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.

This very respectable item is a SR SUNTOUR XCR black (650 SGX). The '600 series' number may indicate that one knuckle is aluminium and the other is plastic. So it featured:

• SR SUNTOUR's clever dual cable routing allowing compatibility with both Shimano and SRAM levers
• a partly aluminium parallelogram, with a steel inner parallelogram plate and a plastic p-knuckle
• a steel inner pulley cage plate
• a solid b-pivot bolt
• SR SUNTOUR's longest pulley cage (at 85mm) called SGX.

• Derailleur brands: SR SUNTOUR
• Country: Taiwan
• Date of introduction: 2003? for model year 2004
• Date of this example: unknown
• Model no.: XCR650-SGX
• Weight: 304g
• 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: plastic p-knuckle, aluminium b-knuckle and outer parallelogram plate, steel inner parallelogram plate and pulley cage plates