I ran across this interesting post on the Via Bicycle Blog (a great shop in Philly):

https://bikeville.blogspot.com/2010/0...n-at-swap.html

It demonstrates how many modern cycling technological innovations are really just decades-old ideas that have been reborn and retweaked, in this case, low-spoke count radially laced wheels.

Similarly, I recently got the book The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles by Jan Heine of Vintage Bicycle Quarterly and the same thing proved to be true. Many of the custom French randonneuring bicycles in the book feature both brake and shifter cables routing through the tubes, threadless stems, aluminum frames, and other innovations. These bikes were being built in the 1930s and 1940s, though!

I love Via too...I understand why people here get frustrated with their ordering access, but walking in there is a great experience.

yes what was old is now new. I like the "mounting peg" is that how people developed the stle of putting their left foot on the pedal and 'kicking' off to mount? perhaps that is why left cranks round out faster.

also do I spy a laid back seatpost?

Yes, that's correct; the mounting peg was a holdover from the high wheel bicycles, where you had to have a mounting peg to lift yourself up on your left foot, then kicked off with your right foot and placed it on the pedal as it came around; it would then lift you up and forward onto the seat.

Even after the Safety bike like this came along; some people still had the habit of mounting from the rear, rather than straddling it and taking off from a standing start.

-James