Pils on wheels - German "beer bike" phenomenon

By Ernest Gill May 10, 2011, 2:06 GMT

(FILE) A file photograph dated 17 June 2010 shows a \'beer bike\' rolling with a group of tourists through a street in Berlin, Germany. According to reports on 09 May 2011, the Higher Administrative Court in Muenster has accepted the appeal of the operators of the \'beer bikes\' and the court will hear the case, overturning the decision of the court in Duesseldorf to deny the appeal. EPA/KLAUS-DIETMAR GABBERT

Berlin - Germans love their beer. And they love hiking and the outdoors. So it was only a matter of time before someone came up with the leg-powered mobile beer garden - the German 'beer bike.'

A common sight on city streets in spring and summer, the beer bike is an enormous bicycle frame the size of a minibus which seats up to 16 pedallers on stools around a U-shaped beverage bar where a bartender serves beer from a huge keg as the patrons pedal their way to intoxication.

Up front, at the head of this ungainly vehicle, sits a driver who negotiates corners and applies the brakes at intersections - stone- cold sober. All the patrons do is pedal - and drink draught beer.

Starting with a single beer bike five years ago in Cologne, the phenomenon has pedalled its way the length and breadth of Germany and - thanks to YouTube - is becoming an international fad, say BierBike company founders Udo Klemt and Ingo Boell.

'There are local franchises in cities all around Germany,' says Klemt, insisting that stringent safety standards are adhered to.

The bikes are custom-built for the company and meet tough federal guidelines for pedal-powered vehicles. The drivers are specially trained and are prohibited from drinking on the job.

Beer bikes have established themselves as the perfect stag party venue, despite a steep two-hour rental fee of 600 euros (nearly 900 dollars).

'With a full capacity of 16 people on board, that's not much more per head than what they might pay at a conventional beer garden,' Klemt notes.

'And there's the added novelty of riding through town in the fresh air with passersby laughing, cheering and waving to them and drivers honking their horns in greeting.

'It puts your party square in the middle of city life, making it doubly memorable. There's really nothing like the beer bike,' he says.

But not everyone agrees in Germany, a land of strict rules and regulations where you are not permitted to mow your lawn on Sundays or use your apartment washing machine after 10 pm lest you disturb the neighbors.

In one city, Dusseldorf, local officials have waged a two-year legal battle to ban beer bikes from city streets.

Dusseldorf officials say beer bikes are not 'vehicles' in the strictest sense of the word, and that they should not be part of vehicular traffic on city streets. So they slapped a ban on beer bikes in the city, and a municipal court upheld the ban.

But an appeals court has overturned the ban, pending a judgement that could be handed down anytime from several weeks to several months from now, depending on legal technicalities. The BierBike lawyers are in no hurry, since the bikes are pedaling onwards for the duration of the proceedings.

'We frankly don't see what legal leg Dusseldorf has to stand on,' says Klemt. 'A beer bike is basically a bicycle. And if you ban beer bikes from the streets, then you would have to ban all bikes.'

But many people object simply to the sight of tipsy tourists singing the slurred lyrics to ribald drinking songs over loudspeakers on city streets.

In a canny bit of image enhancement, some beer bike franchisers have come up with non-alcoholic beer bike alternatives. In the northern city of Flensburg, families are encouraged to hire beer bikes for birthday parties or anniversaries featuring nothing stronger than coffee, cake and soft drinks.

Elsewhere, beer bikes are festooned with banners and used as floats in parades and demonstrations, with the loudspeakers used for political statements.

In Frankfurt recently, a charity event started with a beer bike race between professional athletes on one bike, and prominent politicians on another. The politicians were beaten to the finish line but only after a brilliant photo opportunity and unbeatable 30 seconds of TV news time.

Beer bikes could even be useful in the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources, according to one shrewd German analyst. Writing in Die Welt newspaper, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, columnist Jean Gnatzig suggested putting British tourist louts on beer bikes attached to electrical power generators.

'They could sing and barf to their hearts' content whilst pedaling up enough energy to light a medium-sized German city for weeks,' Gnatzig wrote.

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