Originally Posted by elTwitcho

You misunderstood me.

If this ring was a 4 bolt, and in the pattern pictured, it would be a proprietary ring, as that would make it different than the current 4 bolt pattern in use.

As for being a pain, I thought I recalled trying to get at the bolt of a regular chainring that happened to have the crank arm in the way before, however upon looking at the bike in question I was mistaken. It wasn't behind the crank arm at all, just a pain in the ass because the thickness of the crank arm at the spider made it awkward. For some reason I thought it was completely behind the crank arm.