morning Mr Flag, not sure if you're saying that I'm full of malarky, but even if so, I'm fine with that ;-)
Neat to hear of them being common enough, and interesting about the cross bikes. A good friend of mine still has a late 80s Fuji cross bike that has them, nope I think its a Miyata actually, maybe a 89 or thereabout, complete with flared out drop bars.
my knee shift comment was really just a vague recollection I have, can't recall if an old roommate told me that, or I read it, or who knows--a 35 year old plus "sort of" memory....but thats funny that you reckon its a baloney line.
and makes complete sense for the Crit stuff. I rode dt for decades in city traffic and potholes galore ommuting, so get it.
cheers