Bassoons don't fit on pannier racks

[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.

[uforgot]

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

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.