kcblair

Hello all, I recently bought a very well preserved '85 Bridgestone 500 (Awaiting Fedex). I see lots of Suntour 6 speed Accu-shifters available (used and NOS). Is there any issues, upgrading the original friction shifters to Accu-shift ? I plan a complete restoration of the bike, polish, grease, lube, bearings, chain replace and etc. Thank you. KB

nlerner

Their wide availability might be directly related to the demand for them! My experience is that Accushift is very particular about the rear derailleur and cog set if you have any hope of getting the indexing to work. And it's the rear derailleurs and cog sets that are hard to come by. Ymmv.

Bianchigirll 

You will need a new accushift compatible RD, Freewheel and chain. Usually Suntour derailleur switch a adjusting barrel are accushift compatible, and you need a FW with 4 slots for the removal tool

masi61

All the drivetrain parts must be accushift. The freewheel should be Winner Pro (or Alpha (?) accushift compatible). These have different thickness spacers on the small cogs compared to the big ones.
Also you'll need an Accushift compatible rear derailleur to work with those shifters.
When you get the bike you might want to check the rear dropout spacing & see if you can run 7 speed which is going to be that little bit more versatile. I have a touring bike running an X-1 rear derailleur w/ superbe pro downtube shifters & it shifts with satisfying authority. The same is true for my Cannondale R1000 that has Accushift 8 speed cassette (Superbe Pro cassette hub) shifted with an XC Pro rear derailleur & SunTour Command Accushift thumbshifters.
I get it. Just a warning though, other people (local bike shop employees for example) my be more skeptical when you would want to go there.
Stay strong (to your vision)!!

kcblair

Thank you All. Looks like this will be for a future upgrade . Not as easy as I had anticipated. But, I'll have to start accumulating those parts. KB

Glennfordx4

I want to say that 6 speed Accushift works fine with Shimano 6 speed freewheels and some SIS RD's as long as you run 8spd chains on them. I like Suntour 6 & 7spd Accushift and can't really tell the difference between SIS. Finding the Suntour indexed RD's is getting hard unless you don't mind paying through the nose ( I'm a cheap sob lol ). I have a handful of builds for myself that will all be Accushift 6 & 7spd, I'm a Suntour fan.

Glenn

SkyDog75

I'd suggest NOT going to AccuShift. It's been out of production for decades and isn't completely compatible with other systems, so parts can be scarce and expensive. Shifters aren't generally hard to find, but freewheels? Proprietary cables used by some AccuShift shifters?

If you don't want to stick with friction shifting, I'd strongly recommend going to a Shimano or compatible drivetrain. Part selection will be greater and less expensive. And indexing will almost certainly work better than AccuShift, too.

(Like Glennfordx4, I'm a SunTour fan ...but I'm not a fan of AccuShift. I really like their pre-AccuShift friction stuff, though.)

artclone

Superbe Pro has indexing shifters?

Sir_Name 

FWIW, I have 7sp Accushift Plus barcons indexing an XC-Pro Accushift Plus RD across an IRD 7sp freewheel. The shifter/RD cable pull works well with the IRD FW spacing, though it is sensitive to cable tension. Other non-Accushift freewheels may also play nice (Shimano), but I can't say for sure as I haven't tried. The bit of overshift designed into the levers may be helping here along with the narrower 9sp Shimano chain.

I'm not sure if/how any of this changes when considering Accushift vs Accushift Plus.

kcblair

Thanks. Yes , I was debating doing that (Shimano), but I think I might just stay with era specific gear. KB

Bianchigirll 

I believe like Campagnolo they used the same shifter on the top three groups but yes the last generation or two of Superbe Pro was indexed

eno

Suntour components are nice and the world is full of Shimano so go for it I say. I spent ages looking for an accushift 6 speed cassette and found one new old stock in the end but I've no doubt you could make it work with a Shimano cassette. I found this site very useful for tech info on Suntour: yellowjersey.org/stcass.html
William.

masi61

Yes - these came in 6/7 speed & 7/8 speed versions. Very well made, but getting scarce now.

badger_biker 

Other's have posted some good information but I just want to chime in with what has worked for me even though there are skeptics who say to stay away from it.

I have 2 touring bikes that demand sharp shifting under loads and these combos work exceptionally.

7 spd Accushift barcons, 7/8 spd chain, Suntour XCD 6000 RD, and 7spd Shimano HG cassette.

6 spd Accushift barcons, 9 spd chain, Shimano Deore RD, and Suntour Winner Pro FW.

I don't know if downtube Accushift shifters would behave differently but at least these work for me.
Good luck with your new 500. I have owned a '84 400 since new and I think you will enjoy the Bridgestone - nice bikes.

Velocivixen

I have had Accushift Suntour shifters, freewheel, rear derailleur and chain and it worked, but not as "crisp" aw when I use Shimano.

artclone

Thanks @Bianchigirll and @masi61

I have '85 Superbe Pro 7-speed group on a bike but don't think it doea indexing. I'l double-check.

I've had Accushift on two bikes (Edge) and on one it worked well but the ither was always fiddly. The fiddly one (sold) had a AP (accushift plus) chain and the non-fiddly bike (still have) has a KMC 7/ 8-speed chain. Anecdotally, my Shimano SIS and STI bikes always shift well.

You can aleays switch to friction though if it gets problematic.

Jean_TX

Old components like 7-speed stuff are pretty versatile. I have a vintage Klein Pinnacle (circa 1989) that uses : Suntour Accushift 7-speed thumb shifters, Shimano Deore 6-speed rear derailleur, Sachs Maillard 7-speed freewheel, and a SRAM PC48 chain.

The shifter and derailleur didn’t properly index initially, but I put a thin metal strip (the length and thickness determined by trial and error) in the cable take-up groove of the shifter and bingo!, the shifting indexes perfectly on all 7 cogs.

There are some posts in the forums regarding using the mixing of Accushift with Shimano stuff – do a search and check them out.

kcblair

Nice, How much of that gear is accu-shift, besides the shifters ? Thank you. KB

kcblair

Ok guys, I like your experiences, so I'm back to looking. Accu-shift RD are in good supply and price, so I thinks I will grab one, while available.

Now, next important part is the RD. So what is suggested that supports a max of 32T cassette cog ? The bike will be getting a new, modern chain. Then , maybe I can mess around with the system leaving the FW in place. KB

Sir_Name 

XC-Pro RD handles 32t just fine.

Velocivixen

@kcblair - all of it was SunTour Accushift compatible components. It worked but was finicky. Yours might work just great.

Jean_TX

The shifters are Suntour Accushift (only the rear shifter is indexed).
Shifter cable brand is unknown at this point.
Derailleurs are Shimano Deore 6-speed (rear) and Deore triple (front).
Freewheel is Sachs Maillard.
Chain is SRAM PC48.
Crankset is Specialized triple.
Brakes are Shimano Deore XT cantilever (front) and Nashbar cantilever (rear).

I bought the frame back in 1989 and built it up using spare parts that I had. (For obvious reasons, the bike is nicknamed "The Bastard".)

kcblair

Thanks . Sounds like I can make a Suntour indexed system work. You really only need the RD to be indexed.

I've been going through my spare parts, and have a set of 700C wheels with 7speed cassette free hub. All I need is a cheap cassette , RD and RD SIS shifter. That would be an inexpensive upgrade.

I read some where, there is enough space in the brakes to lower the brake shoes and fit 700C wheels.

Don Buska

KB,

Any Suntour freewheel that uses the four prong removal tool (vs two) are compatible with Accushift. As you know my BS500 has been converted to Accushift using the Suntour Superbe RD-SB00-SSB. I also used a Suntour Edge 4050 and it worked well too. I was even able to use a currently manufactured Shimano TZ-20 (14-28) rear freewheel and it shifted perfectly. Notice, all my experiments were done in 6 speed using downtube Suntour 6-speed Accushift levers (friction for front derailleur). Caution, avoid the 3000 series Suntour Accushift devices as they were a bit different than the later stuff. All the stuff in the 1988-1995 catalogs should be fine.

Don

kcblair

Thanks Don. I'm digging through those catalogs, looking at specs. I think the RD is most important. I'm at odds as to stay with the Suntour FW or mount up the 700C w/ Shimano FH. I'll have to wait for the bike to get here, to see what's possible. You've given me looks of info. Seems like for a lot of older gear works with newer Shimano gear. My Concorde is all Campy ('90) Athena, with a Shimano HG FreeHub. Go figure. KB