steelbikeguy

As a fan of SunTour's products, their story is of great interest. Our friend, Paul Brodek, who passed away earlier this year, used to work with SunTour and told some fascinating stories of how they ran their business, especially in the later years. The late Frank Berto, a bike tech guru for decades, wrote up a wonderful history of SunTour for the Rivendell Reader that reviewed the rise and fall of SunTour. I was wondering if I should include it with this article, and this is a good enough reason to include part of it. Since Hilary's article covered the evolution of the slant pantograph, I figure it's okay to include the portion of Mr. Berto's article about SunTour's rise.

These are the first handful of pages of Frank Berto's "Sunset for SunTour", published in Rivendell Reader #14.


















Steve in Peoria

52telecaster

Thanks again

steelbikeguy

Super Champion Osgear
Oscar Egg was a top racer in the years before the first World War. His company introduced their first derailleur in 1932. Like the French Vittoria design, it used a swinging arm with a couple of metal fingers to simply push the chain left or right to the adjacent freewheel cogs. While pretty primitive compared to modern designs, it's not much different than what the typical front derailleur does. An initial design had the arm & fork on top of the chain stay, requiring the rider to pedal backwards to change gears. Later versions moved the arm and fork below the chain stay, allowing forward pedaling while shifting. Chain tension is controlled by a pulley on an arm located near the bottom bracket. An interesting side effect was the use of dropouts with long tangs at the front. The purpose of the tangs was to prevent the wheel from sliding forward and damaging the derailleur mechanism during a wheel change.




Steve in Peoria

steelbikeguy

Teledyne Titan 1974-76
The Titan was one of the first titanium frames on the market, and was very exotic in the days when Reynolds and Columbus were the usual hallmarks for a top quality frame. At this time, titanium was in the early days of use on bikes and was limited to similarly exotic components such as Campagnolo Super Record rear derailleurs, pedal axles and bottom bracket axles. The early days of any new technology or material tend to be when the hidden issues are discovered, and the Teledyne Titan was no exception!




Steve in Peoria

steelbikeguy

Thorn tandem
The 90's saw a resurgence in the popularity of tandems. In this article, Hilary looks at the tandems offered by St. John Street Cycles.




Steve in Peoria

tgot 

Is it my imagination, or does the photo show the tandem with crossover (timing chain left, drive chain right) where the text says they use straight-through drive and not tandem specific crankset?

52telecaster

I Remember the excitement about the potential for these frames.

darkmoon

Hi,Steve!

I like bike race history.

I knew Ocana won Tour de France 1973, using a titanium frame at mountain stages.
Bike mags reports and Tour books said so.
And many color pix showed a dull gray frame.

But the maker of the frame was unknown.
I couldn't find out.

Only one book said.
Tour 1973, Kennedy Brothers of England.
I browsed it once in a bike shop, but I don't know why, I didn't buy it
The book had a full page ad of Ocana riding the titanium frame, said congrats.
And proudly said maker's name.

At long, long, long, last, I find the maker, SPEED WELL!
WHEW!

Thanks lots, Steve the Wonder!

darkmoon

Italian road bikes with panto parts throughout, 1970 to mid 1980's,
fancy one: Colnago
elegant one: Bianchi
I love and lust for Colnago!
Bianchi, someday I will...

present Master is X-light,
with favorite Dura-Ace 25th anniversary set

steelbikeguy

My first vintage bike was the 1982 Olmo Competition, which I bought in 1997(-ish?) and still own and ride. It has a full set of pantographed bits, along with the "Mexico treatment" of the Campy cranks. Not as well known as Colnago or Bianchi, but a classy bike regardless!

some of the panto'd bits...

the cranks and rings:



brake levers (not a great photo):



brake calipers:



stem:





shift levers:



seat post:


Steve in Peoria

darkmoon

Terrific bike!
Any bikes were arts and crafts before mid 1980's.

I had an Olmo like yours, in fact.
Color was blue.
Cranks were different of yours, mine weren't sanded and polished but standard Record.
Unfortunately, smaller size for Japanese, 530mm or smaller, steering feel was dull.
Riding wasn't fun.
So I sold it soon.

It was a real beauty, no doubt.

non-fixie 

A little over ten years ago, when I was just getting into vintage bikes, this picture appeared on a local classifieds site. I had no idea what I was looking at, but the yellow-ish gleam of the frame caught my attention. Could that be titanium? I took a gamble and made an offer.



My offer was accepted, I picked it up, and when I got home I had a good look at it:



The decals were from a long-gone bike shop in Scheveningen, but the TitaLite sticker helped me identify it as a Speedwell.



The first generation Dura Ace black parts were a nice bonus. The serial number indicated a 1977 frame:



The frame is way too small for me, but I could not resist replacing some parts to at least get an idea of what it should have looked like:



I did try to ride it, but that didn't really work. I don't often wish I was smaller than I am, but that day I did. Just so I could be Louis Ocaña for few hours:

darkmoon

non-fixie

another surprise!
America is said to be the biggest bike market in the world.
It convinces me again.
America is full of wonder and surprise.

I haven't seen Speed Well in Japan, but Teledyne.

Thank you non-fixie!

In token of gratitude...

small history of Japan's cycling:1972

1973, Shimano introduced Dura-Ace components, as you know.
The year before, 1972, Shimano planned and sponsored a TV program.
The title was Subarashiki Jitensha yarou, wonderful cycling guys.
Nation wide Broadcast, July to December 1972, Sunday 4:00-4:30 p.m., by NET, now TV asahi.
26 episodes, in my memory, most were touring.
Part 1: America series
Part 2: Europe series
Part 3: Japan series

I was watching every episode and enjoyed them.

One of the performers is Hiroshi Nakamura.
He joined Shimano next year, 1973, assigned to Flandria team with Dura Ace components as a mechanic.
He sent reports to New Cycling mag, they were very interesting and exciting.

Milan-San Remo or its highlight was broadcast or introduced or quoted, I believe.
There is no film left to check it.
Only this 15 sec. audio on YouTube.
↓

There is a theme song 7 inch vinyl.
Its jacket.
↓
https://ameblo.jp/ichiro-colnago/entry-11911905085.html

Most of this post are from this sight
↓
https://cyclotourist.web.fc2.com/pro...ing/index.html

non-fixie 

Thank you. Much appreciated! Hiroshi Nakamura is also mentioned on this site, in an interesting story about the introduction of Shimano in the European pro peloton. It is in Dutch, but Chrome does a decent translation these days:

Shimano vs Campagnolo

darkmoon

Very interesting report!

You wanna quick review Dura Ace history?

Shimano Square, Osaka, Japan, is the best place for you.
↓
https://www.shimanosquare.com/

The home page has only ONE photo.
Cafe menu isn't so important and precious as Shimano history, I think.

This YouTube vid is much better and an excellent guide.
↓


No chance to visit there so far, I wanna go there!

steelbikeguy

The earliest Dura-Ace that I saw was around 1975, and it really impressed me! It looked just as nice as Campagnolo's products.
The only info that I've still got is an advertisement from a 1975 issue of Bicycling magazine...



Steve in Peoria

darkmoon

Steve

I disposed of most of cycling things, books, mags, catalogues, brochures, stickers, posters of 70's and 80's when I moved to Yokohama.
What a waste!

I have only one issue of Cycle Sports, September 1977.
Because it has the first full color coverage of Tour de France, and stage by stage reports too.

Some ads may be interesting for C&V threads fans.

cover






spine





Inside of the back cover
1977, Shimano introduced Uniglide system, the chain and free wheel of 600 series.
I liked and used them for 5 or 6 years since 1977.
The life span of the chain was very short.
When Dura Ace UG chain was introduced, the life span problem was drastically improved .






More important and bigger thing of 1977 was introduction of Sun Tour Superbe components.
Earlier issue of Cycle Sports 1977 reported "Dura Ace vs. Superbe".
One bike with Shimano, another with Sun Tour.

The first production of front mech had aluminum guide plate
Durability is, of course, same as zero.
The guide plate was changed to steel at once.
Front mech with aluminum guide plate is extremely rare, almost none.
I haven't seen one but heard a guy had one and was never going to build and use it.

The ad said monthly production is only 2000 sets






Zunow and 3 Rensho road bikes are surprisingly popular in America.
They may be more popular in America than Japan.

This ad of Zunow is still domestic builder days.
A new model LAURO, PENTAGLA chain stay.
It says randonneur, too.







America's hard core bike fans like Cherubim of Konno Seisakusho, don't they?






Nishiki and Fuji were more popular in America than Japan.
Nishiki was a Kansai area, western Japan, builder.
I've lived in Kanto area, eastern Japan, for a long time, hmmm, have I ever seen a Nishiki?
No, I don't think so.
But Fuji was much more popular and many chances to see them.
A friend was working with Fuji.

steelbikeguy

I only have a half dozen of my magazines from the 1970's. I've scanned them and posted them to flickr.com
If you search for "bicycling magazine", they should pop up.
As you say, the advertisements are surprisingly interesting now. I guess that they are just a broader view of the products that we enjoyed at that time.
The ads are also a reminder of how low the prices were too.



The 1980 Bike Warehouse catalog that I saved included the Shimano Uniglide system too. It was new enough that the catalog had an illustration that showed the differences between freewheels and cassettes. Some of Shimano's ideas weren't great, such as the Dyna-Drive pedals, but their cassettes and freehubs really were very good!



I was (and still am) a big fan of the SunTour Cyclone derailleurs and freewheels. A great value and great designs!
Later, their Superbe sealed bearing pedals and the XC Pro sealed pedals became favorites of mine. I've been using them for probably 20 years, and they are still working fine.

I did use Superbe front and rear derailleurs on a bike around 1990. The main spring on the rear derailleur weakened, so it got replaced by a later SunTour derailleur. The front derailleur is still well, 60,000 miles later!
In this photo, the bike has the Superbe derailleurs and pedals, with Shimano 600 cranks and brakes. The hubs are a set of Campagnolo Record that I picked up a decade earlier (the front hub is still on this bike!)



I have seen SunTour front derailleurs with aluminum cages, and might still have one in a box. True, they were never going to last a long time. For a recreational rider who listens to rubbing noises, it might be good enough.

The Yellow Jersey bike shop advertised in bike magazines, and they imported the 3Rensho frames. I think that's why 3Rensho is well known here.
As for Zunow, I wasn't aware of them for a long time.


I didn't know about Cherubim until I saw them at a NAHBS bike show. Lovely bikes, and their show bikes were amazing!










That's interesting that your catalogs show a lot of models with fenders and lights.
Here in the USA, even the touring bikes weren't sold with fenders. That just wasn't something most people were aware of. We treated bikes as something only for recreation, not something that would be ridden in the rain. I guess some tourists didn't mind getting wet from tire spray?
I did have some Blumels fenders for my Raleigh Gran Sport back then, but they had to be purchased separately.



Steve in Peoria

non-fixie 

Thank you, darkmoon , for your pictures of the Cycle Spot magazine. I enjoyed them very much, even without being able to understand the words.

What intrigued me was this snippet, because of the "Van Valkenbulg" mention. A Dutch connection, perhaps?:



It took quite a bit of searching with the few characters I had to go on, but I did find what that is about.

On April 30, 1977 the 3rd International Human Powered Speed Championships were held on the Ontario Motor Speedway. Winner in the single rider class was Ralph Therrio piloting a contraption built by Paul Van Valkenburgh, with a record speed of 49.38 mph.

Said contraption was officially described as a "Prone Recumbent Streamlined Quadracycle". A less official description was "built by blind men wearing boxing gloves".

Anyway, the event was covered in the first ever issue of Human Power, and the "bike" was prominently featured on the front and back cover:



A pdf version of the full magazine can be found here: Human Power volume 1 number 1.

steelbikeguy

Tony Oliver Tourers
Mr. Oliver was building frames for about 15 years in the UK. While there are many well known British builders, Mr. Oliver was more in the style of the French constructeurs, where the whole bike was designed as a whole, as opposed to the more common practice of just selling the frame without much consideration for what components would be fitted.




Steve in Peoria

darkmoon

Steve

Rain and mudguard, they are interesting things for me, too.

Japan is a rainy country without doubt.
I ride only weekend every year, which means 52 chances to ride.
But I can ride only 40 weekends at most every year.

When it rains, we Japanese use an umbrella, it's just like an unconscious reaction or automatic response, lol.
I met a French guy, who seldom used an umbrella except typhoons or typhoon class rain.

As you know, Japan's touring bikes copied French randonnuers.
Almost every French randonnuer had mudguards and a light.

French bike spec and Japan's custom matched very well, perhaps?

When I go week-long touring, I prefer a bike with mudguards but I don't have, lol.
Gore-Tex rain suit is really good, but legs under knees aren't protected, they are soaked.

BTW, I remember 3rensho ad in Winning mags.
The pic is from November 1986.
Winning reported Yoshi Konno using 2 pages, but I disposed of that issue.
Another what-a-waste!

darkmoon

I think you've already known, Hitoshi Konno, founder of Konno Seisakusho(Cherubim), and Yoshi Konno, founder of 3Rensho, are brothers.

Cherubim's HP "about" with English text.

https://www.cherubim.jp/about

obrentharris 

@darkmoon I really appreciate the knowledge you bring us about the bicycles and components of Japan. Thank you.
Brent

darkmoon

You are welcome, Brent.

My Japanese is a bit better than English, ha, ha, ha,

steelbikeguy

Waller Kingsbury and Kingsland
Another intriguing method of getting a short wheelbase, but with unsurprising compromises. The novelty alone might be a sales feature.




Steve in Peoria