25th-infantry-bicycle-corps

[Sir Ridesalot]

https://gearjunkie.com/25th-infantry-bicycle-corps

[John B.]

On Sat, 18 Jun 2016 02:44:36 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
<i_am_cyc...@yahoo.ca> wrote:

>https://gearjunkie.com/25th-infantry-bicycle-corps

The 25th was formed in 1869 and served in Texas. The Bicycle corps was
basically an experiment that was assigned to the 25th in 1896. they
did a number of rides. The first in 1896 was 125 miles, a second in
August was a 500 miler and the third was "in the summer" of 1897 which
is the one described above. It was a 20 man team, the loaded bicycles
weighed 59 lbs. and the riders carried a 10 lb. rifle and 50 rounds of
ammunition.

They carried food for 2 days and supply cashes were established every
100 miles. The corps averaged 52 miles per day initially and 60 miles
per day after the terrain became more moderate. The 1900 mile ride
took 34 days of riding and 6 days of rests and they pushed the bikes
for approximately 400 miles.

Although the successful experiment showed that the bicycle corps could
travel long distance at least twice as fast as infantry the U.S. Army
abandoned the experiment.

The Japanese used bicycle troops both in China and Malaysia and in
Malaysia the speed that the bicycle mounted troops could advance was,
perhaps, a determining factor in battles fought there. In addition the
British Infantry carried 18 Kg (about 40 lbs) of equipment. Japanese
Bicycle troops carried 36 kg.

I wonder how modern MTB riders would compare with the cyclists of
1987?
--
cheers,

John B.