To answer those couple of questions, what Kurt says is definately true - not all 1010Bs were drilled for Portacatenas. I would also agree with his asessment as to why they never caught on (and I wince at the mechanics and resulting mayhem if indeed the Portacatena and not the last cog was caught on the final shift of the sprint!!!). I wonder when production of both the dropouts and the device stopped? I'm positive the dropouts were produced long after Portacatena production was halted.

John, great pic of the in-the-package Portacatena. I have one stashed away, but am over my Flickr posting limit for this month and haven't got it posted. Thanks for sharing that one as it clearly illustrates the chainkeeper portion - as seen from the driveside of the bike.

Note that John's pic shows one lever, the chainkeeper, two screws and the driveside shift lever stop plate (half hidden by the instruction paperwork) only. No second lever or stop plate - or the steel hardware - was included. This seems to hint that this was looked upon as a retrofit package (always asuming you were retrofitting to a new frame that had the drilled dropouts).

As a number of people have stated, you do unfortunately lose a cog. For most of us in the real world I don't think that's such a big deal, especially as it's the smallest cog. Now, if we were losing out on the granny, different story - especially for touring bikes.

The chain peg: mixed feelings. One, if painted, it quickly gets chipped from use. Two, the chain never seems to stay on well (if hung for cleaning or even travel). The Portacatena beats it for keeping a nice tension on the chain for cleaning/maintenance and also travel which are the main reasons I enjoy it. Plus, it has that "funky factor" that results in neat little threads such as these!

Gary - that's a gorgeous frame! Wow! Friends and neighbors, wouldn't you all like to see more pictures of that beautiful bike? I know I would... Is that a personally built frame?

Thanks to all for the additional comments, photos and factoids!