Ron, sorry, not true If you read the usual histories, notably Herlihy, the technology developed tremendously over 3/4 of a century before reaching the pneumatic tire, chain driven, equal-wheeled vehicle adopted by the military, and further advances to this dominant type of "safety" were largely made by tinkerers, tourists (and racers) as Jan Heine points out. Military use was relatively minor, take all in all.
BSA was in fact better known for and probably even produced more bikes, buses, motor bikes, and cars than its muskets, rifles, other guns, and ammunition. But they did develop the military bicycle: "In 1941 BSA was approached to produce a new pedal cycle with a maximum weight allowance of only 22 lb especially for airborne <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_forces> use. This required a new concept in frame design which BSA found, producing a machine which weighed 21 lb, one pound less than the design specification and which also exceeded the design requirement for an effective life of 50 miles many times over. Over 60,000 folding bicycles <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding_bicycle> were produced, a figure equal to half the total production of military bicycles during World War II." Aside: interesting to me is the ferment in the middle of the 19th century with McMillan and all the other backyard tinkerers in ironmongery who made bi-s, tri-s, and quads pedaled by a variety of linkages. On Mon, Jul 7, 2014 at 6:12 AM, Ron Mc <bulldog...@gmail.com> wrote: > pretty much all of the 19th century bicycle advancements were made as part > of military contracts > http://bsamuseum.wordpress.com/1-welcome-to-the-bsa-museum/ > > > On Sunday, July 6, 2014 7:58:21 PM UTC-5, Fullylugged wrote: >> >> A riding companion mentioned this article while we were pedaling the >> weekly Sunday Social ride today. It's a fast read, but evidence that people >> were riding precursors to RBW bikes way back when.. >> >> http://tubulocity.com/?p=64 >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and letters that get interviews. By-the-hour resume and LinkedIn coaching. Other professional writing services. http://www.resumespecialties.com/ Patrick Moore Albuquerque, Nouvelle Mexique, Etats Unis ************************************* * "Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. Where is there a place for you to be? No place.* * "Nothing outside you can give you any place," he said. "You needn't to look at the sky because it's not going to open up and show no place behind it. You needn't to search for any hole in the ground to look through into somewhere else. You can't go neither forwards nor backwards into your daddy's time nor your children's if you have them. In yourself right now is all the place you've got. If there was any Fall, look there, if there was any Redemption, look there, and if you expect any Judgment, look there, because they all three will have to be in your time and your body and where in your time and your body can they be?* * "Where in your time and your body has Jesus redeemed you?" he cried. "Show me where because I don't see the place. If there was a place where Jesus had redeemed you that would be the place for you to be, but which of you can find it?” -- Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood * -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
