Hi everyone,
I've recently realised that the only thing keeping me from being car-free is having to carry my guitar across town to teach every Monday afternoon (I cab it-- about 15km for around US$4). Does anyone have recommendations for good quality guitar cases that I can carry easily on a bike? I've seen cheap vinyl with backpack-style straps here, but I'm a bit concerned that they wouldn't protect the guitar at all. Any other biker-guitarists have tips? Thanks in advance!

Edit: It's a classical guitar

Edit 2: I did a forum search and found this thread: https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/94323-commuting-guitar.html. There is a reference to a backpack cover for a hard guitar case, but I can't seem to find it. Anyone have any ideas? And in case you were wondering, an Xtracycle, while cool, is not an option right now.

This afternoon, my husband and I saw a young lady riding with a guitar on her back. Now I wish we had pulled over and asked her about the bag she was carrying it in. . .

I just saw sombody go by me the other day with a black case on his back, looked like probably the same kind of material backpacks and luggage are made out of.

He was on one of those little 50cc mopeds tho so he didnt really have any footwork to do.

Can you not lock it up where you go teach and not have to x-port it?

Oops -- I forgot to mention I give lessons at private homes. And I only have one guitar with me here, although it does occur to me that I could buy a really cheap guitar for teaching. That and a cheap bike-friendly bag would be less expensive than a nice bike-friendly bag. Hmmm... That could do it.

I'd still like to hear about good bags, if anyone knows of any. Even if I do get a cheap guitar there will be times I will want to transport my nicer guitar... and I'd prefer to do so on a bike.

That's all right, you might see her again!

I think I saw a "camp" guitar in the LL Bean catalog. It has a smaller body, regular fret board and seems like it would be fairly transportable. Wasn't too expensive either. Might do the trick.

I was actually thinking of the same thing, so I did a bit of research. I don't think would want to try to carry a standard guitar gig bag on my back while riding. A quick google turned up some backpack-type gig bags on musicians friend and other sites. In riding position, the guitar neck might interfere with your head if you are in drops or anything low. On the other hand, if you are somewhat vertical, it should be fine.

Also, Arkel sells the hook kit for their panniers for $24US right from their website. Enough to mount two bags. Maybe you can connect that into a good quality gig bag. You would need a sheet of plastic to stiffen the bag. I have a Taylor Big Baby that comes w/ a decent bag that I think would hold up well. Heel clearance would be the biggest issue. Also, you could probably rig a guitar of any sort onto a trailer.

If you come up w/ a solution, please post it.

https://elderly.com/accessories/items/BACK.htm
Elderly Instruments has backpack straps that you strap onto your case. May want to check it out.

Get an Xtracycle!

I saw something good while looking for something else the other day...let's see...There we go:
https://www.coloradocase.com/pages/Guitar.html

They sell gig-bag like cases designed to fit over a hard case, or soft gig bag cases with fiberglass reinforcement:

https://www.coloradocase.com/pages/Fiberglass.html

Some of them can be ordered with backback straps instead of one shoulder strap (not clear if all can).

They also sell bagpipe, accordion, cello, harp, etc. cases. Looks like they custom make a lot of them so you might be able to get what you want.

I have transported my guitar by bike and used a soft backpack style case. I, too, worried about destroying the guitar should I get into an accident. What about taking your good case (probably heavy) to the guitar shop and see if it fits inside of one of those nylon gig cases. They are comfortable and I'll bet you can find one that fits around your safe(r) case.

By the way. DrCycleMrDrive, I noticed we both have the same avatar and Dr in our forum ID. Interesting coincidence. I got the nickname Dr. FeelGood at family and friend gatherings and I admire Einstein. What's your story?

Penanaut:
First, sounds like your family gatherings are a bit wilder than mine. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
I was kind of going for the Dr. Jekyl/ Mr. Hyde thing. I think frame of reference influences how you see the roads and your fellow travellers, so Dr. Cycle is my sane self, and Mr. Drive, well you get the idea...

As for the Einstein thing, the avatar kind of works with Dr Cycle and I confess to also being a fan, though my family was more likely to call me Mr. Peabody (Sherman and Peabody cartoon). I do recall, every 2 months or so in my early teens, my father would go a beer to far and start explaining relativity to me. Good times. Good times. Yep. He also had a few stories about Gauss, but I didn't see a mathemetician avatar.

Damn. Misspelled "mathematician".

get the extra cycle. guitars on regular bikes--no good.

I've ridden with a guitar in a backpack gig bag a few times. I really don't recommend it. Visibility is compromised and it's not very comfortable. You're also compromising the safety of your valuable guitar by not having it in a hard case. I'm eventually going to get a trailer for this purpose, since I usually have more to carry than just the guitar anyway.

Used to know busker who screwed a guitar case to his pannier rack. This was after he attached it to his left forkleg and after he had tried to execute a sharp left emergency turn

Just stay away from gig bags and get a hard case. I have what USED to be a nice solid top Dean guitar ($500 a few years ago- not high end but now too low end either) that now has two nice cracks in the top and some dings because I didn't bother to buy a hard case for it, like an idiot. My next nice guitar will come with a hard case. If it goes on a bike, it'll be with an xtracycle or a bob trailer and be well tied down. If I were going to do it regularly, I'd modify the case to fit on a rack like a pannier.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for all the responses, everybody. As I was writing a reply last night, my computer kicked the bucket after nearly 6 years of faithful service. The good news is I might get a new MacBook out of this. The bad news is that it leaves me less money to spend on bike and guitar accessories.

I notice that despite my stating clearly that an Xtracycle is out of the question, two posters nonetheless suggested an Xtracycle as the way to go. I admire your steadfastness . I think Xtracycles are very nifty, but given my nomadic student lifestyle they're really not practical for the time being. Anyway, my Dahon folder is just about perfect for my needs... a disadvantage in this case is that I can't really mount proper panniers; an advantage is that I can raise my handlebars on the fly to get a more upright position if I bike with a guitar on my back.

I'm most interested in the backpack straps for my existing hard case, since they seem to do the job for a reasonable price. I agree with the other posters who are hesitant about transporting guitars in soft cases. Also, thanks to marqueemoon for pointing out visibility problems with a guitar on your back... I hadn't thought of that, and it's something to consider for what would be an hour-long ride through heavy traffic.

Given the need to replace my computer, I think I'm going to have to go the cheapest route, i.e. a really cheap guitar in a cheap backpack gig bag. Thanks for all the suggestions, though. I'll keep them in mind once my financial situation recovers!

And one day... an Xtracycle!

P.S. The Colorado Case Company's website (linked to in Praxis's post) is, bizarrely, blocked by China's net-censoring firewall. I just found that quite funny.

Hi qbcb,
Used to teach guitar/voice at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Commuted the 13 mi rt with a small steel string in a Reunion Blues gig bag. It had duel adjustable straps. Sprayed it(heavily) with Scotchguard waterproofing and kept 2 plastic trashbags in the zippered pocket in which I would wrap the guitar then place it in the gig-bag if it rained. Did this for about three years with no warping or damage to the guitar. Though a minor annoyance I never had a real problem with the neck over my head and I used a road bike as my commuter at the time. Had two handlebar mirrors and one on my helmet, too. Would I have it to do over again I would use a mandolin as my teaching tool! There are gig-bags less pricey than Colorado Case or Reunion Blues which will do the job if your guitar isn't an expensive one. My axe at the time(sold it years ago) was a Gurien S2M which is(was...the factory burned down and they aren't made anymore) a fairly high-end small acoustic which justified the fancy gig-bag.