Quote Originally Posted by OfTheTroops
How does one ride a bicycle in full battle rattle? Very carefully i would presume.
A “pack bicycle” is best ridden side-saddle and downhill.

My use of the term was intended to mean a pack carrying bicycle that is manually pushed or pulled, as opposed to a pedal bicycle that can be dismantled and packed. Pack bicycles used by the NVA/VC had the chain, gears, pedals and seat removed. The seat tube was extended for use as a push post. For control the handle bars were lengthened and any handbrake may have been retained.

Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen
I know wheels have many mechanical advantages. The problem is that wheels are the thin edge of wedge. They enable stupidity.

Allowing infantry to carry more weight, by allowing wheels, means that they will be get even more overloaded. Man-packing is a simple and coherent method of forcing the argument back to basics, as is Mules or Llamas, or even well trained Hamsters.

We want to try and avoid making doing stupid things possible, because history shows that Infantry Officers always overload their men - almost always because of stupidity, and a failure to ask the right question in the right context.

I also submit that a well trained and well lead army does not have load carrying problem because it has already exercised the judgement necessary to avoid it.
Every infantry unit has load carrying problems. When self-propelled vehicles are not available/usable, a load carrying task is usually tackled by assigning infantry as porters: often using more than is operationally advisable and thus creating a problem. For example, three 81mm mortars and 300 bombs can be relocated across country by assigning 30 infantry to carry bombs alongside about 18 men in the mortar teams.

Alternatively - if unit equipment included pack bicycles - the mortars and bombs could be relocated by 10 infantry push/pulling bicycles together with the mortar teams. The 20 unburdened infantry could then provide local security or be committed to other tasks. Hence fewer or less severe problems.