UO-8, S/N 0010468
Bianchi: 1982 Campione d'Italia, S/N 1.M9914
Schwinn: 1988 Project KOM-10, S/N F804069
03-22-21, 08:49 PM
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If you look for it, there is usually an early version of today's electronic anything... e.g. automatic transmission, telephone dialling, aircraft autopilot, military bombsight/gunnery computer, engine fuel injection control, ad infinitum.
03-30-21, 11:39 PM
#8
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Sorry, a little late to reply here. The BEAST was indeed, very much like WTB GreaseGuard and the Pedersen SE canti brakes, an attempt to one-up Shimano with cool new technology while also recapturing some cachet/coolness for Suntour products. There was as I recall a fair amount of initially very positive buzz around the BEAST, and we had a strong number of preorders from both OEM, for their high-end models, and from custom builders.
But BEAST, also like WTB GG, was significantly more complicated to manufacture at a production scale than Suntour imagined. And just like WTB GG, Suntour committed to pricing, purchase order quantities and licensing fees before they had any idea how many they could actually make, how quickly they could make them, and how much production would actually cost per unit. Not a strong recipe for success.
The BEAST mfr sticking point, IIRC, was the hinged shifting gates requiring a mfr/fit precision the Taiwanese subcontracting factory was unable to reliably attain. There was very little +/- tolerance wiggle room between acceptable and non-functional. There were also issues with functional test units not performing as intended in the field, maybe sand at Moab wasn't an issue but mud at Mammoth Lake was? But that kinda didn't matter so much because very few production units were actually produced, shipped and built into bicycles. Almost all the OEM/builders cancelled their orders because of production delays, not because of market feedback. Which was somewhat of a blessing for Suntour, since costs has increased so much the BEAST initial price was significantly below actual cost. Fulfilling just the initial orders would have entailed a significant loss.
It was yet another fine mess.
There was very cool potential there, though. The Brownings were looking at combining the front BEAST with a similar rear cluster, and incorporating an electronic shifter control, allowing dual/mulitple/simultaneous front/rear shifting to run through the gear progression. And that wasn't enough for them, so they were also thinking about the possibility of developing a small programmable electronic device that could autoshift front/rear mechs.
But BEAST, also like WTB GG, was significantly more complicated to manufacture at a production scale than Suntour imagined. And just like WTB GG, Suntour committed to pricing, purchase order quantities and licensing fees before they had any idea how many they could actually make, how quickly they could make them, and how much production would actually cost per unit. Not a strong recipe for success.
The BEAST mfr sticking point, IIRC, was the hinged shifting gates requiring a mfr/fit precision the Taiwanese subcontracting factory was unable to reliably attain. There was very little +/- tolerance wiggle room between acceptable and non-functional. There were also issues with functional test units not performing as intended in the field, maybe sand at Moab wasn't an issue but mud at Mammoth Lake was? But that kinda didn't matter so much because very few production units were actually produced, shipped and built into bicycles. Almost all the OEM/builders cancelled their orders because of production delays, not because of market feedback. Which was somewhat of a blessing for Suntour, since costs has increased so much the BEAST initial price was significantly below actual cost. Fulfilling just the initial orders would have entailed a significant loss.
It was yet another fine mess.
There was very cool potential there, though. The Brownings were looking at combining the front BEAST with a similar rear cluster, and incorporating an electronic shifter control, allowing dual/mulitple/simultaneous front/rear shifting to run through the gear progression. And that wasn't enough for them, so they were also thinking about the possibility of developing a small programmable electronic device that could autoshift front/rear mechs.
Browning would end up licensing it to SunTour circa 1990, who would rechristen it the Browning Electronic AccuShift Transmission (BEAST). With continually dwingling market share, they were getting desperate to regain some ground on Shimano and thew BEAST didn't help matters. In fact, it arguably hurt their reputation even more.
Issues? Designers didn't see the need to add an extra ~300g of weight and more cost to their bicycles. Avid cyclists didn't like to be told they didn't know how to shift properly. While, as the test states, it worked fine in the desert, I recall not so glowing reports coming out from wet and muddy tests. Lastly, Shimano was "in" and SunTour was "out".
Issues? Designers didn't see the need to add an extra ~300g of weight and more cost to their bicycles. Avid cyclists didn't like to be told they didn't know how to shift properly. While, as the test states, it worked fine in the desert, I recall not so glowing reports coming out from wet and muddy tests. Lastly, Shimano was "in" and SunTour was "out".
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Last edited by pcb; 03-31-21 at 12:56 PM. Reason: Misspell
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