Heavy Equipment with a Simple Mechanism – the Military Bicycle

Rapid, Aebi or Schilter: the vehicles and machines produced by these companies shaped Switzerland’s agricultural landscape in the 20th century. With their introduction, mechanisation and motorisation extended into mountainous regions. Among the motorised mowers, tractors and transporters, however, there emerged vehicles that seemed to defy the tide of progress for nearly nine decades: the robust bicycles of the Swiss army.

The so-called Normalrad 04, later known as the Ordonnanzrad 05, was manufactured in an almost unchanged form from 1904 until 1988. These black “steel horses” featured a single gear and weighed over 22 kilograms. They were only replaced in the army by seven-speed bicycles in 1993.

Thus, military personnel in earlier times had to pedal hard, particularly in mountainous terrain. This is exemplified by the Ordonnanzrad on display at the Festungsmuseum Crestawald. The distance from the fortress to the nearest village, Sufers, is a mere two kilometres. However, with a 120-metre difference in altitude and no gears to adjust, soldiers were required to exert considerable effort.