Today, Jesper Bodilsen from Danmark stopped by to try out the Eminence and the Chrisopher RN. He is currently on tour with guitarist Ulf Wakenius, and while talking about travelling with the bass and double bass transportation in general, he told me that at his hometown Copenhagen, almost every bass player owns a Christiania bike. These bikes have two front wheels and a luggage space for up to 100 kgs. You can easily put a full size double bass and a small amplifier into the compartment. As I like riding a bike more than driving a car, I lik the idea of the Christiania bike. But a drawback is that you probably can’t go staircases with the Christiania. I keep my bikes stored at the basement (10 steps or something like that), and my local train station has maybe 30 steps and no elevator. Seems to be an insurmountable obstacle …
You probably need an own garage for this bike 🙂 Anyway, I like these carrying bikes a lot, though I would rather go for a trailer. You can also do it like this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kraskland/2901761056/in/set-72157606831970773/ (In fact, I did this with my cello).
As someone pedalling to work every day I’ve always been keen on cycling with my bass to rehearsals. Unfortunately, the town I’m living in is quite hilly and lacking good bike lanes. And I think I would be afraid of rain ruining my equipment or cars crashing into me.
Anyway, is someone here who’s got experience in cycling with his bass?
I only have experience with the Eminence bass + bike. I use a back-pack softcase for the Eminence. Works great, you just have to take care inside the train, not to crash the neck into the overhead bins …
I ride my bike with my bass regularly, as this is the best and cheapest way around in Copenhagen. Oh, and I take an amp also! I don´t have one of those Christianias, but a slightly different one called BellaBike. That one has the enormous advantage of steering on the back wheel, so you don´t move your bass around when you´re going around the bend.
With the Bella, it´s fun to travel to rehearsals or gigs, gives you a workout everytime, and lots of fresh air. To be fair, it relies on broad bike-paths. Imagine this in any normal German city (I am German, but I live in Cph), you´d be pretty much doomed because there´s not enough space for others to pass you by when they are faster (if you fit on the path at all!).
As far as protection goes, I use these foam tubes normally used to isolate hot water tubes, they sit on the inner frame of the bike. Never had a problem with it.
That’s their website: http://www.bellabike.com
Looks interesting! How much is it?
According to their website (prisliste) at least 11.795 Danish Crowns = 1.585 Euros.
We paid around 13.000 I believe.It´s quite some money, but all those ladcykels (as they are called here) cost roughly the same. There´s another maker of the same principle with slightly different specs (called “sorte jernhest”), and there´s Nihola, a different animal, as they steer in the front without moving the case, but they are too small for basses.
Hi Mathias, I’m a weekend bassist but always having a headache with carrying my bass to the rehearsal. When I travel to Copenhagen, I saw this bike but never think of carrying bass.
Thanks for introducing the way of it. It would be nice if I can have this here in Japan!
We currently have many snow here, so riding a bicycle is a challange. I wonder if the Christiana with it’s three wheels is easier to ride in snow and on ice? Any experiences?
Eugene, OR USA is a bike town, great system of paths and everything. Unfortunately there are lots of hills and I live on one of the steepest. I could get to my usual gigs REALLY fast, but I’d never make it home!
@Jonas:
It’s quite doable, however the comparison ight be flawed since we have rather efficient bike-path-cleaning so theer’s not that much snow in the way.
@Nathan:
The guy that built our bike told me once, that this kind of bike is especially popular in Copenhagen and not so much in the other cities of Denmark, let alone the countryside, since most of the country is not as flat as Copenhagen is. Even though it’s by no means hills we’re talking about, even rather moderate uphills can be a challenge with the bella bike. Just give up on the thought that you want to get up fast, and try tackling it with meditative relaxtness…
and sorry about the typos.
@Nathan: ever considered an electrically assisted bike? http://www.en.r-m.de/products/hybrid/hybrid/
I’ll look into the idea. Thank you.
Check out my solution: http://mattrobertsmusic.blogspot.com/2011/07/bicycle-trailer-for-bass-amp.html