Preloading The Brain

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• @therealpeel

  @Dr C

  True, the earplugs are a shortcut to the Rearly Gates, but a compromise is to jam your phone in your central helmet vent, vertivally, much like a Shark fin (I assume this is how Vince Nibali got his name

  You do look like a twat, but Barbra Streisand has got me up a few long climbs that I may have felt I couldn't have conquered, accompanied only by the silent spinning of my chainset

  Obviously, if your phone doesn't fit in your helmet properly, much as with your sunnies, get a new helmet

  ....what....?

  This is great. Like seeing the guys tooling around the city on their beater bikes with a boom box strapped on, only way more stylish.... Maybe.

  Barbra Steisand? What rockin' tunes by her get you up the climbs? Do tell . . .

• @Dr C Nipple lube you mad Irish fucker.

  Where have you been?

• @wiscot

  @therealpeel

  @Dr C

  True, the earplugs are a shortcut to the Rearly Gates, but a compromise is to jam your phone in your central helmet vent, vertivally, much like a Shark fin (I assume this is how Vince Nibali got his name

  You do look like a twat, but Barbra Streisand has got me up a few long climbs that I may have felt I couldn't have conquered, accompanied only by the silent spinning of my chainset

  Obviously, if your phone doesn't fit in your helmet properly, much as with your sunnies, get a new helmet

  ....what....?

  This is great. Like seeing the guys tooling around the city on their beater bikes with a boom box strapped on, only way more stylish.... Maybe.

  Barbra Steisand? What rockin' tunes by her get you up the climbs? Do tell . . .

  This is good you picked up this thread. Many questions here, not enough answers. Phone jammed into helmet like shark fin playing Barbara Streisand. I actually did a spit take when I first read that. Very messy. Life is different in N. Ireland.

• No music while riding, because riding is only for riding, nothing else. I loved the Oriva Greenedge vids, what happened to this years one?

  These are an interesting concept, but my opening statement still stands.

  Sound through your jawbone? sounds a bit weird.

  http://road.cc/content/review/124592-aftershokz-bluez-2-wireless-bone-conduction-headphones

• Very late on this. The OGE use of Iggy's Wild One may have linked to an audience more likely to be familiar with the Godfather of Punk but it is a seminal Australian piece.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_One_(Johnny_O%27Keefe_song)

• Geeky, I know, but to alleviate the boredom of a long steady ride and to keep myself within the bounds of Rule #71 (rather than get all over-excited, acquire Top Gun style lock-on on a fellow rider and race to my feeble max hr) ... I sometimes listen to BBC Radio 4 podcasts; documentaries and current affairs shows. One earpiece only. Thank you that is all.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn0FF1KwL4I

  ...and now we know what happened to Andy Schleck.

• @blackpooltower Headphones during the ride! You'll never hear the elusive shift "click" of the rider coming up from the back to attack -- that is all.

• @Gianni

  @wiscot

  @therealpeel

  @Dr C

  True, the earplugs are a shortcut to the Rearly Gates, but a compromise is to jam your phone in your central helmet vent, vertivally, much like a Shark fin (I assume this is how Vince Nibali got his name

  You do look like a twat, but Barbra Streisand has got me up a few long climbs that I may have felt I couldn't have conquered, accompanied only by the silent spinning of my chainset

  Obviously, if your phone doesn't fit in your helmet properly, much as with your sunnies, get a new helmet

  ....what....?

  This is great. Like seeing the guys tooling around the city on their beater bikes with a boom box strapped on, only way more stylish.... Maybe.

  Barbra Steisand? What rockin' tunes by her get you up the climbs? Do tell . . .

  This is good you picked up this thread. Many questions here, not enough answers. Phone jammed into helmet like shark fin playing Barbara Streisand. I actually did a spit take when I first read that. Very messy. Life is different in N. Ireland.

  I'm quite certain that that is all too strange, weird, wrong, whatev...,  to be true.

  Me personally, Rage Against the Machine's Bombtrack followed by Killing in the Name, will do the job for me on any Strava segment I'm having a run at while on a solo ride. And Apple's 2nd gen earbuds do work well for bike. As a youngster I'd keep a Walkman cassette player, usually with live Stones - Love ya Live or Get your Ya Ya's out, in my ski jacket pocket. And keep the POS headphones tucked under my cap while heading down the mtn. I'll take the phone and ear buds over that gear any day.

• So all this talk about music while riding reminded me that I never got over the loss of the best set of cycling earphones I ever had - vanished in a house move somehow at the beginning of last year.

  I have tried others since then but the Bose sie2i are without doubt my favourite and I recommend them highly, not for their music qualities but for their cycling-friendly aspect.

  • They are non-sealed - they use a shaped earpiece into the ear, not a soft round earbud - so unless you have the sound up very loud you aren't blocking out the traffic noise.
  • They are very secure -  a semi-soft shaped piece holds the earphone and sits in the ridge of your ear.  I find anything sticking out or above the ear like an over-the-ear bracket creates a lot of wind noise which makes it hard to hear the music and blocks traffic noise.
  • The cord is short. It comes with an extension if you need it but it means you haven't got a whole load of excess cable to get stuck. Even if they fell out it wouldn't go into wheel or chain.
  • They also come with an armband which fits an iPhone5 and is lined to prevent sweat/water getting in. The earpieces are also water-resistant.
  • The sie2i comes with a control and mic so you can change volume or pause the music. The sie1i is cheaper and doesn't have the control.

  It's just really well thought out. They've looked at all the problems and issues that come with listening to music while exercising outdoors and provided a solution.

  They aren't cheap. About $140-150 US. I asked my wife for some at Christmas and she looked at it and couldn't bring herself to pay that much for earphones. I did point out that it was sort of the point of a present to be something that you might not just buy for yourself.

  Anyway, since then I've tried cheaper 'sport' earphones from Monster (OK but sealed so block noise and the spring on the clip rusted away almost immediately so the cord is now a major liability. You'd think they might have anticipated sport earphones getting sweat on them.) and Bluetooth earphones I was given (skip a lot, stick out, lots of windrush).

  But I was passing by the Bose shop in Dubai Mall yesterday, and I couldn't resist. I am once more musically mobile.