SunTour suffered from a serious but very creative case of multiple personality disorder. On the one hand it created exquisite, refined and delicate  jewels like the Competition and the first generation Cyclones. On the second hand it created madly eccentric designs of freakish originality like the Skitter and SMS Max. And on the third hand it was all about raw power, brutal strength and primal simplicity. This last, and possibly most genuine, tradition gave us the SunTour 888 Wide pull chain derailleurs and the SunTour Honor and SunTour GT.

The SunTour Honor was the mid range, steel workhorse of the SunTour range for two decades. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t light, it wasn’t sophisticated, being steel it was a touch noisy and it certainly wasn’t going to impress your europhile friends in the local cycling club. But it was cheap, strong, reliable and effective.

This example is the fourth style of SunTour Honor. It has an Allen key hanger bolt and the cable clamp integrated with the parallelogram pivot. The pulley cage is also slightly redesigned. These revisions resulted in a significant weight reduction - although that is not saying much when a derailleur still weighs 372g!

____________________________________________

1. •Brand: SunTour
   

2. •My category: SunTour - the Honor story
   

3. •Country: Japan
   

4. •Date of introduction: 1976?
   

5. •Date of this example: 1983 (two letter date code is ZJ)
   

6. •Model no: unknown
   

7. •Weight: 372g including hanger plate
   

8. •Maximum cog: 30 teeth (Sutherlands 4th edition and SunTour)
   

9. •Total capacity: 28 teeth (Sutherlands 4th edition and SunTour)
   

10. •Pulley centre to centre: 57mm
    

11. •Index compatibility: friction
    

12. •Chain width: 3/32”
    

13. •Logic: top normal
    

14. •Pivots: two pivots, front sprung and rear unsprung
    

15. •Material: steel
    

0178 /F