Originally Posted by
non-fixie
I'm not familiar with the 'tweed ride' concept, so I won't comment on that.
But the Swiss bike is a bit of a puzzle to me.
I've traveled through Switzerland quite a few times, and it's safe to say that it's entirely made up of mountains.
Seriously big mountains.
And I'm fairly certain they were already there in 1905.
And they have been providing their soldiers with single speed bikes?
Apparently they decided to add a few gears around 1993, but from 1905 to 1989 - yes.
Swiss army bicycle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The linked article notes that "[r]iders had to be quite fit"!