Quote:
Originally Posted by James Langham
Although they did dump the bikes on landing as useless.
There was the Hungarian (?) Fast Corps in Barbarossa who used bikes.
Actually I can see bikes being were useful in a home defence situation "when the bell rings all get straight to HQ."
Their biggest disadvantage is a lack of cross country mobility.
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I don't know about the cross-country mobility, I've seen bikes ridden on the sides of mountains and in deserts...
When biking supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the NVA wouldn't ride the bike, they would put a socket and attach a wooden pole in place of the seat and the "rider" would walk along side guiding the bike, often with loads of up to 400lbs.
Bikes could also be adapted to tow two and four wheel carts. There are sketchs and pics of bikes towing two wheel machine gun carts. Or teams of bikes attached to a shaft and towing small wagons.
Sitting down and looking over the comments already posted...I think a stronger case could be made for bicycle troops and then use a smaller number of horse-mounted troops for areas where you couldn't get a bike into.