Bassoons don't fit on pannier racks

[KnottedYet]

Well, we tried...

but the bassoon just doesn't fit on my pannier rack.

I'm sensing a trailer in my future. Just can't trust my aluminum frame to handle an Xtracycle. (aluminum is SOFT. took a big gouge out of it today where my own V-brake arms contacted the downtube.)

Or maybe I'll trade my aluminum Kona Dew for a second steel Kona Smoke. (SKnot has the first one)

What to do, what to do...

[LBTC]

he bassoon just doesn't fit on my pannier rack.

What to do, what to do...

Take up the clarinet? :p

H&B
~T~

[KnottedYet]

Funnily enough, SKnot's first instrument was the clarinet!

[dex]

Bassoon backpack/gig bag/soft case? Like this --> http://www.altieribags.com/ww_bassoon.html

Then again, that's probably just as pricey as a xtracycle.

(I played the bassoon and carried a gig bag that I could wear like a backpack.)

[Trek420]

Why not? You can carry a surfboard on a bike

www.rodndtube.com/surf/info/surf_racks/BicycleSurfboardRack.shtml

[KnottedYet]

Funnily enough, SKnot's clarinet case is a Gig Bag!!!!

Wheeeeee! Isn't coincidence *fun*?!?!

(c'mon, y'all are supposed to be talking me into going into huge debt to get myself a steel bike Xtracycle)

[LBTC]

OH! Is that what we're playing?

Go, Knot, Go! Buy the steel xtracycle! You know you want to!

H&B
~T~

[dex]

Well, you *do* have a pretty good relationship with the folks at Recycled, you'd probably get a decent trade-in value for your Dew... (There's no way I could encourage you not to obtain another Smoke. I loved that bike when I looked at it.)

[KnottedYet]

It really is a VERY comfy bike. I have yearning for a Smoke of my own now that SKnot has the first one. He really likes it, and is so much more enthusiastic about biking. I was messing around with the Smoke and he asked me why... I said cuz it was such a nice bike.

He gallantly offered to give the Smoke to me and take the Dew for himself.

What a guy... (he did say it would bother him a little if we had matching bikes. I'd modify mine PDQ so they wouldn't match.)

[uforgot]

HA! Sorry, but I can't feel sorry for you about the bassoon. Try being a percussionist sometime. I majored in music in college and when we toured, I would look longingly at those flute players who closed up their tiny tiny cases, while the other drummers and I would load up a van of crap, that had to be taken apart rolled, and packed. Marimbas, vibes, a couple of Timpani. Try carrying one of those.

Know how each section of a band/orchestra has it's own personality? I have to admit, the bassoonists were always the fun, intellectual ones. Something about a double reed, I guess.

Fortunately, I gave up band directing for teaching math, so now I just have to carry papers and books, but I keep watching your posts thinking, hmmmm, one of those xtracycles would be fun. I say go for it, but only if you aren't going to feel any guilt about spending the money.

[dex]

...the bassoonists were always the fun, intellectual ones.

Heh. That's very diplomatic. I remember it as weird and nerdy. :D

[tattiefritter]

Take up the clarinet? :p

H&B
~T~

Ha Ha, I was assigned the bassoon as an instrument when I was 13 but I hated having to carry the thing when walking back and forward to school. It was only two miles each way but the case was heavy. I was offered the clarinet two years later and jumped at the chance!

[bmccasland]

But if you want to stay with double reeds, don't forget oboes. On the otherhand, a bassoon isn't as big as a contrabass clarinet.

OK, I was a band geek - played flute and piccolo, but really wanted to play the vibes or chimes. I was told "girls don't play percussion". On the otherhand, I remember once stuffing my piccolo in my pockets to keep it from being stolen while our band marched through a hostile crowd (the opposing school, and they had just beat us soundly in the football game).

So, carrying a bassoon on a bike - you need better equipment! Buy the steel xtracycle!!! This season's must have!!!:D

[KnottedYet]

Boy, to this day among SKnot's friends you can pick out the instruments. Trumpet players always seem to be the loud and hyper ones, French Horns the groovy but intense ones, etc.

I played small instruments that packed nicely into cases that fit in my backpack, but for marching season I played drums. Didn't have a kit of my own, so all I had to do was drag a pair of sticks around with me. Nice and light!:D

[mimitabby]

My son plays french horn and will not bike commute with his horn. Even though it's in a protective case, he's afraid something will happen to it.
Knowing the price of a bassoon, i was surprised to hear that you were planning on putting it on a bike. But aren't we more fragile than these instruments?
I'm in a quandry here.

So is your son taking the Dew back??

[KnottedYet]

Mimi- I was going to carry the bassoon on my utility bike. (the Dew. SKnot chose the Smoke and loves it and is very excited about it)

I know, my bike saga is as good as a soap opera.

When I first sold my recumbent and wanted a diamond-frame, I was torn between the Dew and the Smoke. I bought the Dew.

Then I got Flossie. So I had two bikes.

Then just last week I traded in SKnot's out-grown bike and got a Smoke. So I had 3 bikes.

SKnot had said he wanted my Dew, but when he saw the Smoke he fell in love. (I want him to love a bike, any bike, so that is very cool)

Now I'm having thoughts of trading in my Dew for a second Smoke, cuz I really think it's a spiffy bike, and it's steel, which would make a good Xtracycle someday.

Then SKnot and I would have matching utility bikes, which he's ok with. And I would have Flossie for my zooming bike.

But of course, all these grandiose plans depend on the future state of my financial universe.

[mimitabby]

Knot, you are so nice and patient with me.
I wish you'd get that phone call!
new moon is tomorrow afternoon. Good luck.
And carrying the bassoon on the rack isn't the same as carrying a horn case
on your back... much safer.

[uforgot]

Heh. That's very diplomatic. I remember it as weird and nerdy. :D

Very good! And the others?

(This is college level remember. Where you play because you enjoy your instrument, not because you were forced...)

Trumpets - hotdogs.
tubas - party animals. Think John Belushi, he probably played tuba. (Tubas and percussionists really get along well, Trumpets and percussionists not at all)
Sax - Tried to be cool. Mellow, laid-back. Sometimes it worked, but they were always well liked.
French Horn - definitely intense as knotted said, probably because they have all those notes on one fingering. Tend to study rather than party.

Guess I noticed the brass more than the woodwinds because I spent my entire band career in the back. (Or in the closet where we kept our food when there were a ton of rests). I still remember one day, 8 of us in the percussion closet, talking and eating and suddenly we hear the instruments stop and the director: "WHERE THE HELL ARE THE DRUMMERS!".

[HillSlugger]

I played clarinet and then switched to oboe. My parents call that time as "the dark years". I actually hated it and switch over to tenor sax and used to bike it to school strapped across a front basket.

[MomOnBike]

I don't know what you're complaining about, I play String Bass. Try hauling one of those on a bike! (The pic of Gary Karr pulling a bass behind his bike not withstanding).

My viola in it's case is just about bassoon size/shaped. It rides nicely bungied to the under-seat rack on my recumbent. Really solid.

DH has hauled his French horn in a child's Burley trailer. It's less wonderful, though, a horn is about child-sized, but it's not shaped AT ALL like a child. Still, it works with the net-type bungies.

Oh, and the horn players not being the party type? Tell that to my younger daughter.

Come to think of it, cerebral Elder Daughter plays drums now - she started out as an oboe, but in college switched to percussion, seven (yes, seven) oboes in the band was too much competition, and the percussion section needed warm bodies.

[uforgot]

What a diverse group we are! I'm thinking that we need to start the Team Estrogen Wind Ensemble, or maybe Team Estrogen concert band??? Oh, wait, probably the Team Estrogen orchestra to include all of the string players. I think LisaSH plays banjo. Where and when do we hold our first concert? Of course we arrive and leave on bikes. It should be outside. First guest conductor? Harry Connick, Jr? (Who WOULDN'T want to lead this group?!?!)

[rij73]

How will I get my piano to the gigs? :D

[uforgot]

How will I get my piano to the gigs? :D

On Knotted's new xtracycle!

[rij73]

On Knotted's new xtracycle!

How silly of me... Of course! :rolleyes:

[mary9761]

We always called the Bassoon the Alto Telephone Pole! I don't think I ever took mine back and forth from/to school on my 10 speed Schwinn. Man I miss that thing.. I wanted to go into either performance, or education after I graduated High School, they even had an opening for me at Butler University's Symphony, but I never got financial aid or my SAT's.

For my Fellow Bassoonists.... I don't remember where I got this and another sticker I can't find now, but...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/mary9761/misc%20pics/bewarethebassoonplayera.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/mary9761/misc%20pics/christensen_bassoonist.jpg

[wannaduacentury]

Funnily enough, SKnot's first instrument was the clarinet!

So is mine, I'm working on a mandolin now:rolleyes: Jenn

[mimitabby]

I have a picture of a buddy hauling his standup bass on his bike. I have to unearth it!

[farrellcollie]

I was a bassoon player throughout high school and college (started out as a music major - ended up a lawyer). I was in the marching band too - piccolo and baritone player. I started playing bassoon to avoid all the competition in the flute section.

[KnottedYet]

Yeah, man! Those flute sections are VICIOUS!!!!!

[susiej]

After an opera performance in Magdeburg, Germany last summer, we saw at least two of the orchestra members bicycling off with their instruments (one strapped to his back, and I'm unmusical enought to not remember what it was). It was very, very cool to watch them. :)

[Bron]

Yes, I've seen cellists here in Munich riding bikes with the cellos strapped onto their backs. It beats manhandling it on and off the tram.
I'm just happy that my flute fits inside my messenger bag.

Bron-the-non-vicious-flautist

[farrellcollie]

Some of my best friend are flautists.

[MomOnBike]

I will admit that there have been many times that I've wished my bass were flute-sized. Life would be so much easier. {sigh} I've never even been able to get a sound from a flute, though, I think I'll stick to strings.

[Geonz]

There are bands that travel entirely on Xtracycles. Go steel and go for it.

http://www.xtracycle.com/images/profiles/jeremyfisher-rides.jpg

[mary9761]

I was a bassoon player throughout high school and college (started out as a music major - ended up a lawyer). I was in the marching band too - piccolo and baritone player. I started playing bassoon to avoid all the competition in the flute section.

I played bassoon from 7th grade through graduation in my Junior year. That was for my concert band and as you know most marching bands don't march bassoons, I had all of one afternoon to learn how to play melophone, memorize a song and my marching routine for that night's practice.. Brutal. going back and forth for a while from brass to double reed when you're not used to it, YIKES my lips buzzed like crazy. I wanted to play flute too but I couldn't get all 4 tones they needed.

[farrellcollie]

I as you know most marching bands don't march bassoons, I.

I was so disappointed when I realized at the tender age of 14 that the song 76 Trombones had it all wrong:

There were copper bottom tympani in horse platoons
Thundering, thundering, all along the way
Double bell euphoniums and big bassoons
Each bassoon having his big fat say

[KnottedYet]

Some of my best friend are flautists.

I flout my flautistness. (and my oboeishness. and my percussivity. and my lefty-guitarinity.)

[mary9761]

I was so disappointed when I realized at the tender age of 14 that the song 76 Trombones had it all wrong:

There were copper bottom tympani in horse platoons
Thundering, thundering, all along the way
Double bell euphoniums and big bassoons
Each bassoon having his big fat say

I think there was a time when they actually DID march bassoons, but by the time we were in school, they were so EXPENSIVE to replace bocals etc and awkward to march with. I'll never forget the disappointment and a little anger when I accidently bent a bocal and broke it :eek: I'd never seen my band directer that angry before.
My bassoon had the "hook" for a neck strap. I think by the time we played bassoon, it was very difficult to get someone to play the alto telephone pole. I was the only one in my entire class all the way through. When they tried me out on the 4 tones, I hit one, then the second, then the third, you could see the gleam in the band director's eyes when I hit #4 they gleefully said sign that girl up! Of course my one band director (now fellow cyclist) showed me if you rolled up a piece of paper and put it in the bell, you could play a LOW A! :D
Of course the running joke has been, Marlin still wet behind the ears didn't know how to play the bassoon and I taught HIM how to play. LOL.... He retired 2 years ago after teaching 33 years at a YOUNG 56
If I've told this before, forgive me, I'm still taking pain meds and I've been offline for several days so I'm playing catch up and meds are trying to hit too.:(

[farrellcollie]

I believe you if you say they did march with bassoons at one time- but what a waste - they would never be heard over brass and other woodwinds. Let alone the fragility of the double reeds.- could you go 5 yards with one reed intact? I played in some early music groups in college - great idea - the indoor instruments and the outdoor instruments.

ps. my high school band director almost popped a vein when, in my first week of band camp, I dropped my piccolo right as he was walking past for inspection. He bellowed something about how a piccolo was not a basketball - they don't bounce.

[wannaduacentury]

small threadjack

Yesterday I saw a picture of a man on a bike in the AJC(Atlanta-Journal) and he had rigged up his hybrid bike so that a canoe could be hauled to the local launch area. He created the back wheels w/ pvc pipe that supported the back and a rack that came off the back of bike to hold the front of the canoe. Very creative- just had to share :)

[Melalvai]

Do you have the picture? or a link? I'd like to share that on my local bicycle list. They'd get a kick out of it.

[mimitabby]

Speaking of hefting instruments on bicycles, here's a picture I took about 10 years ago. Sadly i can't find the original, so this is as big as it getshttp://www.sersale.org/tonybass.jpg

[MomOnBike]

Great pic. You won't be catching me trying that on my bike with my bass, though. Any stray puff of wind could be disasterous.

WAD

[nicole309]

I make my Buffoon ride his own bike! :D
Oh, that was Bassoon! Never mind....:p

[Fredwina]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/2007/interviews/?id=mark_hekman_jun07

[mimitabby]

Great pic. You won't be catching me trying that on my bike with my bass, though. Any stray puff of wind could be disasterous.

WAD

Momonbike

Tony is a big man, about 6'2" and he never rode very fast while he was carrying his bass.

[MomOnBike]

Tony is a big man, about 6'2" and he never rode very fast while he was carrying his bass.

Maybe my perspective was colored by the fact that the day I posted that, the wind was gusting up to 48 mph. Having lived in windy places, I do tend to take wind into consideration when taking the bass places - it makes a great sail.

And, again perspective, my shortest brother is 6'6". I've never considered a slender 6'2" guy big - just right, in fact, like DH.

[wannaduacentury]

Do you have the picture? or a link? I'd like to share that on my local bicycle list. They'd get a kick out of it.

I'll try to find it, I don't remember what day it as and it was a printed version, but I'll try. Jenn