Sunrace components – derailleurs and cassette alternatives
Review by Lee Lau
I saw an ad for Sunrace components in some magazine in the newstand. What initially caught my eye was the reference to Sturmey-Archer (the 100 year old company) which I found also distributed Sunrace components. In my mind, anyone associated with that lineage of history of quality could do anything but make high quality bike parts. I contacted Dave P at Sunrace’s US offices and in short order I had some Sunrace derailleurs and cassettes on hand to test.
The long-cage Sunrace derailleur
Design and Construction: Derailleurs
I had the long cage RDMZ and the mid cage RDMX. According to Sunrace they are XTR and XT-equivalent respectively. You can get the specs from the website links provided but here are some highlights
- All 7075 aluminium construction
- 9 speeds
- 2:1 actuation ratio (ie Shimano compatible)
- Carbon cage for the higher end RDMZ
- Weight savings between the RDMZ (223g) and RDMX (236g) aren’t dramatic. Weights for long caged versions are cited
- Both have the capacity to handle up to 34t sprockets
- Adjustment hardware is all aluminium. No pesky plastic bits to strip
- Both have sealed bearings at the pulleys
The long-cage Sunrace derailleur
Looks like nice stuff, that obviously works well, with an excellent pricepoint.
Now going on over 8 months on the Sunrace gear without issues or wear.
Sounds good. Seems like Sunrace moved quite up since I last had it in 2001. Hopefully they keep up. It would be nice to have another top player between Shimano and SRAM in the future.