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[Kautilya]

In the early 1950s Joe Cooley apparently travelled all over Galway and Clare with his Paolo strapped to the petrol tank of a motorbike - I think Joe Liddy was driving. IIRC on one of the clips on this page they describe a nasty spill.

Joe Leary, not Liddy, and here is the relevant bit of the interview, with Joe Leary explaining the accident to Ciaran MacMathuna, with Cooley's unorthodox emergency method of reseating reeds described.

Practical squeezer-biker question: (thinking of some long rides to events when weather improves)

When camping and  leaving melodeon locked up in Givi or side pannier o'night, what is best method for stopping risk of condensation (and using the same wrapping to reduce risk from shakes while travelling)

Wrapping in:
1  a cut up piece of duvet
2. low-cost summer sleeping bag (thin so easy to stick box in and avoid taking up too much space)
3. bubble wrap
4. Goretex bag
5. cooler bag
6. old woollen jumper (moth free...)
7. Wrapped up and used as a pillow in the tent (very "condensationary" zone
Or is this OTT? I normally put notebook/laptop in backbox/pannier in a towel or similar to stop effect of bumps etc and so far so good.

[Sandy]

Buy a car !!

[**DTN**]

Buy a car !!

Nooooo! ... took my melodeon out on the back of my Harley last night!! ... Nice big Spider strap!
But i do still have memories of falling off my Moto Guzzi in 1999 @ 70mph with a Saltarelle Connemara 3 on my back!
The 3 of us didn't do well!!... Wrecked Me ... Wrecked bike and Wrecked Connemara 3!!
However the Brilliant Music Room boys! .. John Turner and particularly Martin Banks .... rebuilt the whole box back into life .... it still has 3 full cracks in casing glued up!
This is the box Jimbo is now playing in the New Year Video!

Derek (must grow up sometime)

[Kautilya]

Buy a car !!

V good! 
actually the same questions apply as far as overnight condensation in car boot is concerned..... I use a big quilt in the boot to wrap the goods in but space aint so available with the C50!

[Sandy]

Buy a car !!

Nooooo! ... took my melodeon out on the back of my Harley last night!! ... Nice big Spider strap!
But i do still have memories of falling off my Moto Guzzi in 1999 @ 70mph with a Saltarelle Connemara 3 on my back!
The 3 of us didn't do well!!... Wrecked Me ... Wrecked bike and Wrecked Connemara 3!!
However the Brilliant Music Room boys! .. John Turner and particularly Martin Banks .... rebuilt the whole box back into life .... it still has 3 full cracks in casing glued up!
This is the box Jimbo is now playing in the New Year Video!

Derek (must grow up sometime)

Okay, then maybe a central heated side-car !

No don't grow up !!     I don't have a bike now, just a very old leather jacket with a few heavy battle scars.  Lots of great memories though and I didn't even know what a melodeon was then !!

cheers
Sandy
 

[Don Roberts]

I've never carried an accordion of any discription on my bike but I do carry my smallpipes. They fit nicely in my tank bag. Will be on a short trip in a couple of weeks, can't wait to hit the road. (not literally). I've done that too. It hurts.

[melodeon]

I've own around 4 dozen bikes including
5 Moto Morinis including a Camel..500 Sport 350 Sport  2 250 Sports
2 Guzzi LeMans
Benelli Tornado SS
11 BMW's.. 2 R69S. R60/5 SWB ,R100R/S, R65 single swing arm, R80GS Paris Dakar, R100GS (POS),1969 R69US, etc
71 Norton Commnado drum Braker, NSU Super Max, DKW 164, 2 Montessa Scorpions, Bultaco Metralla, 2 BSA's

Not once have I carried a melodeon... harmonicas yes, melodeons no. I went down.. hit from behind in an off ramp by a crazed yuppie
BXXXX who was travelling at 80MPH  .. happy to have had my harps and not a box. The Camel died a slow agonizing death.
Two Humps Dumps.. ...I enjoyed 3 surgeries, a year of casts and 2 years of hell..box playing was out..

[Kautilya]

Uggh. A biker who can top that is no longer a "Hells" angel   (Two ops and a mere year off work here).
I recall about month 10 playing the box proved quite effective physio to mobilise a broken shoulder blade 

Just in case some of the melnet two wheelers don't follow the Great Thread Rift..... apologies if u have already tested this exhaust system out as per link number 2 below.....

Hmmm.......Lunchpacks............Bells.......

BTW:-The only mean Harleys are Buells.
At least one member on this site is prepared to be honest - Harleys are indeed a load of buells

(Ride proud, Ride high, Ride fast  on your Honda C50!)
here's how doG opens up one for a re-tune.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q95YBp04HNU

Mind u these Harley folk are always blowing their own melodeon - I wonder what they would sound like with a trumpet Evil Evil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJYWA7CxwQc

[**DTN**]

BTW:-The only mean Harleys are Buells.
At least one member on this site is prepared to be honest - Harleys are indeed a load of buells
Mind u these Harley folk are always blowing their own melodeon - I wonder what they would sound like with a trumpet Evil Evil

HAHA! ... I can blow my own trumpet!!.... I have the Harley and i can play the Melodeon!   

[ladydetemps]

both at the same time?

[Kautilya]

both at the same time?

Yup - that particular bike has two rear exhausts or maybe even four to vent the gas / hot air, excluding the rider.

I must say \, the giant, leather, PianoAccordion carrying bags look great but cannot see the shotgun holster for the pillion...
I must get out my tin of chrome polish to emulate that sheen! v. headturning.

[Ebor_fiddler]

I can still remember the Triumph Daytona - a 500 that blew off Harleys twice its size. 

[Kautilya]

But i do still have memories of falling off my Moto Guzzi in 1999 @ 70mph with a Saltarelle Connemara 3 on my back!
The 3 of us didn't do well!!... Wrecked Me ... Wrecked bike and Wrecked Connemara 3!!

[/quote]

Bleedin bikers!
A few safety tips. This is specifically playing with my other hat (as will be seen from the photo) but the principle applies to melodeons and PA's except that the size of your equipment will need increasing. Band-on-eons already have the equipment built in to staunch haemorrhaging.

Always carry a tourniquet which can be quickly applied by a snap on plastic clip - much faster than string or leather.

En route to winter gigs, always carry  a snow chain to meet the needs of (no, not drunken, melodeon-wielding biker players, but) exceptional weather which can have u off your bike and bleedin in a ditch and needing that tourniquet.

The chain shot has, but does not show, snow-covered Hastings in the background from the high headland where Julius stood and played his Castagnari to welcome his troops in his invading classis britannicus but beware all invaders from Italy particularly those buggari and new york soprani types who come up behind you.

It should be remembered that Caesar would only play Italian because of the shame going back to when legionnaires had lost their Hohnours so many times when confronted by the East German Chemnitzer tribes who had migrated from the DDR (Denholme Dancing Revellers) in't West Yorks via Chemnitz to the Rhine at Mainz.

Alas I cannot find the Hasting tune dots or midis for playing, only various lyrics from the Cycle (two wheeler) of Sir Charles  Hastings Parry, Bart. (Not Lionel! Baronet). Pity: coz there are some good songs there,allegedly by a London impresario who put on dramusicals in London... name of Shakin'-spevens (I think it is a Merrican site by the spelling) or summat.

Hey ho and a hey melonio!

http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/assemble_texts.html?SongCycleId=2344

And does this hold any promise? - July 2010 -- Beer and Music Hastings -- http://hbmf.co.uk/

(this is just too much time-wasting fun - I could have learnt a new tune by heart by now....)

[ladydetemps]

I want to get a scooter...got my eye on a lambretta

[Kautilya]

I want to get a scooter...got my eye on a lambretta

In terms of melodeon, tina carrying go for  three wheels -- http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2006/05/11/piaggio-3-wheel-mp3-scooter/
They look really good and are fantastically stable so wont fall over at parking and so crush your box.

Whereas a two-wheeler going over could be bad news.  One of (very big) hurdy gurdies arrives at the George squeeze on the back of a scooter and looks very unstable.

And go for true Italian as in Piaggio (Lambretta two wheeler much cheaper but now Indian-owned by Scooters India Ltd -- they are a dog (note the lower case G) to start, having the old problem still of having to rock the scooter from side to side to get the petrol tank throwing more juice into the caburettors before kicking the starter pedal). And the bigger engined MP3 LT can be ridden on a car license it seems....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMB_SWL1Frk

just v expensive but there are some second hand ones coming onto the market and if you haggle hard these could become less unaffordable.....

[risto]

I didn't expect this thread to rub as far as this - but pleased it has. ...

Me neither and the group hasn't grown either - I probably was too hasty with it and should have created it after a journey. However, I was pretty sure there must be melodeon bikers here as we melodeonists (?) are a different species from the rest of the world :-). Anyway, my plan is to make my first longer trip (EDIT: with this bike) the next summer to England and Scotland and visit melodeon shops to try out melodeon brands not available here. For those interested, the bike I bought was a 10 year old BMW K1200RS, in a very good shape and with little mileage, just perfect for travelling and not for show off.

PS. And don't worry, I'm going to leave my Hohner at home:)

[Kautilya]

I didn't expect this thread to rub as far as this - but pleased it has. ...

Me neither and the group hasn't grown either -

To increase the group may I suggest a bikers' list of camping site tunes for the evening around the butagaz cooking stove. This will encourage the non-melodeonisti bikers to take it up and a strategically placed crash helmet with a few coins and fivers in it may bring in some revenue for the tent fee or even a new duster at one of the music shops visited during tour.

Do not underestimate the revenuegenerating power of music. A punter and wife  turned up at the George about four months ago and stumbled on the squeeze. He was lent a bodhran and was quite good. the wife was so pleased at how much he had enjoyed the evening (happier than he had been for months,she said) she bought all the players a drink!   Some of us kindly declined but at least 10 accepted.