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 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 these derailleurs, the SunTour Honor and SunTour GT.

The SunTour GT was the long cage, 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 GT. It has the cable clamp integrated with the parallelogram pivot and yet another redesign of the pulley cage. These revisions resulted in a significant weight reduction - from exceedingly heavy to merely very heavy.

God, we sold a lot of these - and many of them are still going about.

• Derailleur brands: SunTour
• Categories: SunTour - the Honor story
• Country: Japan
• Date of introduction: 1977?
• Date of this example: 1978 (two letter date code is UD)
• Model no.: 1200
• Weight: 401g including hanger plate
• Maximum cog: 34 teeth
• Total capacity: 36 teeth
• Pulley centre to centre: 66mm
• Index compatibility: friction
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: steel