SunTour Superbe gold (2100 early 1977 version) derailleur

Following Shimano’s foray into rebranding their Crane as a ‘pro quality’ derailleur (as part of the Dura-Ace groupset), SunTour responded with the aptly named Superbe. This is a beefed up Cyclone, with wider parallelogram plates, stronger castings for the knuckles and beefy stainless steel pivot pins.

So that those dare-devil pro mechanics could replace gear cables on the move (while leaning out of car windows, Tour de France style) the cable routing was moved outside the parallelogram and the eye bolt (hard to thread on those rough Pyrenean roads) was replaced by a bolt and clamping washer.

The first model, launched in early 1977, was the plain vanilla Superbe (2100). Like the Cyclone this had steel b-pivot and p-pivot main Allen bolts with branding on them. It also has steel hex headed pulley bolts and cable clamp bolt. Taken altogether, the Superbe (2100) was another fantastic design from SunTour.

There were three distinct variants:

The very first models from early 1977 had a hex headed parallelogram spring retaining bolt and no black paint surrounding the ‘Superbe’ lettering on the outer parallelogram plate. As well as the silver version, this variant was also offered anodised gold.
In late 1977 black paint was added to the outer parallelogram plate attractively highlighting the ‘Superbe’ lettering.
In 1978 the hex headed parallelogram spring retaining bolt was replaced by a smoother recessed Allen key item.

This is an extraordinarily beautiful gold example of an early 1977 version of the SunTour Superbe (2100).