Talk:Montague Bikes

Market mix

Any figures on what fraction of product is sold to armies? Jim.henderson (talk) 23:10, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

The bikes were sold to the Army and Marine Corps but were used for only a short time as "official issue" due to theft and damage issues, not performance issues. The bikes are currently sold and approved for use through the Army and Air Force Exchange system, which is roughly similar to a military run version of Walmart, except that the selection of Montague bikes there is limited to the 18" Paratrooper model which had been the original military configuration bike. Those bikes are implicitly allowed for use on and around military bases and pictures of troops using them are found on several myspace and facebook type pages including customer galleries posted by various Montague dealers, but those military usages of the bikes are the result of the bikes being privately purchased and then authorized for use by military personnel. In some cases, where special forces type personnel had been given credit cards and the authority to buy non-issued but otherwise approved equipment for mission related purposes, they have been known to purchase Montague paratrooper bikes through various Montague dealers then the AAFES system, which has its own credit card system for that purpose and has expanded that program to non-special forces type personnel. One issue on this however is the original military specification bike has later been upgraded and surpassed in component quality by newer models and sizes available only through dealers and not the AAFES system. The AAFES system has also been one of the primary suppliers for deployed troops because the bikes ship in boxes which can no longer be delivered to overseas bases by any means available to the regular dealers but are delivered often for free either through the regular supply convoys or on a Fedex contract by AAFES.

I sell the Montague bikes and have done so online for several years, but am leaving this comment as anonymous so it remains information and not an advertisement. My military sales of the bikes dropped off sharply in 2007 when I could no longer ship the bikes through the military mail system but AAFES still could except they only make one size (18" frame) available and were rumored to have been selling bikes that had originally been bought to be issued by a particular military unit, but the order was cancelled when unit commanders were dealing with constant theft and loss situations on the bikes that were issued, and then due to the military having an obligation to purchase the bikes on contract, they went to AAFES instead of the regular military supply chain (hence there is not currently a known NSN for the current model Montague Paratrooper bike), but proved popular enough among troops that AAFES continued purchasing and selling the Paratrooper bikes through their system. I still sell the bikes to military personnel who carry them overseas on deployment with unit equipment inventories. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.193.222.193 (talk) 22:15, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

In addition, pictures of special purchase Paratrooper bikes can be found on the net (I am not sure if I can legally link them here) indicating that a white frame variant has been used by UN Security personnel in New York City, but overseas used by UN Security personnel is not currently verified. The CIA had purchased a modified version of the Paratrooper in all flat black and on their specification, they wanted disk brakes front and rear which was a feature later incorporated into all Paratrooper models by mid 2011. Security personnel have been seen and photographed riding the all black Paratrooper bikes around the CIA headquarters in Virginia, but no known photos of that particular model overseas. The "CIA Paratrooper bikes" were then produced and sold to the public for a short time under the Swissbike brand name, which is also a series of Montague products. The Swissbike brand name was also used as a test bed for product improvements which eventually were incorporated into newer models of the Paratrooper which were released in 2010 and then again in late 2011 as 2012 models. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.193.222.193 (talk) 22:36, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

non-breaking spaces

I reverted for the second time a misguided effort to insert non-breaking spaces into this article. The majority of such insertions were within a table; a page element that doesn't suffer from end-of-line breaks. The single other insertion was between a dollar value and the initials US for United States. This non-breaking space wasn't necessary as the dollar figure could be changed to US$xxx with no space at all. My reversions have been guided by WP:NBSP which says they are appropriate "when necessary to prevent the end-of-line displacement". Binksternet (talk) 09:37, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Advertisement

This whole article is one big advertisement. I was looking for some concrete information; not a brochure. The vast majority of the information was ripped straight from the manufacterer's website. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.119.205.59 (talk) 08:28, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

This article is quite bad in terms of POV and wiki spamvertising, the worst is external links to several worldwide franchises, this article is an ad and has almost nothing to do with the military application which I believe does not extend beyond the DARPA trials and perhaps personal bicycles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.180.199.52 (talk) 08:05, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

In response to the advertisement claim: — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.193.222.193 (talk) 23:39, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

I will be adding more information on this however don't want to be running afoul of your advertising policy here. I have been a Montague dealer for several years and just recently encountered this article. One of my websites has some information about this but I don't want to link it and be considered in violation of a policy.

The use of these bikes has been in that foggy area between government issue and approved for use, but there are plenty of pictures of these bikes being used in Iraq, Afghanistan and stateside long after the DARPA trials. The actual DARPA version however is no longer in production due to being replaced by updated and improved models. Military policy allowing for these to be used has varied from unit to unit but approval has hinged on the fact that the bikes were originally engineered for military use using US government grant money, and therefore are technically military approved hardware. The same program produced other bikes, but their designs were so proprietary that they never remained in regular production when the US military shelved the whole idea of bike mobile infantry.

One thing with the Montague project is that Harry Montague had previously worked for the US bike maker Schwinn, and maintained a very high degree of parts standardization with Schwinn compatible components, with the military aspect mainly surrounding the frame itself, as they expected to be changing and improving components over time, and then there was the issue of being able to obtain parts on the open market - a situation that was not matched by the more radical paratrooper bike designs submitted by other companies which used a lot of proprietary parts which were arguably higher technology, just too many proprietary components on them. You don't see the Schwinn name used in advertisements because part of the deal when Montague separated from them was the exclusivity of the brand names, but a lot of the components are made by the same subcontractors in the same factories. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.193.222.193 (talk) 23:28, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Photos Related To Montague

How do I add photos to this page? I uploaded some to Wikimedia Commons but need help putting them here. --Vanalmond (talk) 02:58, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

If you look at the current page, you will see how the images are placed next to the content they represent which is how it must be done in Wikipedia. I would not recommend adding any other images unless there is content to support it. Also note that any content added must adhere to guidelines for things such as tone and advertising. Anything deemed promotional will likely be removed. --CNMall41 (talk) 21:52, 4 March 2019 (UTC)