The Choprical Fish: a Human Powered Party Bike

Step 2 Design or acquire your base bike.

The most important part of your Soul Cycle is the base bike / frame. It has to be a good looking bicycle, well maintained, with working brakes and gears. You can't put 40-60 pounds of music equipment and a passenger on a rickety bicycle and expect to have a relaxing ride. Everything has to work. Period.

The Soul Cycle Chopper wasn't my first Soul Cycle, so I was able to compare the geometry to my previous one, the Soul Cycle ClassicSoul Cycle Classic.

I took a profile shot of my Xtracycle, and overlaid my drawing for the new chopper frame in Illustrator.

The major new feature of the Chopper frame is the dual seating position. It allows the rider to climb hills in a power position with full leg extension and then cruise in a chopper position, by employing a parallelogram seatpost system. The parallelogram keeps the seat flat when you 'drop and chop'.

I've seen many people use bicycle trailers as the way of carrying bike sound systems. It can be an easy way to get started, but there are some disadvantages to bike-trailer-based systems that I discuss on this blog entry.

I recommend a long-wheelbase load-carrying bike such as the XtracycleXtracycle or MundoMundo. They're designed to carry loads with ease, and they'll leave you room to carry a passenger.