Trakhak

Thought about it, but didn't that stick around for at least a few years, paired with the (aptly named, in retrospect) FFS drivetrains?

By the way, I imagine few people on Bike Forums remember Direction 6. I am here to inform them that Direction 6 was Shimano's early stopgap design that allowed 6 sprockets to fit in a frame with a 120-mm over-locknut dimension.

For those who don't remember that exceedingly short-lived folly:

Suntour had just introduced their 6-speed narrow-spaced freewheels, so Shimano naturally had to respond, and without paying a licensing fee to Suntour for the use of their design.

Their workaround: the drive-side hub flange was "stepped' to permit all of the spokes to be installed head out/elbow in on that side. That, plus judicious axle spacing, gave just enough extra clearance to allow the derailleur to shift the chain to the innermost of the six sprockets without hitting the spokes. Theoretically.

I wanted to post a picture of a Direction 6 hub, but no combination of search words has worked.

There were maybe two Shimano technical bulletins that covered Direction 6 (back in the era when every bike shop was thoughtfully sent a New York City telephone book-sized technical manual, which swelled to alarming proportions as the bulletins covering ever-newer Shimano products flowed steadily in).

If anyone out there can find one of those tech sheets, please post it here, or at least a picture of the hub. Because I'm starting to think I dreamed it up. (Over-active imagination or incipient senility?)