DISRAELI GEARS

SunTour GT (5th style)

SunTour GT derailleur (5th style) main image

SunTour suffered from a serious but very creative case of multiple personality disorder. On the one hand it created exquisite, refined and delicate jewels like the Competition and the first generation Cyclones. On the second hand it created eccentric designs of freakish originality like the Skitter and SMS Max. And on the third hand it was all about raw power, brutal strength and primal simplicity. This last, and possibly most genuine, tradition gave us the SunTour 888 Wide pull chain derailleurs and these derailleurs, the SunTour Honor and SunTour GT.

The SunTour GT was the long cage, steel workhorse of the SunTour range for two decades. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t light, it wasn’t sophisticated, being steel it was a touch noisy and it certainly wasn’t going to impress your europhile friends in the local cycling club. But it was cheap, strong, reliable and effective.

This example is the fifth (and possibly final) style of SunTour GT, and it shows signs of how SunTour was starting to struggle. There is a tackiness about the branding, SunTour has abandoned its signature ‘Quick Cage’ (possibly in response to misplaced consumer safety legislation) and has moved to a more Shimano like pulley cage with the guide pulley slightly off set from the pulley cage pivot. The weight is much improved - but at the expense of the bomb-proof nature of its forebears. Somehow this version seems a tentative, compromised design, a shadow of the earlier more confident GTs.


  • Derailleur brands: SunTour
  • Categories: SunTour - the Honor story
  • Country: Japan
  • Date of introduction: 1985?
  • Date of this example: 1986 (two letter date code is CC)
  • Model no.: unknown
  • Weight: 384g including hanger plate
  • Maximum cog: 30 teeth (Sutherlands 4th edition) or 34 teeth (SunTour) depending on who you believe.
  • Total capacity: 34 teeth (Sutherlands 4th edition) or 36 teeth (SunTour) depending on who you believe.
  • Pulley centre to centre: 65mm
  • Index compatibility: friction
  • Chain width: 3/32”
  • Logic: top normal
  • B pivot: unsprung
  • P pivot: sprung
  • Materials: steel