I recall seeing a few of the mutilated levers around that time. None of them seemed to work all that well and of course on a TT bike they didn't have to. I'm not an aero hater or above using the aero levers. I have a pair of early Shimano aero levers with white hoods on my Colnago Super and feel no shame whatsoever. And they work just fine and have for some considerable time now.