Wasted on Wheels: Cities Put the Brakes on 'Beer Bikes'
By Steffen Winter
Passenger-powered rolling pubs known as Bierbikes have become a popular pastime for tourists and revelers in dozens of German cities. But residents and drivers aren't amused by the noisy, traffic-clogging mobile parties. Now Munich and Düsseldorf have cracked down on the boozy fun.
Life used to be simple. The 1935 edition of the Volks-Brockhaus illustrated encyclopedia defined a bicycle as "a two-wheeled vehicle powered by pedalling a crank." The contraption also had clearly identifiable components, including a "fixed frame, front and back wheel, drive mechanism, seat, and steering apparatus." Riders were generally cultivated individuals who simply wanted to get from point A to B more quickly by using their own muscles.
Today a bicycle can have four wheels, a drive shaft, weigh more than two tons and have a length of 5 meters (around 16 feet). It can also achieve a noise level equivalent to that of an oncoming sports car. At least that's the case when up to 16 tipsy jokers are sitting on the rolling pub known as a "Bierbike," accompanied by loud music and 20 liters (42 US pints) of beer, hindering traffic at the excruciatingly slow pace of, at most, 10 kilometers per hour (6 miles per hour). This scene plays out regularly in 36 cities across Germany, annoying drivers and residents. Some cities even have variations on the idea. Frankfurt has an "Äpplerbike," on which the local apple cider is served, while the southern city of Freiburg has one that serves wine.
YouTube features a number of videos taken during the wild rides. One shows 11 intoxicated English tourists tippling through Berlin on a rainy day wearing reproductions of Russian and East German army caps purchased from street vendors. They make an enormous racket singing bawdy songs, then the barkeep tears off his shirt. At red lights, they dance on the Berlin streets.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/wasted-on-wheels-cities-put-the-brakes-on-beer-bikes-a-784910.html
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