Phil Brown wrote:
"those cool Demultiplicators work the other way. They don't reduce the lever throw, they increase it to provide better "feel," according to Simplex advertising."
I haven't seen that Simplex ad, but I always heard a rather different reason for them: Pre-parallelogram derailleurs had a rather large diameter "barrel" for wrapping cable. So, a given angular movement of the lever moved the cable a long way. Often, these came with braze-on fittings for the shifter; always replacing the shifter affected the look and cost money. The big diameter didn't work well with parallelogram derailleurs. So, the demultiplicator, a simple lever, allowed you to urgrade the rear derailleur while keeping your favorite Cyclo or Simplex big-spool shift lever.
This may just prove that logical arguments aren't the story, and that Phil is right.
harvey sachs
mcLean va