Resurrected: Early 1990s Diamondback Road Bike

[y_p_w]

Yeah some of the Suntour stuff was well made, especially Superbe & Cyclone. Their index shifting just never worked as well as Shimano.


That's exactly what I was talking about. It's essential for index shifting to work well. By comparison, the Suntour cassettes that I saw in the shop back then had simple consistent tooth profiles. None of the tooth shaping, angling, ramping, etc. that Shimano used. Like this:
View attachment 81185
As I was pulling my hair out trying to get Suntour index shifting to work as well as Shimano, I realized the cassette tooth profiles were part of the problem. All that funky stuff Shimano did to the cassette teeth made the chain shift more readily.

I'm at home now and had a quick look at my old bikes. I don't ride them, but I just can seem to get rid of them where they just take up space in my storage room. But yeah the teeth are twisted at different angles, some teeth are thinner, some are angled weirdly,, and parts of the base are shaved off. I see this even on my 7-speed Dura-Ace freewheel. I don't recall if I had that on my old 6-speed Peugeot with a Maillard freewheel. They might have just used a Shimano shifter with a traditional tooth freewheel. That bike was trashed and I'd already swapped out some components before I crashed it. It still shifted pretty well. But I found a photo of one, although it might not have all original components. The saddle is definitely not original. I forgot who made the tubing, but it was French. I looked it up and it's something called "HLE".

As far as Suntour goes - they never made a complete groupset like Shimano or Campagnolo. I think they contracted with Sugino to make the crankset and chainrings, although Suntour made the bottom bracket. I thought that at least some of the Suntour brakes were made by Dia-Compe. And of course Campagnolo made rims. They had some weird stuff too like the corkscrew. I saw a few bike shops that had it - almost as a gag although I'm sure they would sell it.

I'm trying to figure out what was the Schwinn that was looking for in college. Might have been their 754. The list price was about $750 and I found it had Suntour GPX components. There was another bike I was considering at the time - a Bianchi in their signature light green color with Suntour GPX. But it was actually a Japanese bike probably "rebadged" with Ishiwata steel tubing.

 

[nthach]

I don't know what it's like now, but Campagnolo's first attempts at index shifting were really bad. It was sloppy and would clunk into place. I heard their later efforts were much better (especially with brake lever shifters) but the downtube shifters sucked.

Never rode old Campy - but I do recall their 9/11 speed stuff shifts very positively. But I don’t like the Sora-like shifter arrangement. It’s almost like car/truck/bus transmissions - Shimano shifts smooth if not light and occasionally vague like a Aisin(Toyota) or Allison transmission, SRAM is quick, very tactile but unobtrusive like a ZF car or bus automatic, Campy makes their shifts known, like a Voith bus transmission or a Honda 4/5 speed automatic does.

 

[y_p_w]

Never rode old Campy - but I do recall their 9/11 speed stuff shifts very positively. But I don’t like the Sora-like shifter arrangement. It’s almost like car/truck/bus transmissions - Shimano shifts smooth if not light and occasionally vague like a Aisin(Toyota) or Allison transmission, SRAM is quick, very tactile but unobtrusive like a ZF car or bus automatic, Campy makes their shifts known, like a Voith bus transmission or a Honda 4/5 speed automatic does.

There has alway been mix and match stuff. It was easy with friction shifting, but then it got more interesting with index shifting and a need for specific profiles. My 7-speed Campy setup from the early 90s included a Regina freewheel. That came on a Bottechia SL frame. I had 8-speed SIS-compatible Grip Shift on a Specialized mountain bike but obviously with Shimano. Specialized did a lot of weird stuff to that including some Deore XT and some Deore, Avid brakes, etc. I always wondered what happed to them after. I know SRAM keeps them around for lower end. Bob Mionske finished 4th at the 1988 Olympics road race using Grip Shift but it never seemed to take off for road bikes.

 

[Toy4x4]

Google chip foose redline bmx images. That is the frame/fork set I had when I raced except I couldn't get those stickers (mid 80's...no click-send back then) when I tore it down and repainted it. I had to get the the Proline ll ones with the updated logo. Uni seat, Bullseye hubs, graphite Zrims, Hutch bars... Cool bike.

 

[MRC01]

Never rode old Campy ...

Classic old campy was fantastic. My racing bike in the 80s was a Vitus 979 with Campy super record, friction shifting, front 42-52, rear 12-21 (7 speeds). Rear derailleur was a Huret Jubilee. The bearings (wheels, crank, headset) had incredible machining and hardness, smooth as butter, and went several years and thousands of miles of hard duty racing without a hint of wear or spalling on the balls or cones. Brakes, derailleurs were smooth, reliable and solid. The bike rode like a dream. That generation of Campy just before index shifting took over was low-tech, but super light, well built, and durable. And it must be said, beautiful in a way that top of the line Italian stuff can be.

I wouldn't buy Campy today, as Shimano and SRAM have come a long way since those days. But old Campy served me well back in the day.

... Shimano shifts smooth if not light and occasionally vague like a Aisin(Toyota) or Allison transmission, SRAM is quick, very tactile but unobtrusive like a ZF car or bus automatic, Campy makes their shifts known, like a Voith bus transmission or a Honda 4/5 speed automatic does.

My new road bike with Ultegra R8020 shifts virtually the same as my prior bike, a '99 Trek 2200 with 105. All shifts quick and smooth even when shifting front & rear simultaneously. The old bike's shifting might be just a tad smoother and slower, but only a tad, and probably what 20,000 miles of break-in does.

 

[nthach]

Classic old campy was fantastic. My racing bike in the 80s was a Vitus 979 with Campy super record, friction shifting, front 42-52, rear 12-21 (7 speeds). Rear derailleur was a Huret Jubilee. The bearings (wheels, crank, headset) had incredible machining and hardness, smooth as butter, and went several years and thousands of miles of hard duty racing without a hint of wear or spalling on the balls or cones. Brakes, derailleurs were smooth, reliable and solid. The bike rode like a dream. That generation of Campy just before index shifting took over was low-tech, but super light, well built, and durable. And it must be said, beautiful in a way that top of the line Italian stuff can be.

I wouldn't buy Campy today, as Shimano and SRAM have come a long way since those days. But old Campy served me well back in the day.

Campy has their place. It’s the Pro Tour, or on a custom-built road bike(or even a Pinarello carbon rig). Even Specialized was offering EPS 12 Chorus/Super Record as a gruppo option on the S-Works Tarmac/Venge/Aethos/Roubaix.

What’s even more shocking - Campy now has a gravel groupset to compete against Shimano GRX(basically dirt-loving Ultegra/105) and SRAM AXS. Mountain bikes almost put Campy under.

 

[y_p_w]

Classic old campy was fantastic. My racing bike in the 80s was a Vitus 979 with Campy super record, friction shifting, front 42-52, rear 12-21 (7 speeds). Rear derailleur was a Huret Jubilee. The bearings (wheels, crank, headset) had incredible machining and hardness, smooth as butter, and went several years and thousands of miles of hard duty racing without a hint of wear or spalling on the balls or cones. Brakes, derailleurs were smooth, reliable and solid. The bike rode like a dream. That generation of Campy just before index shifting took over was low-tech, but super light, well built, and durable. And it must be said, beautiful in a way that top of the line Italian stuff can be.

I wouldn't buy Campy today, as Shimano and SRAM have come a long way since those days. But old Campy served me well back in the day.


My new road bike with Ultegra R8020 shifts virtually the same as my prior bike, a '99 Trek 2200 with 105. All shifts quick and smooth even when shifting front & rear simultaneously. The old bike's shifting might be just a tad smoother and slower, but only a tad, and probably what 20,000 miles of break-in does.

How long would it take to break in one of these? I don't think mileage applies.