seypat

Speaking of Delta brakes, beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. To me they look like a dude in overalls(from about mid spine) laying pipe to the mounting hole on the fork. Maybe that was the design intent. What do I know though, I think a Campy NR RD resembles a marine invertebrate.

SJX426 

@Drillium Dude - Jeff, were those Superbe Pro parts?

jamesdak 

I think they are gorgeous and work great when set up right.


Everyone should have at least one bike with Delta's on it.


Oh crap, wait..... I'm supposed to be playing the Suntour fanboy in this thread. Please ignore the above....

seypat

I can hear the dualing banjos now...........and the "Squeal like a pig." Or, "Spider caught a couple of flies."

Drillium Dude 

No, the derailleurs were Cyclones and the brakeset was Superbe 4700.

And, just to pile on with the fun, I suggest an alternate title to this thread: "Tell Me You Can't Afford Campy Without Telling Me You Can't Afford Campy".



DD

Drillium Dude 

Another good example of a component many claim doesn't work as it should. However, I have no practical experience with Deltas, so can't comment one way or another.

DD

steelbikeguy

Can you refresh my memory? What SunTour derailleurs were exact copies of Campy parts?

Steve in Peoria

jamesdak 

Ok so now you've got to try Superbe shifting and I've got to try NR/SR and report back.

Curious about the brakes too though. I'm running the CB-4700 on my Team USA "gravel" rider and the brakes seem plenty strong with the old Fulcrum Racing 1 rims on there. I was worried about the original pads at first but they're doing just fine. Maybe I have low standards? Although the old Modolo's and the sidepulls on the Peugeot I recently worked on were scary bad.

Classtime 

I never read about broken Campagnolo tension springs.

steelbikeguy

Having had two lower pivot springs break on SunTour Cyclones (and on one SunTour canti brake), I now look at them with a bit of concern. I've also got a few bikes with Campy NR or SR derailleurs, and no problems there. The SunTours have a ton more miles on them, and in all conditions, so I'm not sure it's a fair comparison.



Steve in Peoria

SJX426 

I found the BA-SB00-S, Superbe Pro calipers to be nearly equivalent to DP brakes on the Trek 760. In fact, I believe they are better than the Chourus Monoplanar

clubman 

I'm a Suntour bar end fan-boy and I could never set up my campy bar ends with anywhere near the finesse of the Suntours. The ratcheting makes all the difference.
I also love my NR/SR rear derailleurs. Consistent, solid, dependable so they deserved their place at the top of the racing food chain, imo.

My fave frankenbuild was a 90's C-dale R500 with Suntour bar cons and an SR rear, Record front. Fast as a scared cat and the light weight meant you didn't have to shift as much. Like the hard men of the past peletons.

repechage

My first road bike way back 50 years ago had Campagnolo bar end shifters.
shifting was vague.
I went to down tube shifters a year later.
today I might try index shift cable housing and different cables. I would expect improvement.
the ratcheting pawl of the Suntour really reduced the friction in the system.
many sprinters really liked them.
Shimano had a counter sprung lever that some liked.

Drillium Dude 

Naw, you don't have low standards

For me, what I was able to detect in direct comparison was that the calipers seemed to flex more compared with the Campy Record calipers. Even when I originally ran the Suntour calipers with a pair of Campy Record levers, I felt it. The feeling was much the same with Superbe brake levers. Also, the pads! Hard as rocks, sounded like a banshee wail when I applied any modicum of pressure - even after I sanded them down and chamfered the trailing edges. I purchased a second replacement pair; same thing. They really were the squealiest brakes I've ever encountered; who knows, perhaps a modern set of pads would've helped, but I took the easy way out and moved them along instead!

DD

El Chaba

That’s right, the 9 speed conversion is very easy and involves simply replacing the 8 speed indexing piece with the 9 speed. You might as well replace the springs with new ones while you have things apart.

The 8 to 10 conversion is *possible* but requires much more extensive surgery. The center bolt is of a different diameter, so that needs to be replaced with a 10 speed unit, and of course everything that goes on it ( that is everything inside the unit). Jan Ullrich and Mario Cipollini were famous in the ten speed era for preferring the old pointy lever shape and had old levers hot Rodded to ten speed by the team mechanics.

tiger1964 

Interesting. I have Suntour brakes on one bike, admittedly I am VERY late to the party for using any Japanese components on bikes. They seem to stop well enough but, despite toe-in, a lot of squeal. And Kool-Stop pads so it's not the pads. Hmm, flexing calipers creating some oscillation under load and thus squeal? Not that I care, squealing brakes as not a problem for me (long-time Mafac user); "Loud Brakes Save Lives".

The Suntour derailleurs seem to shift fine -- will they hold up for 50 years like a NR derailleur? At my age... I'll never know.

Drillium Dude 

I didn't know that - fascinating! Especially that two pros were going for the modern gearing and 'vintage' look. Although I'm sure in their cases it was all about comfort of familiarity.

Personally, I think the original 'pointy' Ergopower shape is the most iconic, and not just because that's what's on my Davidson - I chose them for that bike because I felt that way from the start. Plus, they are the last with the forged alloy bodies.

Wonder if I might be able to hotrod an 8-speed pair into 10-speed? Something to think about, maybe. Hmmm...

DD

Prowler 

I’ve also had two break, at the same point. Fixed both and both are still in service. Others have too. Search around. I submit the key is to not seek a 90° bend on the new tab. A few degrees less works just as well and less metal stress. I have 3 Cyclones in the fleet and they all serve me well.