Between SunTour’s 1987 leaflets and autumn 1989, when this catalogue was printed, SunTour had rejigged almost its entire range. Of the ‘named’ groupsets, only the top road groups, Superbe Pro and Sprint 9000, were not subject to total change.

In general the new series were well designed and well constructed. XC Pro, XC Comp, XCD, X-1, GPX and Radius make a pretty decent set. I have a particular fondness for XC Pro and XCD. However Accushift Plus never seemed to shift as cleanly as Shimano’s SIS system. The derailleurs were good but the levers, chains and freewheels were less exciting.

You can feel SunTour’s frustration (mostly with themselves?) in the statement on page 2:

“Some component manufacturers would have you believe that THEY know more than you do, about what YOU want to ride. We believe in listening, not lecturing...”

Other fascinating irrelevances are the, utterly astounding, Browning BEAST front change system (on page 6 and page 10), the, clinically insane, Suntour X-1 Chroma system (on page 8 and page 16) and the, highly collectable, SunTour Cycling Bandana (see Page 15).

I have displayed the pages of this catalogue in a slightly enlarged format because the type is so tiny.

• Publisher: SunTour
• Country: Japan
• Date: 1989
• Derailleur brands: SunTour, Browning
• Derailleurs: too numerous to mention - please see the individual pages