SunTour Superbe Pro silver/bronze (5200 1983 version) derailleur

Many people regard the SunTour Superbe Pro (5200) as the finest friction derailleur of all time. It was light, strong, extremely effective and constructed to fantastic tolerances from the finest materials.

No detail was overlooked, from the aluminium hanger bolt and pulley bolts, to the sealed bearing pulley wheels, to the beautifully polished, stainless steel, parallelogram pivots pins with Allen heads that were removable so that the gear could be completely disassembled.

So much for the function, what of the aesthetics? Louis Sullivan gave us the idea that 'form follows function' - that things that 'work right' naturally 'look right'. Walter Gropius elegantly nourished this idea and Jony Ive ruthlessly injected it with ideological steroids.

But I had a colleague who liked to say that things that 'work right' almost always look... 'ever-so-slightly wrong'. He considered that reality may not be inevitably grim, but it was certainly moody and uncooperative, like a stroppy teenager. For him, foundational to the idea of beauty was that it should flatter to deceive. It was best avoided.

The SunTour Superbe Pro (5200) is evidence in support of my misanthropic colleague. It works great - but its looks hint at the ungainly. The arm holding the cable clamp is slightly too long and oddly angled, the b-knuckle tapers uncomfortably, the adjustment screws are a tad too close together, giving it a cross-eyed aspect, and as for those pulley cage plates.... Overall, it's an object to be admired, not loved.

The SunTour Superbe Pro (5200) was produced for 3 years from the 1983 model year to 1985. I believe that in that, brief, time there were 5 distinct variants:

The first version (1983) had a simple inner pulley cage plate with no 'spoke saver', a medium-low slant on its slant parallelogram (giving a maximum sprocket size of 26 teeth) and a relatively slim b-knuckle with a 19mm long b-pivot bolt.
The second version (early 1984) had a redesigned inner pulley cage plate - now a thin guage item with 'spoke savers'. It had an even lower slant (giving a maximum sprocket of 23 teeth) and a thicker b-knuckle with a 22mm long b-pivot bolt.
For the third version (late 1984) the outer pulley cage was redesigned so that both pulley bolts were conventional with their heads at the outer pulley cage plate and their threads at the inner pulley cage plate.
The fourth version (early 1985) was an anomally. It had the 'non-aero' outer pulley cage plate and the non-sealed pulley wheels of a plain Superbe. in addition, the inner pulley cage plate was redesigned again to be a, rather minimal, elegant item with a long 'spoke saver' prong at the guide pulley. This version may only have been manufactured in the month of April 1985 and may have had something to do with those dreaded 'supply chain issues'.
For the fifth version (late 1985) the third version's 'aero' outer pulley cage plate and sealed bearing pulleys were restored, but the elegant inner pulley cage plate of the fourth version was retained.

Is this too much information... ?

Based on the shape of its inner pulley cage plate, I believe that this is a 1983 version of the Superbe Pro. It has the following attributes:

It has a bronze outer parallelogram plate, b-pivot bolt and pulley bolt. The colour makes me think that these are hard anodised.
It has a slim b-knuckle and a 19mm long b-pivot bolt.
The outer pulley cage plate has a smooth surface at the guide pulley, with the writing (very faint) 'SEALED BEARING PULLEY SYSTEM'.
The inner pulley cage plate is a simple shape with no 'spoke savers'.
The tension pulley bolt is relatively conventional with its head on the outside. The guide pulley bolt is a two part item with its head on the inside.
The pulley wheels are SunTour's classic silver sealed bearing units. Both pulley wheels are identical.

I have seen examples of this colourway of Superbe Pro with the complete and correct writing on them (in white) indicating that this is an original SunTour colour option. I particularly like the anodised b-pivot bolt and pulley bolt.