The SunTour Olé does not quite belong in my collection of Cyclone derailleurs. Strictly speaking the Cyclones of the period were ‘7000’ series and the Olé is from a lower series (probably 5000). It has hex head pulley bolts (the Cyclone’s have Allen heads) and a steel inner parallelogram plate and inner pulley cage plate (both are aluminium on the Cyclone 7000).

I have included it in my collection because it is SunTour’s most complete attempt at imitating the radical (for the time) Shimano Santé. It has a dodgy french sounding name complete with acute accent and ‘handwriting’ typeface, it is painted in a spectrum of metal-flake paints (white, light grey and mid grey) and to round off the picture it sold almost exactly as badly.

Frank Berto, in ‘Sunset for SunTour’ comments that:

• “Olé was a sad story. The gruppo was produced in response to a request from a major U.S. OEM for a gruppo to compete with Shimano's Santé. When the time came to place the order, the purchasing manager changed his mind and Olé was an orphan gruppo.”

Unlike the Shimano Santé, but very like the SunTour Cyclone 7000, the SunTour Olé did not index well due to poor chains and freewheels.

This example is another case of a derailleur that was styled for beauty suffering at the hands of the cruel reality of rain, salted roads, chain wear , discolouring by oil and a touch of user neglect.

---

• Derailleur brands: SunTour
• Categories: SunTour - the Cyclone story
• Themes: A riot of colour
• Country: Japan
• Date of introduction: 1987
• Date of this example: 1987 (two letter date code is DF)
• Model no.: OL00-SSB
• Weight: 280g
• Maximum cog: 26 teeth (hanger 24mm) or 28 teeth (hanger 26mm or more) (Source: Sutherland’s 6th edition)
• Total capacity: 28 teeth (Sutherland’s 6th edition)
• Pulley centre to centre: 56.5mm
• Index compatibility: 6 speed
• Chain width: 3/32”
• Logic: top normal
• B pivot: sprung
• P pivot: sprung
• Materials: largely aluminium with a steel inner parallelogram plate and inner cage plate.