Originally Posted by
oneclick
That's not what I was wondering about - it was having to take the chain apart to remove the derailleur; was the cheap Campy mech the only one that made the user do that, I spent some time looking at pics of old mechs and didn't spot any others that had no way to get the chain out.
Likewise, the conventional thing would have been to remove the chain first. It would have been extremely weird to take apart a front derailleur in order to remove it. Chains got removed all the time for a bath and cleaning; it was routine. Theoretically, the back bolt of a campy record or SR FD cage can be removed as well, if you want to take it off while leaving the chain in place. Never saw anyone do this in real life. I guess you could if you wanted to.