After SunTour went into a long slow decline, it transmuted into SR SUNTOUR and moved from Japan to Taiwan. And throughout the 1990s the derailleur range gradually decayed into a mish-mash of low-end, sub-Shimano steel and plastic.

But the arrival of the new millenium seems to have re-energised SR SUNTOUR, which suddenly produced a whole set of aspirational, innovative and freaky looking derailleurs. These featured straight cable runs, and many had a unique ability to be compatible with both Shimano and SRAM levers. They achieved this seemingly impossible feat by cunningly having two possible ways you could run the cable on the one derailleur.

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This funky item is a SR SUNTOUR Durolux SGX. Durolux was the highest-end variant and featured:

• SR SUNTOUR's clever dual cable routing allowing compatibility with both Shimano and SRAM levers
• a fully aluminium parallelogram
• the only major steel component is the inner pulley cage plate
• a hollowed out b-pivot bolt for lighter weight
• SR SUNTOUR's longest pulley cage (at 85mm) called SGX.

There was a lot of SR SUNTOUR talk about competing with the best of the best - but weight and finish was much more Deore LX than XTR. But it was a nice try, and I liked the dark, satanic, look and applauded the absence of the, then fashionable, 'Rapid Rise' logic.

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• Derailleur brands: SR SUNTOUR
• Country: Taiwan
• Date of introduction: 2004? for model year 2005
• Date of this example: unknown
• Model no.: unknown
• Weight: 275g
• Maximum cog: 34 teeth (source: SR SUNTOUR)
• Total capacity: 45 teeth (source: SR SUNTOUR)
• Pulley centre to centre: 85mm
• Index compatibility: 9 speed
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: unsprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: largely aluminium with a steel inner pulley cage plate.

Ref. 58