Cycling with music (without headphones)

handsomefish

The recent bad weather has meant I've been walking and bussing, rather than cycling to work. Whilst missing the bike for the obvious reasons, one bonus of not cycling has been that I've been able to listen to my ipod, and it made me realise that I really missed listening to music when I'm cycling.

There seems lots of stuff online about how silly it is to ride with headphones (especially on the road), and also lots of people asking about the best kind of headphones to wear whilst cycling (have they not read the other stuff?!?). What I've not found is whether anyone has any other approach. When I was at university there was a slightly mad looking bloke who used to ride around town with a really 80s tape recorder in a whicker basket on the front of a battered old bike. That's not really what I was after.

Does anyone know of any small outdoor-proof battery powered speakers that could be attached to a bag or clothing? I've seen a helmet that has speakers in it, but that seems almost as bad as headphones. I don't want music really loud, but I don't want it to sound like I've just left my headphones dangling round my neck either.

Is this just a stupid idea, or does anyone know if anything like what I'm talking about exists?

Cheers

x-isle

This?

P-Jay

Lest you want to come across as one of those annoying kids who walk the streets playing gawd awful music from a mobile phone speaker, stick to the iPod.

Just set the volume at a level that doesn't drown out that bus trying to run you over.

And if you're off-road, crank that sucker up to 11. I love a bit of DH with music blasting in my ears.

GHill

I saw some speakers with a handlebar mount in Mountain Bike Action once. I don't remember the name, but they do exist.

The Big Cheese

I wear one headphone, the other tucked away, on full volume, I can still hear anything thats going on around me, I woudn't have the audacity/balls to ride around with music coming out of some bar mounted speaker, would feel like Radio Rahem and a bit 'special'.

It's like those little scrotes on public transport playing shite dance music/ragga out loud on their phones speakers.

I wouldn't expect anyone else to have to listen to my music.

handsomefish

All valid points - the mobile phone one, particularly. That's what mountaining biking boss warned of... I guess I'll just have to sing loudly... That won't look "special" at all!

Cheers all

delcol

can you still get those pisspot helmets with a little speaker in them and a conection for your ipod...

found it
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=23625

Splee

There is something that turns your helmet in to a speaker.
It just clips on a turns any hard surface in to a speaker unfortuantely and my apologies I can't remember the name. :oops:
Suppose Google might do the trick

wordnumb

Please don't blast music from speakers of any sort from any vehicle. There is too much noise pollution already. Thanks.

There is no problem with riding with headphones in, road or off. Unless you're the type to pay more attention to the music than where you're riding.

Splee

Woohooo found it .................... http://www.tunebug.com/tunebug-shake.html

Northwind

handsomefish wrote:

There seems lots of stuff online about how silly it is to ride with headphones

The question is, what do you do differently when you hear a car behind you? "Uh oh, I'd better stop swerving all over the road" After riding without music for years I eventually figured out that though I could hear things coming, it never made the slightest bit of difference to how I ride so I switched to headphones. it's not at all unsafe in itself, though I'm sure it's a bad combination with some riders but that's their issue.

Briggo

You could argue that its the same as a motorist with volume on full so he/she cant hear anything anyway (which I've done many a time) and its safe-ish to do so.

tjwood

handsomefish wrote:

The recent bad weather has meant I've been walking and bussing, rather than cycling to work.

You're posting this in the MTB section! There's no such thing as bad weather...

I listen to music on my commute, with a reasonable volume and earphones that don't seal your ear you can still hear things around you and be perfectly safe (I also have some ear canal type earphones which I wouldn't wear while riding as they block out too much other noise - while you don't really rely on hearing that much when riding it can be useful not to completely deprive yourself of the sounds of your environment). It's mainly a case of making sensible choices of earphones and volume...