Thanks, Sheldon! That early Allvit front is about my favorite, too, except that it (like the contemporary "box" or "plunger" Campy) requires setting the inner limit by setting the cage distance; there is only one limit screw. Actually, there is another approach to the problem of getting the cage parallel to the outer cog. I adapted this trick from Bill Boston, who used to do a lovely job on Campy Record fronts. With the Shimano Titlist, or other derailleurs that had an intermediate piece between the parallelogram and the cage, I'd just drill out the spot welds and braze it back at the angle I needed. I did this for Schwinn Town & Country tandems, which had a curved rear seat tube that was near-vertical at the derailleur, so it also allowed me to braze it back together further forward, so the cage thought it was on a conventional bike. And add a spacer to compensate for the 74 mm. BB...
But you hit the important point: those early FDs with a round shaft for cage attachment had some real advantages.
harvey sachs mcLean VA
Sheldon Brown wrote:
> Harvey Sachs wrote:
>
>> Oddly, I got very fond of various iterations of the Allvit front.
>
>
> Me too. My favorite version was the one where the cage had a post
> sticking off to the left, which went through an eyebolt sort of thing on
> the parallelogram.
>
> This gave the option of varying the angle of the cage in the "pitch"
> axis, to work with oddball chainwheel sizes.
>
> That was how I got the 72/52 double on my Moulton Mk III to shift OK.
> Nothing else would have worked.
>
> By the way, for the non French speakers out there, "Allvit" means "all
> speeds." ("Vitesse" is French for "speed.)
>
> Sheldon "52 Tooth Granny Ring" Brown