Front mech rivetted cage(s)?
 

I just rediscovered that the Valentino front has a rivetted cage - to change it you have to split the chain.

Are there any other front mechs that also require this?

Yeah. Plenty of modern, low-end front mechs are riveted.

All post narrow-chain masterlinks, probably - what about before, when you needed a tool to split the chain?

Modern Dura Ace and Ultegra look riveted in the pics that I see. I only 105 R7000 is riveted as I've got one of those.

Not the ones I've seen in the charity shop where I volunteer. I'm referring to donated, department-store level bikes. None of them have master links.

Used a chain tool ;)
Smart arsepick, yes but that's what you did for most 3/32 chains. My success rate in pushing pins back into place was about 80% but the chains were stronger-better.

Sorry, should have been more obvious.

What front mechs were available that required splitting the chain when a tool was required? Master links make it trivial; it's a design decision whether to make the cage demountable, I suspect at the Valentino end cost driven.

Always have a tool in the kit - was happy I did on a ten-day trip just after Uniglide chains came out, the one I had broke about 6 rollers one by one and I had to keep removing links.

Geez, you used to split chains with a chain tool. Poor kids today know nothing. Taking a derailleur apart to remove the chain is ridiculous.

I've split and reattached thousands of chains, all without using a masterlink. Imagine that!

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.

Yeah, I saw this on an 8-speed Shimano Claris group recently. They come off with a good enough cable cutter, then you install your own. 🙄😁

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.

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