This is taking bike design to new levels. Their website is clear about the concept. "The rolling partytheque with music, draught beer and good times." You can bring your own beer and food, or they can provide it, as well as a DJ if you prefer. The price is €20 if you can muster 15 friends - beer, food, DJ are extras.
While this partybike will roll to your door anywhere in Germany, there seem to be other versions abroad. But this beast of a pedal-powered machine is by far the coolest on the kitsch scale. I love it.
It seems to be the ultimate northern European invention. A social gathering involving beer where everyone helps propel the vehicle forward towards a common goal. If one of you needs a rest, the others will keep pedalling. The partybike is Scandinavian-style democratic socialism in practice. :-) A rolling society of like-minded individuals.
From what I gather there has been a similar bike in New York City:
They called themselves Partybike, but it is actually a Conference Bike. This bike - another German make - is used as a tool for corporate teambuilding in London, as a tour bike in Berlin and a tool for helping blind people ride in Dublin.
In New York, however, groups of people having fun are apparently frowned upon by the police and the operation has been shut down. Here's one account. I find that extremely odd.
But nevermind that, what I'm looking forward to seeing is a commuter version on the bike lanes leading to distant suburbs in Copenhagen. Seven businessmen and women pedalling along together, chatting or talking on their mobiles, drinking coffee in the morning light, taking turns steering. What a great way to go to work.
Anyway, feel free to check out Das Partybike here. There's an English version.
Read more about the Conference bike here. And about the makers of the Conference Bike here.
Let the good times roll!
5 thinking out louds:
Zak: Sorry to have to tell you, but as far as I know the Dutch came up with it first: http://www.fietscafe.nl/ I could be wrong, but this is where I saw it first, and it made me jealous, too. There is one in Minneapolis: http://www.pedalpub.com/ Of course, being in the US, this one does not allow alcohol on board (unless rolling on private property), but they have one regular route that stops at 17 bars! Every city needs at least one of these. Val
Here in Seattle, we just have to do the beer drinking at the shop and then climb on our Conference Bike and head out into the neighborhood. We've yet to organize a pub tour, but we are subject matter experts.
A few weeks ago we took our CoBi, as we like to call it, across the border to Vancouver, BC for a corporate promotion. I can report that the Canadian customs officials have a sense of humor and our passage into Canada required only a small amount of explaining. Upon our return into the USA, our answer to "what are you transporting?" was not so well received.
Try telling an official charged with thwarting terrorism and smuggling that you have a $13,000 seven seat bicycle in the back of your rented truck. Needless to say our whole truck was sent through the $5 million X-ray machine. We were personally spared the Roentgen ray-bath, but made to wait outside until in the cold until the perplexed but well-meaning official met with us and personally inspected the back of our truck to confirm that we were indeed transporting a seven seat bike. In a much better humor, he then explained the correct process and gave us the paperwork to smooth out any future trips to Canada and back.
The CoBi is magic.
Hey val
as far as i can figure out, it's a German design. i think the company sell the product in holland.
a pub crawl is a good alternative to not being able to drink in public.
thanks, stephan. what a great story. the canadians are much more relaxed. good luck with the corporate promotion work and the cobi.
Looks to be a Dutch design.
http://www.velomobiling.com/gallery/TravelsAndEvents/fietscafe/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SIDQVNdHiQ
Around 2005 there even was a copyright infringement case about it in the Netherlands.
very interesting, son of shaft. i stand corrected. thanks for taking the time to write.
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