The 'cyclists creed'?Originally Posted by gastrion
"This is my bicycle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My bicycle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life."
At least fix it up then, because, damn...Nonsense, this bike is great because no person would steal this vintage beast.
And if I ever were to get a new bike I'd go fishing in the 'sloot' next to the station.
Besides this is the bike my grandfather used to ride to Den Helder to sail on the ZP cruisers, or so I was told (he likes to make things up, I'm pretty sure you can take a train)
It has emotional value... and I'm just cheap.
"This is my bicycle this is my bike, this is for riding but not on a dike" is more like it.
Do you not notice the new woodwork?
In 1894 France, captain Henri Gérard "invented" a foldfable bicycle ("vélo-pliante" or "bicyclette pliante") that was produced by Peugeot and was used to equip new "cyclistes" companies. (Edit: In fact he used an improved deisgn that was developed by Charles Morel.)
Other armies followed this example. The Belgian armed forces for example used the Belgica bicycle in its two battalions "carabiniers cyclistes".
Here's an article about military bicycles:
http://www.foldingcyclist.com/folding-bike-history.html
Last edited by calimero2; 08-26-2012 at 10:21 AM.
Many Finnish army attacks in WW2 were spearheaded by Jaeger batallions on bikes and FDF employs bikes to this day.
In fact given the environment up here I think we should have more bikes if something. Infantry company can travel 100km/day with relative ease. And it can do it with very low signature on very small roads or even paths through the forest. We could have batallions of troops on the move with very low probability of detection even with the most modern intel equipment.
Like this. I don´t know if the ww-2 era bike was much different or the same actual model.
I loved to hate it. It had five speeds; uphill, level, downhill, carrying it and carrying it in a forest...
During the Vietnam War the communists used bikes to transport supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in eastern Laos and Cambodia. They walked and pushed the bikes, but each man could transport 100+ kilos of supplies.
Exactly. And if we were against a superior foe like the Russians (or the US so Russians wouldn't feel offended) that kind of transportation could become very helpful.
The Swiss army introduced military bikes in 1905. Only in 2003, the "Radfahrtruppen" (still part of the mechanized divisions!) were disbanded. They used the Fahrrad 93, made by Condor. The bicycles could be fitted with a mount to carry a 60mm mortar or machine gun (transport capacity was 60 kg, without counting the cyclist).
Some background info on the Swiss Cyclist Troops can be found here:
http://www.radfahrer.ch/English/tax/Radfahrer.php
Military Bicycles of WWII
http://www.theliberator.be/militarybicycles.htm
But can it carry heavy infantry weapons like HMGs or ATGMs?
Of course it is possible. 50kg of gear is not bad on a bike as long as it is properly loaded.
But what is smarter thing to do here is to give every platoon a quad ATV with a trailer or two for carrying the heavier gear. They have the same mobility as the bikes and still a low signature.
But ATVs need gas and thus an additional supply chain ^^
Go electric?
PG Bikes' "BlackTrail – Nec plus ultra"
weight: 44kg
material: carbon
cruise speed: 31km/h
top speed: 61km/h
range: 48-193km
And eco friendly too....
that actually looks interesting - for personal use - not for the military as you would need batteries or access to power to charge the battery, so the same issue as with the ATVs.
And it probably will cost much more than an ATV becuase its all fancy and modern and rare etc
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