SunTour rarity?

[DoctorRad]

Just found that something I've had in a box for at least 15 years is not what I thought it was. It's a boxed NOS SunTour SL GreaseGuard bottom bracket to suit a 68mm shell. I'd always assumed that since it was SL, it was for MD cranks, i.e. 115mm axle length. But lo and behold, the axle is 125mm.

Any other SunTour Whores ever seen or heard of one? The old Bike-Pro site only lists the SL as coming in 68/115 and 73/119, both of which I also have.

 

[ishaw]

I can't comment on the rarity but if you do have an md bottom bracket you want to part with I'd be very interested.

Ian

 

[FluffyChicken]

SL is a road groupset.

Though SLxx was also the designation for the XC Pro MD bottom bracket

SL was also used as the designation under the MicroLite naming.

@125mm. hum

 

[DoctorRad]

It's definitely MicroLight: the cups and axle are alloy, with the steel race inserts on / in both and the smaller ball bearings. Also with the grease injection holes in the axle, obviously, and the axle has an SL designation.

Just never knew they made one @125mm for non-MD triples!

 

[Alloy]

That sounds pretty rare, you should post pics of it .

 

[DoctorRad]

Found another for sale five years ago, apparently the only other definite sighting on the web:

http://search.bikelist.org/beta/ViewMes ... ?id=232697

I think the one I have is part of the batch of SunTour parts I bought from the distributor Ron Kitching (now Zyro) after the original SunTour folded and before they put all their unsold stock into a skip (I kid you not...).

 

[theredchili]

In the early 90's I have a pace rc200, it had suntour XC Pro groupset, which had the grease nipples on the BB, hubs and headset
I thought I was great at the time.

Not sure on the rarity though

 

[DoctorRad]

The SunTour GreaseGuard BBs don't need a nipple on the BB shell - you inject grease through the crank bolts.

The standard components are not that rare, though getting rarer as NOS of course. The BB I have is an axle length I've not some across before as a MicroLite component.

MicroLite was a series of primarily road-based components which had alloy instead of steel for major components (axles, cogs, freewheel and freehub bodies):

http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/suntou ... 200005.pdf
http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/suntou ... 200015.pdf

The latter PDF above lists the XC-Pro MD version but not the 125mm axle version for 110/74 cranks that I have.

 

[FluffyChicken]

It was the 125mm that also stumped me, either road or MD so 115 VX taper is the max
I'll check the 1991 catalogue if I have it.

90/2/3 are in the archive.

 

[Archangel]

There are some of those XC Pro Microlite BBs for non-MD around. I have one NOS surplus one in my shelf if somebody is interested.

What are very rare though, are XC Pro BBs (and especially Microlite) for 73mm shells. I hunted for one over 2 years...