Funny how this thread went nearly 100% mountain bike as soon as somebody brought it up. Strawbunyan, when you said "smaller wheels" did you mean skinny like a road bike, smaller than a 29er like the old mountain bikes people are posting, or really small like a BMX bike? I agree with whoever said picking a wheel type is probably the place to start.
As for Suntour components, if you want index shifting then Suntour is not great, but it is hard to beat the Cyclone series for friction shifting if you are going with 1985.