Suntour XC Microdrive is it worth it?

[Markybeau]

My memory of Suntour is dim and distant. I remember having a couple of bikes in my youth that wore Suntour but I can't remember if it was any better than Shimano.

I've started gathering a few bits together ( Comp and Pro) but I'm now having doubts as to whether it will be worth the effort.

What is your experience, particularly of Microdrive and its strengths / weaknesses?

 

[raidan73]

In my experience Shimano always shifted more smoothly than Suntour indexing, but I do love a bit of XC Pro. The MD was designed to reduce weight and ground clearance (on the large ring) but I don't think it significantly improved either of those things. A weakness of Suntour nowadays, and MD in particular, is the price of spares, if you can find them.

 

[raidan73]

Oh and increased drivetrain wear with MD I'd guess

 

[retroJIM]

I'd love to build an XC Pro equipped bike but the parts seem so much rarer and more expensive then equivalent Shimano. It's a shame, I used to love XC Pro thumbies.

 

[tintin40]

Always had Suntour BITD then decided to try as every one said how much better Shimano was. I didn't find it better than Suntour. So went back to it. Now have SRAM to new bikes. Miles better than Shimano. From top to the bottom of the range.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Oh and increased drivetrain wear with MD I'd guess

Hardly a problem since every drive train from Shimano apart from XTR followed the MD philosophy, even now.
Even road drive trains went this way.

 

[Once A Hero]

I've been slowly gathering parts for a Suntour build, albeit standard XC Pro and not MD, and it's proving tricky and quite pricey in places, but dirt cheap in others. The MD stuff seems more readily available I'd say.

One thing I'd like to track down (not tried yet) is a 'Power-cam' - on the basis that it was Suntours version of the U-brake, and mounts in the same way? Failing that, I'll have an XT item in its place.

The only bike I had BITD that had Suntour was my entry level MuddyFox running XCT - a lot of which got swapped out for Shimano kit.

 

[FluffyChicken]

My experience, mainly. The Comp groupset.
Comparing to others at the time, circa 92/93
Good, sturdy reassuring changes, on setup I had a good clunk on, shifter fine.
Shimano's was always a bit more flimsy change.

Hubs lovely, only really used thumbies and I'm not a fan of thumbies (downside), X-Press seemed a bit poor but I don't remember them too much, RF was poor too. RF+ a bit better but still poor shifters. (comparing to m900 that are pretty shite shifters).

The one big downside, cassettes need to match the freehub body, which needs it's own rear hub.

Chainset are nice, front mech top and standard pull is nice. Harder to get the granny ring, can mod CD rings, but steel one is probably still running well.

Chain is Sachs/sedis so great.


Go for it, unless you're the sort of person who must also get the pedals, headset and seatpost and bb.

 

[Markybeau]

My experience, mainly. The Comp groupset.
Comparing to others at the time, circa 92/93
Good, sturdy reassuring changes, on setup I had a good clunk on, shifter fine.
Shimano's was always a bit more flimsy change.

Hubs lovely, only really used thumbies and I'm not a fan of thumbies (downside), X-Press seemed a bit poor but I don't remember them too much, RF was poor too. RF+ a bit better but still poor shifters. (comparing to m900 that are pretty shite shifters).

The one big downside, cassettes need to match the freehub body, which needs it's own rear hub.

Chainset are nice, front mech top and standard pull is nice. Harder to get the granny ring, can mod CD rings, but steel one is probably still running well.

Chain is Sachs/sedis so great.


Go for it, unless you're the sort of person who must also get the pedals, headset and seatpost and bb.

I'm more interested in the drivetrain than anything else. What are viable alternatives for cassettes?

What do you mean by RF and RF+?

 

[FluffyChicken]

I'm more interested in the drivetrain than anything else. What are viable alternatives for cassettes?

What do you mean by RF and RF+?

Nothing.

RF(+) RapidFire(+)(Shimano) version of Suntour X-Press (or vice versa I think).