With their high seats, highwheelers required a mounting step or peg
down low on the backbone.
When fixed-gear safety bicycles appeared, they naturally included
mounting steps, too, since everyone was used to pushing the bicycle to
get going, using a mounting peg to step up onto the seat, and then
putting both feet on the whirling pedals.
The early safeties had wheels up to 34 inches and favored much higher
frames and seats, so the mounting step made more sense than it does
today, with freewheels, small wheels, and low seats.
This common pose, where the rider stands up straight and rests his
elbow on the seat, shows how high old bicycles were:
http://www.thewheelmen.org/sections/photographs/hardtired/regviews/hardtired13v.jpg
The mounting step is the shiny curve dangling off the rear axle.
The two pegs on fork are coasting pegs for relaxing while zooming down
hills on the fixed-gear hard-tire cross-frame bicycle, possibly a
Starley Psycho. Here's what coasting pegs look like in action:
http://www.nostalgic.net/index.asp?S=arc/pre1920/1890%27s+man+on+bike%2Ejpg
Anyway, the first mounting pegs on safety bicycles dangled like the
one in the picture, but they soon evolved to the simple round, knurled
extension of the rear axle that we still see today on the front and
rear axles of stunt bicycles:
http://www.rogerco.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/anew/free-f.jpg
Frame-pump guy's bicycle has a short, shiny mounting peg visible on
the left side of his rear axle.
But some inventors weren't satisfied with this simple mounting step
design, so here are a few examples of various mounting steps.
First, the original dangling step, visible in the second diagram:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=Y1FNAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA2&dq=400204
That's how popular mounting steps were--the inventor sweated blood to
put one on a bike whose treadle-drive made a mounting peg next to
imnpossible.
***
Next, the simplified round axle extension:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=GhBPAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=507412
After you see the mounting peg, scroll down past the double top and
double down tubes and feast your eyes on the coasting pegs, which are
the most elaborate that I've found yet.
The complicated rearward extension was helpful on coasting pegs.
Smaller riders had to stretch to reach pegs mounted directly on the
forks of such long bicycles, which typically added 4 inches to our
modern wheelbase to smooth out rough roads.
***
Here's the big round knurled axle extension:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=-9pDAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA43&dq=625368
Simple, practical, but dull, dull, dull.
***
Now this is a mounting step that your friends would envy:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=F45iAAAAEBAJ&pg=PP1&dq=586335
Page down for the full view. The curved guard keeps you from
accidentally sticking your foot into the spokes. Sharpen the end like
a chisel, and it could double as a wood-working tool, possibly for
shaping wooden rims.
***
Of course, that guard was picturesque, but not really useful, since
few riders stuck their feet into the rear wheel.
This inventor decided to guard in the other direction:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=F45iAAAAEBAJ&pg=PP1&dq=586335
The metal strap ran back from the chain-stay around an ordinary
axle-peg and smoothly pushed obstructions to one side so that they
wouldn't slam into the right-angle peg itself.
The idea never caught on because no protection was needed. Anything
that's going to hit the rear mounting peg will probably hit your left
leg first.
***
Here's the pinnacle of mounting steps, incorporating an automatic
spring-loaded side-stand:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=8pNmAAAAEBAJ&pg=PP1&dq=412216#PPP1,M1
A lady needed more than just a step attached to two wobbly wheels.
When she stepped on this contraption, it automatically shoved a
side-stand down to steady everything. When she moved her foot to the
pedal, the spike automatically retracted.
If the inventor had replaced the pointy spike on the end of his
side-stand with broad plate, he might have sold a second copy. As
designed, Big Bertha is going to topple sideways into the mud as soon
as she stomps on that mounting step and drives a tent-peg into the
ground.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel