Your Portable Music

[smilingcat]

Sorry to be a party pooper but only time I use my iPOD nano is when I'm on a trainer. I also have iRiver player with FM radio. but that too stays on the trainer.

Road riding for me is still training. (I don't race) but I still train. I'm too busy about riding and all my concentration is on riding. I prefer not to have junk miles in my training.

If you ride leisurly, and you can hear the sound around you, AND you are aware of your sourounding, I see why not.

Besides, if I'm taking it easy, I want to hear the sound of water cascading over rocks, rustling of leaves in the wind, birds singing...

[indigoiis]

A kid here just got seriously injured while biking with headphones on.

And a guy got killed on Rt 1 by a woman who passed another car and then came back too far in and went into the breakdown lane. If he hadn't have been wearing headphones, he would have heard her car and gotten out of the way.

When I first started out, I used a mp3 player until another bicyclist, as she passed me, yelled at me. I took out my plug and she said, "you're all over the road. You shouldn't wear those things."

I was very embarrassed and didn't ride with them again.

On the trainer I listen to tunes. What I've found works for rides is to play a CD I like right before riding. The tunes tend to stick in my head.

[mimitabby]

i have lots of music in my head.

since most of the t threats to my life on the road are coming behind me, my ears are what i use to stay alive. I can't IMAGINE putting anything between me and my "early warning system"

[tulip]

With cars and trucks on the road, I need my ears for safety. On the bike trail, I also need my ears to hear what's going on. Plus, I like to hear the sounds around me and be in the world as fully as I can. No music while riding here, but I love spinning classes with good tunes.

[Becky]

I have a Sandisk Sansa 4GB player. It uses flash memory, not a mini hard drive, so no skipping. I like it, and the price was right, but I think I'd buy something bigger if I had it to do over again. Maybe 8 GB?

I don't ride with it except on the trainer. The other posts in this thread have pretty much stated all of the reasons why I choose not to.

[bluebug32]

I have a Sandisk Sansa 4GB player. It uses flash memory, not a mini hard drive, so no skipping. I like it, and the price was right, but I think I'd buy something bigger if I had it to do over again. Maybe 8 GB?

I don't ride with it except on the trainer. The other posts in this thread have pretty much stated all of the reasons why I choose not to.

+1 for the Sansa. I have the 6GB, which can be cheaply expanded (I think they all can), into an 8GB. No skipping ever is nice. I can plug it into my car, and I bought a case with a clip so I can clip it to me while on the trainer (I've never taken it on the road, but have used it in the gym). I got mine from woot.com, kind of the Steep and Cheap of electronics.

[sfa]

I have a classic iPod and have never had a problem with it skipping. Not sure how it would, really since there's nothing TO skip. I've never tried listening to it while riding, but I do while jogging, which is a lot more bumpy, and I plug it into my car's stereo system with no problems (unlike a CD that will skip on bumpy roads). If you're really concerned, though, get a player with a flash drive (like the iPod Nano, which is also nice and tiny) since it'll have no moving parts to bump around.

Sarah