I'm having a hard time seeing why you couldn't take something like a fat bike, and put an electrical assist motor on it, and have troops use that, mostly by pushing it. If you run out of battery, it still works 100% except now you have to push all the weight (or pedal, which could also be used to charge the battery). Gotta leave in a hurry? Use the bike, or just throw it away. Slash the tires and it's pretty much useless for the enemy.
Probably < $1,000 wholesale in off the shelf parts. Def. less than $40mm. Easily carry 100lbs of gear.
Even a bike like that works only on a limited amount of terrain. Add the 100 ish pounds of weight they need to be able to carry in addition to a person and they get bogged down even worse. The ways you can pack them is also really limited because soldiers would need to be able to take everything off and carry it still in the even that it does get bogged down.
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I'm having a hard time seeing why you couldn't take something like a fat bike, and put an electrical assist motor on it, and have troops use that, mostly by pushing it. If you run out of battery, it still works 100% except now you have to push all the weight (or pedal, which could also be used to charge the battery). Gotta leave in a hurry? Use the bike, or just throw it away. Slash the tires and it's pretty much useless for the enemy.
Probably < $1,000 wholesale in off the shelf parts. Def. less than $40mm. Easily carry 100lbs of gear.
Even a bike like that works only on a limited amount of terrain. Add the 100 ish pounds of weight they need to be able to carry in addition to a person and they get bogged down even worse. The ways you can pack them is also really limited because soldiers would need to be able to take everything off and carry it still in the even that it does get bogged down.
Same as this monstrosity. Except it's $39,999,000 cheaper.
Bicycle infantry units have been, and are now a Thing.
http://www.fortmissoulamuseum.org/blackbicyclecorps.php