Watch your head!
You might run into that 1955 Elgin Bluebird hanging from the rafters. Yes, it's true. The boss never throws anything away. It just magically vanishes from the shop and ends up here. If you've given up hope of finding that low gear pawl for a Hercules three speed, drop Davis an email davis@bikeman.com. If we can't find it for you, well, uh, we can't find it for you.
Do you remember slapping a Fat City bandage over some rock rash or how about hearing a Tioga Disc Drive rolling down the trail. Bikeman still has found memories of the years and parts gone by. In the museum you will find collectibles, components, memorabilia and maybe somethings you totally forgot about. So tighten down those toe straps and come on in.
Retro Grouch or just too smart to follow every new trend in your latest cycling magazine. Bikeman knows what that is all about. Bikeman is constantly finding interesting Old School parts and accessroies in the Attic that bring back both good and bad memories. We hope the Attic What IZIT will do the same for you. So browse our index and test your own Old School knowledge. Each Monday we will be posting a new item for you to guess on.
Covering the latest attic news and product updates to satisfy your old school cravings. Check back each week for updates. If you have a cool bike you would like highlited in the Retro Times drop us a line and include a picture.
Bikeman enjoys leafing through old catalogs from time to time and we know most of you do as well. Here is a chance to take a look into the past with manufactures catalogs for days long gone. Some may even be put up for sale. The catatlogs will be complete in PDF format.
Suntour Superbe Tech Derailleur Circa 1983 1983 Marked SunTours entry to the mountain bike market with a Dirt Component group that included the Mountech rear derailleur. 1983 also marked the introduction and quick departure of the Superbe Tech rear derailluer as well. Like the Mountech the Superbe Tech featured a spring housed inside the upper pulley wheel that moved a second parallelogram. This design feature made for one of the smoothest shifting derailleurs ever produced. Unfortunately it also rendered the derailleur nothing more than a ticking time bomb the could fail at a moments notice.
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Both the Mountech and the Superbe Tech featured the spring inside the pulley wheel. While this was an ingenious design if you where looking for the best possible shifting and largest chain wrap capacity in a clean laboratory environment. In the real world of dirt and contamination the design failed miserably. The seal protecting the spring from the elements was inadequate and with in a short time the pulley wheel would bind and the spring would fail.
The Superbe Tech took the unique design one step further with a very elegant enclosed main parallelogram housing some very unique internals. The derailleur used a spring mechanism with gears on either side to facilitate the smooth shift. The derailleur looked amazing but was next to impossible to work on. Inevitably the spring and or the gears / pivots would fail and you would end up with a very expensive paper weight.
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The Superbe Tech derailleur also offered a unique cable routing. The bare cable would come straight from the bottom bracket shell guide to the derailleur pinch bolt. By eliminating the need for cable housing SunTour also reduce the friction on the cable to aid in the smooth shifting performance.
The Superbe Tech and Mountech fiasco proved to be the first chink in SunTours reputation. SunTour rushed the products to market in 1983 without proper testing and many bicycles in 1984 had already committed to spec the parts before the fallout began opening the door for the Evil Empire to break through... While there where plenty of good days ahead for SunTour, Shimano had a foot in the door and you know the end of the story.
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