[CR]re: Why are drive trains always on the right side?

(Example: Framebuilders:Cecil Behringer)

To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Russ Fitzgerald" <velocio@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2006 18:28:56 -0500
Subject: [CR]re: Why are drive trains always on the right side?

Because the mounting peg was on the left end of the rear axle on early safety bikes? You put your left foot on the peg and lifted yourself forward and snagged the right pedal with your right foot and pedaled with one leg for a moment and then lifted yourself into the saddle and pedaled normally - the whole procedure being a carry-over from riding ordinaries/penny-farthing bikes. I don't recall ever seeing an ordinary with the mounting step on the right ...

Russ Fitzgerald, always fascinated by the dead hand (or pedaling foot) of history, in Greenwood, SC, USA