I have a friend, a retired Air Force officer, who has an interesting
"hobby" - he buys and restores military vehicles like tanks and supply
trucks and then sells them to the collector market and movie studios.
Recently I was extolling the virtues of bicycling as exercise for guys
like us in our 50s and advised him to get a bike. He laughed and said he
had several bikes - all ex-military. He sent me the following URL:
http://www.flmvpa.org/bicycles.htm
from the Military Vehicle Preservation Association website that features
several military bikes from various countries - including one of the
famous bikes used by the Japanese in their lightning move down the
Malaysian peninsula to capture Singapore.
He also has an example of one of the bicycles used on the Ho Chi Minh
Trail but no photo online. Apparently the bikes weren't ridden - they
were piled high with cargo and had a two-man crew. One man walked
alongside and steered the bike while another pushed from behind,
sometimes using a stick attached to the seatpost.
--
Strayhorn
³Excuse me, brother, who you jivin' with that cosmik debris?" - F.Z.