smontanaro 

Will these SunTour Power shifters work with braze-on shifter bosses?

jdawginsc 

The choice of clunkers everywhere!

i’ll try to remember to check tomorrow if I have a chance.

noobinsf 

Unless I left out something obvious when I tried a few years ago (which is entirely possible, given how much I’ve learned since then), they don’t. The stop is shaped differently than what it would need to be for a standard boss.

Andy_K 

Crowd sourced answer says no: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/...aze-on.378409/

smontanaro 

Dang, thanks. I was hoping they would. I would then reshape the very clunky levers to work on my Griffon (almost all SunTour Superbe). That way I could get closer to "full Superbe" and repurpose the existing shifters (Campy Doppler) on some other project. As far as I know, SunTour never created a Superbe power shifter, right?

JohnDThompson 

As others have noted, they won't fit onto braze-on bosses. Superbe levers did not ratchet. But modern production Dia-Compe "Silver" shifters ratchet and fit onto braze-on bosses:

clubman 

Well, the SL-IP00 shifters were designed for Superbe Pro/Sprint/Cyclone groups and they actually do have a very fine ratcheting setting. They had 3 settings, one for standard freewheels, one for Ultra shifting and the last for friction Power shifting, with ratcheting.
It's explained in the Suntour Accushift Bulletin #21 on page 10. I have a set and they work fine.

zukahn1 

Depending on the year Superbe levers were either light friction early version or 7 speed accushift indexed later version..

noobinsf 

There were these, which had a ratchet mechanism. I have a similar set that were for the Sprint group and are only branded as “Suntour.” The Rivendell Silver shifters are supposed to be based on one of these models.

https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.a...6dae1&Enum=104

Here are the Sprint shifters I have:

https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.a...d0b2a&Enum=104

unworthy1

Yep those SL-SB00-B levers are very simlar to the Rivendells. look like they made their tooling directly off some old samples but could be based on Cyclone 3700 as well, the only diffs I see are the amount of "friction grooves" on the underside of the levers.


I know they aren't indexing so "friction" is correct but I think those that have micro-ratcheting mechanisms should be in a sub-category of their own.


AFAIK SunTour used the same (not user serviceable!) mech for at least 3 models of ractheting lever: these Superbe Pros, the next level down Sprint LD-4850, and the Cyclone 3700 (LD-3700) which could be had in TRUE friction-only w/o the micro ratcheting mech as well as with it. Sprint levers have a rounded tip with less pronounced "kick-tail".
all pix courtesy of Velobase.


Superbe Pro

Superbe Pro showing ratchet mech

Sprint LD-4850

Cyclone LD3700 underside

Sprint LD-4850 showing ratchet mech

smontanaro 

Reviving a dormant thread (which I started, so it's not really a hijack ) to ask a separate Power Shifter question. I'm working on my son's bike which has these shifters. The right lever won't hold the selected position (hmmm... that sounds familiar). I opened it up and discovered that the little ratchet pawl is busted. Is that little ratchety bit made of unobtanium? ISTR they are a common failure point. If so, I'll just swap them out for some other friction shifters. Thx...

verktyg 

BITD that ratchet spring was probably the only failure point in Suntour Power Shifters. They warned that those levers were not "user serviceable". I tore a few apart that had the same broken springs.... but the levers were so cheap, you just replaced them!

Parts breakdown. I've never seen Suntour Braze-on bosses or direct mount Power Shifters.


I'd heard mentioned several times that there were 2 versions of the original style Power levers. The later ones had finer teeth on the ratchet wheel and were smoother????

I never cared for them back then because they didn't feel smooth. I have later (or worn in) Power Levers on several bikes and they have a more positive feel than the Simplex Retrofriction and Campy Doppler levers that I have on a lot of bikes.

The "new" Dia-Compe makes at least 3 types of down tube levers with ratchet mechanisms. They're smoother than the old Power Shifters.

The ENE brand have 8-9-10 speed cable wrap capacity:

Dia-Compe ENE Brand Silver-W-Shift Levers.


Dia-Compe ENE Brand W-Shift Gran Compe Levers have an old Campy NR look.

Both oft these style levers have the same ratcheting mechanism. They work well but are not real robust. The plastic washer under the mounting screw is rather flimsy.

I have a set of the Sliver-W levers on one of my bikes shifting a Campy Veloce 10 speed RD. They shift smoothly but I don't expect a long service life out of them.



Dia-Compe also makes the ENE Cyclo 11 Speed levers. They can handle 10 & 11 speed setups. They're more expensive and look a lot more robust.



HTHs

verktyg

smontanaro 

Thanks all. Nobody indicated the little ratchety things are available, so I just replaced the entire shifter with a SunTour symmetric shifter I had in the shifter drawer.