VeloBase.com - Component: SunTour Sprint 9000 (Indexed)

SunTour Sprint 9000 (Indexed)

Category:	Rear Derailleurs
Name:	SunTour Sprint 9000 (Indexed)
Brand:	SunTour
Primary Group:	Sprint 9000
Model:	RD-SP10-SSB
Years:	1987 - 1990
Country:	Japan
Weight:	197 grams
Added By:	cudak888 on 07/21/07
Updated By:	peterbman on 05/05/18
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Outer Plate Markings	SunTour Sprint 9000	Inner Plate Markings	Maeda Ind. Japan VIA + 2 letter month/year code
Material	Aluminum Alloy	Design Category	Slant parallelogram
Attachment Bolt Size	5mm Allen Key	Cable Attachment Bolt Size	5mm Allen Key
Shifting Systems	SunTour AccuShift Friction	Cable Adjuster	Yes
Cage Length	Short	Max Cog Size	26
Max Chain Wrap	26T

General Information
Suntour Sprint became Sprint 9000 in 1987 and received a re-designed parallelogram and cage, along with index ability for 6 and 7 speed Suntour Accushift Winner Pro freewheels. Supposedly, later models include support for 8-speed Accushift freewheels Suntour introduced the Sprint gruppo, price between Superbe Pro and Cyclone, to compete with Shimano 600 Ultegra. Suntour Sprint was splendid value, everything looked expensive and the finish was superbe. Nobuo Ozaki, the head of product development at Maeda, invented the slant parallelogram rear derailleur in 1964 and Maeda obtained worldwide patents on the design. For the next 20 years, Suntour produced technically superior derailleurs. Suntour's slant parallelogram broke the image of Japanese components as being cheap copies of European components. Sources report that this derailleur can handle no more than about a 23T when used with indexing, but at least a 26 in friction mode. Who knows what you may be able to coax out of it though.
Quality:		Rarity:

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Additional Resources
Resources:	Reference & Charts Catalogs External Resources

Component Groups
Primary Group Name	Brand	Quick Info	Browse Group Components
Sprint 9000	SunTour	1987 - 1990, Road Race	View 9 Components
Details: Suntour Sprint became Sprint 9000 in 1987 and received a re-designed parallelogram and cage, along with index ability for 6 and 7 speed Suntour Accushift Winner Pro freewheels. Suntour introduced the Sprint gruppo, price between Superbe Pro and Cyclone, to compete with Shimano 600 Ultegra. Suntour Sprint was splendid value, everything looked expensive and the finish was superbe. Late 80's group.

Brand Information(click to expand)

SunTour (Maeda)

SunTour derailleurs have a two-letter date code. On rear derailleurs the code is stamped on the back side of the inner parallel arm. On front derailleurs it is stamped on the back side of the inner cage.

The first letter represents the year. Larry Osborn and I believe O (Oh) is 1972, V is 1979 and A is 1984. As with Shimano, the second letter is the month code, where A is January and L is December.

SunTour Year Code

N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992

SunTour Month Code

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

The earliest Suntour derailleur I have found with a code is marked OF. A rear derailleur marked OD (corresponding to April of 72) was reported by Leighton Walter. I have a bike that dates from between 1970 to 1972 that has the original SunTour derailleurs. These derailleurs do not have date codes on them, so I believe the coding started sometime between 1970 and April of 1972.

(source: vintage-trek.com)

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