Any experience with speaker for bike

They exist. I almost destroyed one. Over the weekend I rode the Back Roads Century. Around mile 78 I lost my sense of humor. Around mile 81 I encountered a man on a bike playing his calypso music very, very loud. So loud. And I was too tired to pull around him. On we rode, me and Mr. Calypso. Around mile 85, just as I was losing my will to live, the course ran through a few “rolling hills.” There is no such thing as rolling hills when you’re into more than 80 miles of a ride. Fortunately, somewhere along those hills I lost him and his calypso music. Otherwise I might be in jail charged with capital murder. Bottom line: They not only exist, they are very loud.

ann

I have never met Dirt in person, but I’ll bet you sing just as well as he does.

I think if you’re going to be on a public trail sharing your personal space with many other people, you should be using headphones rather than a speaker.

I’d like out that wearing earphones is not a distraction. If one is distracted by music in earphones, then they would be distracted without them too. I wear earphones with music while cycling and kayaking. And for me, it is a serious necessity to keep me going too. I can tell you if I didn’t have it one afternoon in April, the harbor patrol would have had to come get me because I wouldn’t have made it back to the boathouse. My usual 30 mile bike rides would get very mundane without it quickly and I would probably take the metro back home after 15.

@Mark Blacknell 8564 wrote:

3) Haven’t seen this in person yet, but looks viable – http://www.tunebug.com/

FYI–It appears that the Tunebug spokesman is none other than stunt man Mike Steidley, who you may remember performing at this year’s Rosslyn BtWD pitstop.

@Mark Blacknell 8564 wrote:

Riding with both headphones in on the streets/trails makes you not just a danger to yourself, but others.

Your generalization is simply wrong. Pointing out a bunch of people who are in their own little lala land and claiming therefore anyone with earphones in must be in lala land is completely wrong. If they’re inattentive with music, they’d be inattentive without music. They’e just inattentive people. The music is irrelevant.

In fact I would go as far as saying that me riding around with earphones in, I’m still a safer rider than a lot of people without them. I see a lot more “professional riders” all geared up (without earphones) playing king of the road and trail than I see la la land riders. The arrogant rider is much more significant problem than the distracted rider as far as I’m concerned.

@MCL1981 8571 wrote:

Your generalization is simply wrong. Pointing out a bunch of people who are in their own little lala land and claiming therefore anyone with earphones in must be in lala land is completely wrong. If they’re inattentive with music, they’d be inattentive without music. They’e just inattentive people. The music is irrelevant.

When you block yourself from hearing the sounds of the world around you – including other traffic, warning signals, etc. you can’t make up for that with a simple assertion that you’re just as safe as you would be if you could hear these things. Can you hear traffic approaching from behind without earphones – you usually can. With earphones? Usually not.

You can go ahead and tell yourself you’re just as safe as if you didn’t have them in, but you can expect to be called on that, if you try to tell everyone else that. This strikes me like a lot of the self-justification I did about using a cell phone all the time in cars. Except when I got honest about it, and looked at the facts, it’s not safe at all. Turns out all my common sense arguments just didn’t hold up if I could bring myself to step back and look at them.

@MCL1981 8571 wrote:

In fact I would go as far as saying that me riding around with earphones in, I’m still a safer rider than a lot of people without them.

Maybe you are, maybe you’re not. I don’t really have a way to tell. There’s a lot of components to safe riding. But if you’re putting yourself in situations where you’d have to be rescued by others if you didn’t have music, I’ve not got a lot of faith in the risk assessment abilities present.

@MCL1981 8571 wrote:

The arrogant rider is much more significant problem than the distracted rider as far as I’m concerned.

I’d say its arrogant to offload your share of listening to the environment around you onto others.

The amount of trouble I used to have with headphone-wearing riders on the W&OD is pretty definitive as to what a detriment they are, as far as I’m concerned. They make up a small percentage of riders but where an overwhelming majority of problems. I don’t ride the W&OD much anymore, but even now I’m always tempted to reach over and rip the damn things out of peoples ears as I go by.

To be honest, I’m even more scared of someone who wears them and argues that it isn’t a problem than someone who wears them and is oblivious. 😮