smontanaro 

I made it out to Portland and am working to get my Fuji Finest working. I think it's a '71 or '72. I pulled the derailleur to clean it up a bit. It's a SunTour GT, but I couldn't find a date code. I'm used to seeing a two-letter code on the back parallelogram plate. The Vintage Trek date code table shows "N" as the earliest year, 1971. Would the lack of a date code imply an earlier manufacture date?

steelbikeguy

disclaimer: I have no answer to the question. I'm just here to pull the discussion off on a tangent.

Specifically... I've never paid attention to date codes on SunTour stuff. I can imagine it being useful on the nicer parts, like the Cyclone derailleurs. I've noticed small variations in the first generation Cyclone rear derailleurs, and should probably figure out what the sequence of these changes was.
I wonder if anyone cared enough about the low-end steel derailleurs to bother stamping date codes into it.

Steve in Peoria

Schreck83 

I have a 1st gen. Cyclone rd with no date code, so not necessarily.

Velobase shows 1972 to 1973 for the GT, but there may be earlier versions. I have what appears to be an older GT cage grafted onto a V-luxe parallelogram. There are no entries in VB for such a cage.

JohnDThompson 

IIRC, the Finest OEM rear derailleur was a SunTour-V, not a V-GT. I suspect a previous owner installed the V-GT to allow wider gearing.

Schreck83 

Here is the SunTour V derailleur from the Fuji Finest I just received. No date code on it; the frame has a 1972 serial number.

sd5782 

Not a GT with those knuckles is my guess. I looked at pics of the Suntour 7 which has more steel, but no match. Take a look at the Suntour Honor and I think we have a match. Honor with some GT parts grafted too it.

Edit:
I stand corrected after looking at Disraeli gears website. Some early and late ones depicted look just like the OPs unit. It is so different looking than the ones with aluminum knuckles. Perhaps I was mixing it up with the the V-GT.

smontanaro 

Thanks, folks. In the end I stopped worrying about dates and hung a Cyclone GT from the hanger. I didn't even know its date code.

Still, nice to know not all SunTour derailleurs has date codes.

RCMoeur 

While I also, er, 'honor' the V as a pinnacle of Suntour performance for the era (raced on one back in the 80s), the V-GT should be respected for being able to do what the V can't - wrangle really large freewheel sprockets.

smontanaro 

Note that "Finest" has two meanings here. You might be thinking of the dictionary meaning, while in this instance it's the model name, "The Finest."

brewerkz 

Per Velobase

Rear Derailleurs Name: SunTour GT (version 1B)
Brand: SunTour
Model: RD-1200
Years: 1972 - 1973
Country: Japan
Weight: 444 grams (avg)

Hondo6

Interesting.

The cage's shape appears to be that of the 2nd style 4600. However, the adjuster screws have the 1st style locking springs vice the 2nd style's plastic inserts.

I wonder if Suntour "slipstreamed" a redesigned cage into the earlier model during production before changing the adjuster spring locking system, or if a damaged cage on a 1st style Suntour GT was later replaced with one from a later version.

JohnDThompson 

Let me rephrase my comment. The OEM derailleur on the Fuji "Finest" model bike was the SunTour-V, not the V-GT.

Hummer

The earliest Maeda Industries date code I have seen reported is NC, but this was on a freewheel on a 1972 Katakura manufactured frame for Nishiki Professional.

Nishiki Professional post

The earliest Maeda Industries data code I have seen is NI, again on a freewheel.

maeda 8.8.8. freewheel

Edit: I think the derailleur date codes came after the freewheels.