PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION
u The eight men selected to participate in the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps’ 1896 test rides posed for a photo in Yellowstone National Park.
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The men of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps are shown here crossing a bridge in Yellowstone National Park in 1896. The corps spent five days in the park exploring the sights before riding back to Missoula, Montana.
was often greeted with cheers and waves while out riding around. The men trained on the bicycles from July 20 to August 6, 1896. At the command “jump fence” they had to scale a nine-foot fence and lift their bikes over it in just twenty seconds. They practiced fording deep water, with two men carrying one bike supported on a strong stick. Then, on August 6, 1896, the corps began its first official test ride, which took it north to Lake McDonald and back, a total of 126 miles during which it had to contend with inclement weather, harsh road conditions, as well as broken bicycle pedals and flat tires. Private John Findley, who had worked at Chicago’s lmperial Bicycle Works in the repair shop, was the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps’ most senior bicycle mechanic and became a key member of the unit. He had his work cut out for him, as the corps’ bicycles took a beating in the test rides. Every two men in the corps shared a complete repair kit, but Findley took the lead in repairs. Once, he stayed up all night to mend a wheel rim and then continued the arduous ride on the following day. Lieutenant
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Moss once wrote of Findley that he was “a fine rider” and rode the most heavily loaded bicycle, carrying ten pounds more than the other bicyclists. On August 15, 1896, the corps drew on every ounce of its endurance for the second official test ride of the pro- gram: a round-trip journey of 790 miles to Yellowstone National Park and back. After ten days of riding, the men reached Yellowstone, where tourists flocked around them and took photographs of them and listened to their stories. They were “treated royally everywhere,” according to reporter Edward Boos, but they also experienced discrimination. For example, on one occasion they were prevented from entering a building where a dance was being held and were only allowed to stand at the windows and watch the festivities from outside. The corps spent five days in Yellowstone National Park exploring the sights and resting and then began pedaling back to Missoula, arriving on September 8. Having experimented with puncture-proof tires on the way to Yellowstone and having found the ride too rough, they returned to Fort Missoula using conventional tires, which punctured easily.
The third test ride of the Twenty-
Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps took place shortly after the corps returned from
its journey to Yellowstone. The ride was set to coincide with the field exercises of the Twenty-Fifth Infantry Regiment and was designed to test the practical use of bicycles as a means of supporting a larger military force in the field. Acting as message couriers, the bicycle soldiers of the Twenty- Fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps success- fully kept the regiment’s commanding officer apprised of the condition of his forces, which were spread out in a fifteen-mile column, and acted as a reconnaissance unit helping to assess road conditions, locate water, and determine campsites.
Successful though this test ride was, it was hard on the corps’ bicycles and helped uncover some of the shortcomings of their design and construction. In light of this new knowledge, Lieutenant Moss was ordered east to learn all he could about “bicycles, tires, and bicycle sundries,” and during his time there, he met with all of the top bicycle and tire manufacturers of the day. One manufacturer he met with, the A. G. Spalding Company, agreed to build special bicycles suitable for the army’s purposes, free of charge, and Moss requested that certain improvements be incorporated into this new design. Specifically, he called for the use of tandem spokes on the wheels, the use of steel rims in place of wooden ones,
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