OPERATION: Bike-Jump-Feasible: First Since WW2

One of the amazing things our quest for a Soldier's Load solution that began in 1981 and lead us to bicycles in 1990 was that world militaries had used bikes successfully for military operations for over 150 years but that this was hidden from public consciousness by the greedy big weapons MICC-TT racketeers and heroic foot-slogger narcissists in the pre-home computer, pre-internet era! Martin Caidin and Jay Barbree's 1974 book, Bicycles in War is still the best reference to date and you can read it online below:

http://www.combatreform.com/atb.htm

When we were developing Light Bicycle Infantry (LBI) for today, we knew from Caidin/Barbree that it was DONE in the past and that it was FEASIBLE to jump folding all terrain "mountain" bikes (FATBs)--we just didn't know HOW it was done. Our first stab at it in 1992 was to send a Montague FATB to military free-fall paraguru Chuck Gilbert and have him jump it as an EXPOSED lowering line load connected to an ALICE rucksack from the large side door of a DeHavilland Twin Otter STOL turboprop plane as shown in this Operation Bike-Jump-Feasible video.

When military officials were shown this video and still photos (Airborne/SOTB, SF combat developments, U.S. Army Infantry magazine etc.) by the excellent skydiving cameraman with Chuck they went "spastic" that the folded bike was exposed and could snag up on parachute suspension lines in event of a tumbling aircraft exit. We did not at the time know, that the British Paras jumped folded bikes EXPOSED HELD IN THEIR HANDS! It took a WW2 re-enactor to post on the internet actual British Paras jumping folding bikes to learn of this.

http://www.combatreform.com/militaryvehicles.htm

Undaunted, we asked retired SF MSG and Golden Knight Lee Cashwell to make a padded airdrop bag that I jumped in 1993 for Operation DARK CLAW--which answers forever any jump safety criticisms as well as provides a way for FATBs to be carried strapped to the outsides of ground vehicles.

Now what's the hold up?

Do we still want to foot-slog?

I think some of us do. Not moving very fast is easy on the mind and land navigation taskings. Light Bicycle Infantry in the Boer 1900 war was more mobile and hard-hitting than today's Army or gyrene technodonkey with "100 pounds of lightweight equipment on his back" that can barely break the sound barrier of 1 mph.

http://www.combatreform.com/combatlight.htm

We should be ashamed of ourselves and wake up and mend our foot-slogging ways. For a peek at a modern LBI, watch the video below of the Swiss Mountain troops:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkjpDZ1O4C0

Want to know more about 3D Airborne Maneuver Warfare?

Our book, "Air-Mech-Strike: Asymmetric Maneuver Warfare for the 21st Century" is ONLINE for FREE skyjacked by Google!

http://books.google.com/books?id=RCWtHnYZ0LMC&pg

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• airborne
• operation
• bicycles
• parachute
• jump
• ted
• strong
• twin
• otter
• stol
• montague
• folding
• bike

[castlecam]

Was this shot at Zhills?

[dynmicpara]

yes.

[mattryan13]

This is brilliant. In the words of Brendan Behan "Fuck the begrudgers" Innovative ideas are often lambasted. Who would have thought 20 years ago that cops would be on bicycles?

[providenceROTC]

MSG lee Cashwell is my dad :)

[gijengaucho]

Heck , I have been messing around with the idea of prepping a kit for bicycles for my family in case of the need to relocate during a natural disaster. This vid makes has caused me to start the process in full.

[kurtkk1707]

anyone know what the song at the beginning and end is from? it's driving me crazy!

[slause24]

what the hell??? I would never jump a bike and I'm a freakin paratrooper. Thats freakin crazy. What's his elevation he looked higher then 1200 ft.