Tim McNamara said:A good point! I use my VAR in the same way, ever since I snapped the
little chain holder knob off of the seat say. Doh!
I hope nobody minds my waxing nostalgic for a moment,
but one thing I hated losing was a special device from
Campagnolo, which went along with downtube shifters.
It consisted of a RH shift lever that had an extra
little squeeze lever mounted to it, a stop plate for
the lever that had two stops, and a semi-circle piece
that mounted to the inside of the right dropout
(between the dropout and freewheel).
When the shift lever was all the way down, it would
stop the chain on the smallest cog, as normal. But
if you squeezed the second lever, you could move the
shift lever down a little farther, to the second
stop. That would shift the chain onto the aluminum
piece mounted to the dropout. You could then remove
the rear wheel and the chain would be held in place.
On the road, rear wheel changes were instant (no
mucking with the chain, and once you got a push start,
you just shifted back onto the freewheel), and on the
repair stand the chain was held in place while the
wheel was off.
This device vanished with STI and the close clearances
of 8 & 9 speed, of course.
Larry Coon
University of California