SunTour Bicycle Equipment Catalog No 62

New for Suntour’s model year 1985:

The SunTour Superbe Pro (5200) got a new design of pulley cage and a new matte finish.
The SunTour Cyclone S (6000), SunTour Cyclone W (6200) and SunTour Cyclone GT (6800) were introduced. I never warmed to these ‘muscular’ SunTour Cyclone 6000 series derailleurs and considered them a regression from the understated, lightweight, refinement of the Mark II series.
The SunTour XC (6300) was introduced as a new high-end mountain bike derailleur. Like the closely related SunTour Cyclone 6000 series, this was a slightly-gross-rock-crusher of a gear which, to my eye, lacked a certain refinement.
The SunTour aRX GT, SunTour aR GT, SunTour Seven, SunTour Seven GT, SunTour Honor and SunTour GT all lost their clever Quick Cages and acquired a rather inelegant design of conventional cage.
The SunTour BL and SunTour Vx series disappeared, both were long in the tooth, but the SunTour Vx, at least, was well loved. Instead the slightly underwhelming mid-market SunTour Lepree series was introduced.
The SunTour Superbe Tech L (4800) and SunTour Superbe Tech GTL (5400) disappeared, leaving only the short cage SunTour Superbe Tech S. Given their reliability issues they were probably no loss.
The SunTour Mountech series and SunTour AG Tech series both acquired a ‘closable’ Quick Cage.
The SunTour Trimec (4600) SunTour Trimec was restyled, and the SunTour CAP (5100) was both restyled and renamed as the SunTour Trimec S.

This was a multitude of changes to make in one model year - but it is hard to see any of them as a real step forward and easy to see many of them as a significant step backwards. To the consternation of bicycle mechanics the world over, SunTour had suddenly, inexplicably and totally lost the plot. It is often said the the tragic demise of SunTour was caused by its inability to produce a reliable index gear system to compete with Shimano’s SIS. However this catalogue clearly demonstrates that the problems started long before SIS had any traction in the market.

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