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Originally Posted by Kromm
I'd call bicycle infantry Mounted Rifles (p. 21). Bicycles are different from beasts, but the net effect is the same: You can carry more and move faster, but you need more logistic support. Comparing MR to ordinary Riflemen:
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A bicycle is much more energy-efficient than a horse or other living mount. It seems intuitive to me since any walking motion involves a lot of up-and-down motion involving one's own (i.e. the mount's) body mass, which a bicycle avoids.
That suggests that cost-to-maintain should be much lower for bicycle dragoons than for horse dragoons.
Cost to raise could be the same. Or even higher. Depends on whether you're into the horsies-can-make-more-horsies-on-the-cheap meme or not. Bicycle dragoons are less able to cope with adverse terrain, though, and can also carry less; a dragoon-class horse should be able to carry at least twice as much as a bicycle, and maybe even more.