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news
Grand piano (via Facebook)Grand piano towing cyclist falls foul of San Francisco's steep hills
A pianist from Germany who tows his grand piano around by bike has suffered a spectacular (and doubtless noisy) crash in San Francisco. Davide Martello’s brakes were no match for the city’s steep roads, but he has since repaired the piano and performed last night.
In 2015, Martello towed his piano to the Bataclan Theatre in Paris to perform the John Lennon song Imagine in the wake of the terrorist attack.
More recently, he has been travelling and performing in the United States.
Unfortunately, things did not go well in San Francisco earlier this week.
Writing on Facebook, Martello said: “I’m very sorry San Francisco but your roads were too steep and I busted my piano really bad. I will keep you posted as soon everything is fixed. If someone in the area of San Francisco wants to help me out I would be very thankful. I was very lucky not to be injured or injure others... I only scratched an Uber car.”
He continued: “There was a German man who helped me out to get everything back inside my trailer. And I am very thankful that I’m still alive. Everything happened on Bay Street, the first hill I did it with no problems but the second one was deadly!
“Thank God I jumped right off my bike when I realized that I couldn’t handle it anymore and the speed got out of control. My brakes aren’t designed for San Francisco grades.”
However, Classic FM reports that he was first given a substitute piano by a shop in the city and he has since said that his own piano has since been repaired.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
- KiwiMike 2 sec ago
Your comment was "...our former FM Hamza himself was caught driving without insurance while transport secretary. Thereby there is a family link to...
- chrisonabike 18 min 13 sec ago
It's clearly possible to make that work though....
- chrisonabike 35 min 41 sec ago
Again no idea of the particular here but other places seem to have sometimes squared the circle by thinking in terms of different *networks* for...
- Bungle_52 48 min 1 sec ago
I don't know whether or not it's relevant here but there are a lot of fake sd cards out there. I got some that worked fine in a computer and looked...
- David9694 50 min 54 sec ago
I left a few weeks ago.
- mdavidford 1 hour 7 min ago
Does this mean they should be ready to apply a wrist lock to any drivers that look like they might be a threat?
- Bungle_52 1 hour 14 min ago
If the driver was truly remorseful they would have pleaded guilty to dangerous driving rather than careless. No doubt the CPS would have bargained...
- bobbinogs 2 hours 42 min ago
Using a website to help with bike selection. I'm keen on that myself and often compare the stats on bikes I like the look of to ones I have to...
- whosatthewheel 9 hours 10 min ago
Except, the earth isn't flat. It's a cube.
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4 comments
His rear tyre looks a little flat.
I guess his track pump didnt quite hit those notes.
Hits rather a discordant note, but perhaps he needs to fix the brake pedal on the piano; obviously nothing wrong with the accelerator pedal. Presumably the piano had a soft landing.
Well, his heart is certainly in the right place. A SF bricklayer might find him a few bricks shy of a load, though. Yes, lucky he's alive.
I think for san fransisco he probably needs a slave braking system for the impressive trailer.
Good luck to the man.
I cannot see a motor, he hauled that thing up hills.
"... I only scratched an Uber car.” Nice.
The bataclan thing caused me to shed a tear.