Soody

From an Avanti mtb








The hub's cartridge bearings feel perfect. I'm not sure how the grease port works with the cartridge bearings.
The wear on one side only of the bb is odd.
The freewheel has a tiny bit of play but it's smooth. That's all good right?

bikemig 

Freewheels do have play. The grease port works with sealed bearings. Push through the grease until you start to see clear grease come through.

Suntour XC pro grease guard (which I'm pretty sure was designed by WTB) is absolutely top end stuff. You're lucky it came with a freewheel and not the suntour cassette given that parts for the suntour cassettes are unobtainium. The click shift on sun tour is sometimes pretty good and sometimes not. It can be frustrating but there is always friction. The click shifting on my '91 Team Stumpjumper that came stock with suntour xc pro never worked quite right. I harvested and salted away a second set of suntour xc pro stuff from a Bianchi cross bike. Now I just need to find the right bike for those components.

The Golden Boy 

XC Pro was just the best.

When you hold an XC Pro or XC Comp piece in your hand and compare it to the corresponding M900 XTR, M735 XT or M650 DX piece- You see how beautiful it is and feel just how solid it's made. When you get used to Accushift- you feel how positive the shift is compared to SIS.

I have a few XC Pro bits that I'm saving for that "someday" bike.

Congratulations on having a nice clean group! That crank is one of the most beautiful around- one of the last Class A 110/74 triples. For those that haven't seen them- there's this beautiful sheen to them, like the old Gran Compe components; and it just doesn't show in pix. And like the old GC stuff, it wears away and gets scratched so it just looks like "a crank" in the pictures- just non-polished and boring. But when you see them new- they're a sight to behold.

Soody

Interesting. Is a part of that do you reckon not having a floating jockey wheel? The jockey wheel bearings are stupidly nice but i was wondering if i should try and modify/replace the top one so it floats. Because I put an aftermarket jockey wheel on an XT mech once and that didn't float and i think it stuffed up the indexing.
Or not having ramped cogs? Is there a better freewheel I could index with these?

I can't use the shifters now anyway though. They do seem pretty cool but they're a bit gummed up, they don't fit these bars, and i need to find the special cables because i stupidly cut them.
For now it's these suntour stem shifters and friction.

Soody

I have the suntour/pederson 'self energizing'' cantis.
grip area is 180mm so tape or long scooter grips, iunno, or what color, suggestions?
Tires are original panaracer marked 'national tyre co', not badly dry rotted, but probably should be replaced.
will probably run a carradice bag + bagman

Is a 8spd sram or kmc chain all good for this stuff?

The Golden Boy 

Accushift is sort of it's own thing- especially when you get up to 7 and 8 speed.

It was designed to be accurate- and NOT have any imprecision that SIS has. Which is why it's kind of finicky- if everything not just right, it gets cranky. So you don't want to introduce a floating jockey. You can still use old school solid Bullseyes and still get good indexing.

You shouldn't need special cables or housing- just good stuff. (ie stainless cables in lined housing)

I've really only worked with Accushift 6 speed- and that's the easy one because the cog spacing is effectively the same as SIS in 6 speed. The cog spacing diverges for 7 and 8.

BTW- make sure you're using the Pedersen brakes in the rear- the front should be the "normal" brakes.

SJX426 

When Suntour purchased the design from Pederson, they did not offer the front brake, only the back due to liabilities. I have a set on my tandem.

Soody

the cable head is different
pic from an rj video on it
mine are like this too:




I've ridden the bike a little bit now. I actually really like the ergonomics with these bars and the stem shifters. I'm wondering if there's an indexed suntour downtube shifter that would go on this stem shifter boss and be compatible with the freewheel and XC PRO derailer. Rear indexing would be nice. I know thumbies exist for this but they're gonna be rare and expensive whereas road suntour stuff is kinda common.

PugRider

Oddly enough, you can still get those cables in those cheapie Bell cable kits on Amazon or Walmart. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BLXZY28...SEK4F1HC05MTHT

theblackbullet

Beautiful bike. I'm envious!

You might look into BMX grips. They can be found really long. They like them to run all of the way into the bend now-a-days. These for example come in 165mm length: https://www.danscomp.com/odyssey-tra...clrbk/p1342383

dddd

Suntour Accu-7 indexing often works best with narrower chain, such as Shimano 9s chain (or with certain vintage Sachs chains from the post-Sedisport era).
Reason being that the Accu-7 shifters "over-shift" generously toward larger cogs with each shift.

Those early index-compatible Sachs/SRAM chains had no sideplate bulges, so were less likely to snag on the teeth of the next-largest cog than the one you are shifting to.

Soody

nearly finished, it rides really nice.
got some 180mm grips from a scooter shop

Bianchi84

I have the actual Pedersen front brake on my 1985 Cannondale SM600 (26/24 wheels). I set them up with Odessey Straddle Rods instead of cable and they work perfectly - never threw me over the bars!
(Suntour Rollercams on rear).

Soody

How do you like em? I never really thought cantis with kool stops were lacking power so i don't see the point and i love how well nice cantis modulate.
Unless it's muddy downhill trail riding in which case discs make way more sense now. I can see why these existed and it's to fill a niche which is now redundant which is extreme mtbing with cantis.

They are really cool though. And i'm not trying them with good pads. First impression on this pederson/suntour brake, with the de-glazed old pads, is that it's grabby. It feels like a v-brake. And the spring adjustment is annoying.
I will say though that the pad adjustment on both of these suntour brakes is extremely good. Extremely easy to toe/position them and they don't shift on tightening.

Soody

Interesting thanks. I will try a 9spd chain if i go to the accushift shifters. I'm using a sram 870 8 speed chain now, that seems to work well in friction

Soody

Cheers : )
BMX grips are good stuff. I love Ourys, probably my favorite grip, though those are oldschool/ not long.
I went even longer with 180mm scooter grips. They're really nice and were quite cheap. The guy in the scooter store was chill and even opened some packets for me to look at. He says he gets lots of bike people come in for grips. I'm also considering wrapping some odds of bartape on/past the lever because its a hand position i find myself resting on.

Soody

How does braking work on a tandem anyway? If you jam them both on does the rear wheel lift/lock up?

Smokinapankake

I was a Suntour fanboi for many years. In ‘94 I bought some XC Pro 74/110 cranks new on close out for a paltry $60. Should have bought 10 sets at that price. They were the most beautiful cranks I’ve ever seen, with a luster that just gleams. You can’t photograph it, but if you’ve seen it you know what I mean. Stupidly, a year later I traded them for some XC Pro micro drive cranks, which were very pretty in their own right. Once the 8 speed SunTour stuff disappeared, I began pairing my 8 speed XC Pro thumbies with Shimano 8 speed XT. Never had a problem with any of it but I did find the slightly narrower KMC chains of the day shifted slightly better. I ran XC Pro 8 with XT 8 for years, turning my nose down at the “unenlightened masses” who didn’t appreciate the magnificence of XC Pro thumbshifters. I still love the stuff but can’t afford to buy any more of it…