From the Library: The Great Bicycle Experiment

In the mid 1890s the US army undertook an experiment to test the viability of the bicycle for military use. You don't have to live the bicycle life for long before you find this out, from one source or another. Organized into a short-lived Bicycle Corps, the task of carrying out this experiment fell to a select group of men - the Buffalo Soldiers of the 25th Infantry, stationed at Fort Missoula, in Montana.

Technically, The Great Bicycle Experiment is a juvenile non-fiction book, and as such goes only to a certain depth of detail in telling the story of the men who were involved. Now, I have seen photographs, I have read brief overviews and other writings of the topic, but never anything more comprehensive so, juvenile or not, much of the detail in this short book was new and revelatory. If you have read anything more comprehensive, your experience might be different. Now, you might see the word juvenile and think this work is less studied, less serious in its examination; make no mistake, however, the information is thoroughly researched and presented, there is even a short follow-up, a "what became of" some of the men who were engaged in the experiment. Like many books in the juvenile non-fiction genre, The Great Bicycle Experiment is chock full of historic photographs and illustrations. Though we know that bicycles went on to play a role in other places, in other wars, and involved some of the sports greatest heroes, the use of bicycles by the US army was never expanded, and largely ended after a few years of experimentation. That said, it was an interesting chapter from multiple perspectives. Books like this are particularly good in piquing interest, encouraging readers to pursue the topic further, if it does that for you, well, so much the better.

 

Moore, Kay  The Great Bicycle Experiment: The Army's Historic Black Bicycle Corp, 1896-97   Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2012