2 to 3 chainring "changer" accessory - how old ?

bduc61

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I bought this ferraroli bike in France from beginning of the nineties ( I rebuilt it quasi full dura ace 7400 range setup - see road readers bikes)

To convert the left command int a 3 chainring able command, it was equipped with this accessory that modify the cable stop "lengrh"

quite smart :idea: :cool:

this is the first time I see this

how old is it - when did this appear ?

and I would like to find another one but no success till now - seems pretty rare ?

 
Seem to think they were about at the end of the last century. A cheap way of using a triple CS with Shimano STI's which were mostly double only.
 
you rotate a peg in the diagonal slot on the cylinder then it clicks into a locating notch, that you can't see at the moment as its on the back of the device. This effectively lengthens the outer casing by the amount needed to put you one chainring further up. Used to leave them in that position (extended) for most riding, gives you a shift between large and middle ring. Then when you are either heavily loaded or riding in somewhat mountainous terrain, you release the tension and then have shifts between small and middle ring.

Used to see it on a fair number of top end tourers when downtube and bar end shifters started going out of fashion. It's the sort of thing you'd find in St Johns Street Cycles when they still had a printed catalogue!

Think the first one i saw was on a Bob Jackson tourer in the early 90s.

Edit, just checked, STI was launched in 1990 and i stopped riding with the touring club in autumn 1991 so they must have been somewhere between D-A STIs hitting the market (mid 1990?) and septemberish 1991.
 
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