Lloyd3,

The machining for the top lever and the spindle seemed overdone to me. The epiphany came with a photo of a Dickson Round Action side pedal the late Geoffrey Boothroyd sent me. I have gone as far as to design and 3D prototype (in plastic) a minimalist SXS underlever. It was posted here some years ago. Then I discovered that minimalism is an expensive hobby, that was when they quoted the machining cost for what is a simplified SXS action.