The fastest piano in the West...

On Sunday 28th August, I attended the inaugural Micklegate Soap Box Derby, which I believe may become a regular annual fixture in future. Apart from anything else, a big well done to all the teams for raising some £50,000 for local charities, including York Community Energy, of which my housemate Tom is a big supporter. If you're interested in seeing a list of the winners, have a look here: http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/14710816.York_Soapbox_Challenge__The_award_winners/?ref=arc

I managed to get a few photos:

One of the teams at full pelt on the way down Micklegate

Brilliantly-timed camerawork yet again!

Chocolate or strawberry anyone?

Looks like Ben Hur has popped in for a visit! This impressive soapbox won the novelty prize.

Now, of course this did set me thinking - would it be possible to build a piano into a soapbox? Well, if anyone is up for that please do get in touch - though we have to work out how to get the piano down the big ramp at the start - and prevent it from careering off into the spectators - and perhaps we wouldn't be going all out for speed, especially over the cobbles down Micklegate Hill. Any brilliant ideas on how to do that are welcome....

However, aside from that, I thought it might be fun to look at a few of the weird and wonderful (human-powered) mobile pianos on the internet.

This is a blues and boogie pianist call Mark Lincoln Braun, who loves his piano so much he decided to move it 300 miles across Michigan on a bicycle. You can read all about it here:
http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/mr-bs-joybox-express-modern-minstrels-haul-piano-300-miles-by-bicycle.html

A hugely impressive feat, but unfortunately it's not possible in this case to actually play the piano and entertain passers-by whilst in the process of shifting it about. However, this chap seems to have well and truly solved that problem:

Someone just rode past on a piano...

This gentleman is called Gary Skaggs and his brainwave was to create this piano tricycle which he rides around in San Francisco. He explains a bit more about it here:

One thing that would be interesting to know is how stable the piano-cycle is when going downhill! Usually a piano is more likely to tip backwards as the cast-iron frame makes the back heavier than the front (something to note if you're moving one), so I'm not sure whether you would need any extra weights over the back wheel to keep it stable. It must also be said that he is also doing an excellent job to steer and play at the same time.

Not to be outdone, on this side of the Atlantic, there is a chap called "Rimski" who does the same kind of thing - pictured at Glastonbury in this video - though in this case it's possibly a bit more difficult to see where you're going. On the other hand, there does seem to be a handy bi-directional feature so the piano can reverse if needed. Indeed, which way is reverse, exactly?

A piano that ended up being human-powered in a slightly different way is this one. For some time there was a mystery about how an upright piano came to be at the top of a mountain in California but all is explained in this video:

There is a moral to this story - the pianist reported that the piano "hadn't been tuned for many years" and the keys in the right hand didn't work. If taking your piano up a mountain, I would strongly recommend having it checked by a competent piano technician to make sure that it is in good playing order when it gets to the top - as long as it's still in one piece by then of course.

I haven't yet managed to get a piano onto my bicycle, but I do have my piano tuning kit strapped on the back. Occasionally I need to bring some special equipment as well - I'll leave you with a picture of a string-height jig (used for regulating grand pianos) on the back of the bike, as well as the regular toolbox...