The 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps

Do you think you're a strong cyclist, able to ride long distances in harsh conditions over rough
terrain? Could you do a long bike tour carrying camping equipment and food on your bike?

If so, try replicating the ride that a group of Army soldiers in the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps did in June and July 1897.

As part of a "field test" to determine the effectiveness of bicycles for transporting infantry troops long distances, this group of hardy cyclists rode, pushed and carried their bikes 1,900 miles from Fort Missoula, Mont., to St. Louis.

The Bicycle Corps officer who led the expedition was Lt. James Moss, a West Point graduate and avid cyclist. His volunteer soldier-cyclists were all Buffalo Soldiers from the 25th Infantry Regiment.

Their route went from Fort Missoula to Yellowstone and then southeastward through Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri to St. Louis.

The "two-wheeled forced march" took 41 days to complete with 34 days of actual cycling. The soldier-cyclists averaged almost 56 miles per cycling day with an average speed of 6.3 mph.

Rough and unpaved dirt tracks made up the majority of the route, with roads being so bad that the soldiers often dismounted and pushed their bicycles on railroad tracks. Expedition reports indicate that the soldiers pushed or carried their bikes for almost 400 of the trip's 1,900 miles.

Conditions during the trip included cold and wet weather, deep mud, strong winds and heat exceeding 110 degrees.

One of the bivouac points during this cycling expedition was at the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which took place 21 years earlier.

The Military Specification bicycles they rode were manufactured for the military by the AG Spalding Co. Each of the heavy and cumbersome steel-framed bikes weighed 32 pounds.
When fully loaded with blanket roll, tent, rations and extra clothing, the total weight of each bicycle was 59 pounds.

In addition to the bicycle and field gear, each soldier also carried a 10-pound Krag-Jorgensen rifle with 50 rounds of ammunition.

The Spaulding military bicycles used by the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps had only one gear (single speed), with a gear-inch ratio of 68 inches. That gearing would be about the same as a modern single-speed bicycle equipped with a 36-tooth front chain ring and a 14-tooth rear cog.

On July 24, the infantry cyclists completed their trek and rolled into St. Louis. The St. Louis Star newspaper noted that the soldiers had completed "the most marvelous cycling trip in the history of the wheel and the most rapid military march on record" at that time.

This experiment by the 25th Infantry wasn't the first time that bicycles had been tested by various military units. Both the United Kingdom and France had experimental bicycle units as early as 1886.

The first documented combat use of bicycles occurred in 1895-96 during the Second Boer War, during which cyclists served as messengers.

The use of bicycles continued during World War I with bike-mounted infantry, scouts and messengers being used by the Italian Bersaglieri light infantry as well as in the German and British armies.

Japan used an estimated 50,000 bicycle troops during its 1937 invasion of China, and the Finnish army deployed bicycle units as the spearhead of its attack during its 1941 campaign against the Soviet Union.

In 1997, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funded the development of a tactical folding mountain bike designed for use by airborne rangers. This bike, manufactured by Montague, had a 500-pound load-carrying capacity and would quickly fold into an air-droppable package.

Although the military use of bicycles today hasn't changed significantly from what the 25th Infantry Bicycle Corps did back in 1897, the next military bicycle evolution may be about ready to happen.

A researcher in Japan has modified a small bipedal robot and configured it to ride a bike just as a human would (Google "PRIMER-V2 robot"). The future could include ground-based robotic "surveillance cyclists" pedaling through combat zones performing military tasks.

Remember, bicycles are a part of military history.