Modern Buddy

has anyone figured out a way to listen to music while riding Buddy? Before you answer, here's what I won't do:

1) wear a backpack with ghetto blaster in it
2)wear one of those shower radios on a string around my neck
3)try to fit a tape recorder into the buddy "cubby" and listen to old Color Me Badd or Informer cassettes



any other ideas?

I usually sing to myself. Loud

iPod. Haven't tried it myself yet but would think this is the simplest way to do it. There's a stereo kit for scooters somewhere out there too. Here's a previous thread: topic251.html

fantastic, thanks so much!

screw the ipod. You can buy a MUCH cheaper, larger storing, MP3 player thats smaller and looks cooler. I put mine in my corazzo pocket and just go. Before my armband broke i put it around the left headpiece of the Buddy. My uncle uses velcro for his on his vespa. but yeah, really, buy something better (like something that isnt entirely proprietary) as an ipod.

GenuineSlacker wrote:You can buy a MUCH cheaper, larger storing, MP3 player thats smaller and looks cooler. I put mine in my corazzo pocket and just go. Before my armband broke

Thats why I have an iPod instead of going cheaper.

I listen to my iPod with headphones when I ride. No problems.

the armband broke because I left it in the rain on my scoot (several times) and it was an aftermarket piece anyways. I have a small IRiver, dropped it, more than once, while doing about 30 too. IPods won't survive a single drop...

GenuineSlacker wrote:the armband broke because I left it in the rain on my scoot (several times) and it was an aftermarket piece anyways. I have a small IRiver, dropped it, more than once, while doing about 30 too. IPods won't survive a single drop...

relax dude it was a joke.

We have 4 iPods here in this house and yes they will survive quite a bit of abuse. I use a 3rd generation 15 gig that I have had for several years and it has had its share of abuse and drops. My 6 year old daughter has a shuffle and I am not sure you can abuse something more than a 6 year old can. The iriver is a good product. I just like my iPods.

ScooterDave wrote:

GenuineSlacker wrote:the armband broke because I left it in the rain on my scoot (several times) and it was an aftermarket piece anyways. I have a small IRiver, dropped it, more than once, while doing about 30 too. IPods won't survive a single drop...

relax dude it was a joke.

We have 4 iPods here in this house and yes they will survive quite a bit of abuse. I use a 3rd generation 15 gig that I have had for several years and it has had its share of abuse and drops. My 6 year old daughter has a shuffle and I am not sure you can abuse something more than a 6 year old can. The iriver is a good product. I just like my iPods.

despite being a tech-wary audiophile/child of analog, i will second that emotion... ipods are solid... and i drop mine all the time... but whatever...

I have a cheap Creative MuVo that does the job just fine as well. Any old MP3 player will do, the functional part is that ear buds go under your helmet with no trouble.

Do you feel that listening to music makes you less aware of your surroundings?

sunshinen wrote:Do you feel that listening to music makes you less aware of your surroundings?

Great question! I'd love to know the answer, too.

As for me, I rock the Rio Carbon mp3 player. I am no fan of the
i(solation)Pod and its horrible stepchild, iTunes.

sunshinen wrote:Do you feel that listening to music makes you less aware of your surroundings?

I don't think there is one answer to this question. For me (and my hearing), headphones are out while riding. Not only do I feel more isolated, I also have issues if I need to make volume adjustments or something like that. I tried it a few times and decided it was just too much hassle for my short commute. Another thing that convinced me was a pretty serious multi-bicycle pile-up on a local bike path that seemed to be caused by one rider wearing headphones. Hearing what's happening around you can be very important while riding.

There are other options though. You can get helmet speakers that don't isolate as much as headphones and there are various mounting methods for your player of choice (mine is the i-Pod).

I personally do not feel comfortable with anything attached to my ears while scootering except a helmet. I want all my attention focused on the ride. God forbid, but if I'm involved in an accident while "plugged in", I don't want the cops or other drivers testifying I was distracted and unable to hear because I was listening to my iPOD or other MP3 player. There are external stereos that can be attached to the Buddy that should work.

ipod haters make me laugh...

Wearing earbuds or headphones are illegal in California and in lots of others states. I would love to listen to music and ride, but I know I would get distracted. And the cagers around here are NUTS and I don't want to die. So no earbuds for me.

Check with your state to see if it is illegal or not.

Susan

I listen to my iPod about 1/3 of the time when I ride. Does it make me less aware? No.

Is it legal? Ohio law states headphones are prohibited in both ears simultaneously, except helmets with speakers.

Every state is different. In some its illegal, others let you have it in one ear.

This site lists the headphone laws by state. http://www.law4hogs.com/law.html

While on the same subject, check this out. Some clown in New York wants to ban iPods while walking

Ban Proposed On Walking While Talking, Listening To iPod
Ban Would Apply To MP3 players, Blackberrys

http://www.wnbc.com/news/10948106/detail.html

A state senator from Brooklyn said on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation that would ban people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in either New York City or Buffalo.

NewsChannel 4 reported that Sen. Carl Kruger is proposing the ban in response to two recent pedestrian deaths in his district, including a 23-year-old man who was struck and killed last month while listening to his iPod on Avenue T and East 71st Street In Bergen Beach.

"While people are tuning into their iPods and cell phones, they're tuning out the world around them," Kruger said. The proposed law would make talking on cell phones while crossing the street a comparable offense to jaywalking.

Some pedestrians said they were not worried about their safety while using their electronic devices while walking.

"I look for the light," said Venus Montes of Williamsburg.

"I'm still looking," said Lance Gordon of Far Rockaway. "It's not like I'm not paying attention."

Others said the proposed ban would not work.

"I don't think anyone's going to be up for this," said Patricia Lewis of Staten Island. "I don't think anyone wants this."

Other pedestrians said they thought the proposal was a good idea.

"It's too dangerous," said Nicole Lake of Jersey City. "Drivers don't pay attention and pedestrians don't pay attention."

Good idea. Lets take more freedoms away from people. Just like the lemmings that voted for the smoking ban here in Ohio.

When you see morons like this guy proposing legislation like this just remember:

When they took the fourth amendment, I was silent because I don't deal drugs.
When they took the sixth amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent.
When they took the second amendment, I said nothing because I don't own a gun.
Now they've come for the first amendment, and I can't say anything at all.

Polinarchy: I too have a Rio Carbon! Isn't it great!!
I first had the Rio Sport but there wasn't enough room for everything I wanted...the Carbon was there long before iPod caught up in terms of space, although don't take this to mean I'm an "iPod hater". Other family members have them and are very happy.

But to the original topic, I don't think I will rock while I scoot. It requires too much concentration on my part...I just don't have enough synapses to go around. Besides I can't resist wanting to dance

BoneGirl wrote: There are external stereos that can be attached to the Buddy that should work.

kinda hard to hear with a helmet on and cruising at 45...

GenuineSlacker wrote:I have a small IRiver, dropped it, more than once, while doing about 30 too. IPods won't survive a single drop...

Don't be a wang.

I've abused the heck out of my iPods, and they've always been just fine.

In fact, let's look at some severe abuse of a Nano.
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/3


Stop hatin' on the fact that Apple has the most successful mp3 players in the market -- mostly because of a slick user interface and marketing. Both of which were copied by the iRiver... or are the naming conventions just coincidental.

I think I have a picture of me & my iPod on top of a parking garage.

I'm not saying the ONLY mp3 play I would us is my IRiver, just any other than an overpriced Ipod. But, a great thing as opposed to headphones of earbuds are in helmet speakers. I bought two pairs for my uncle's helmets for christmas and they work great. Plus it may even fall in that little area that skirts the law.

at first, when riding a scooter as opposed to driving a car, i kept wanting to turn the music on. in california, one earphone is allowed.

i've enjoyed having one earphone in my ear at the airport on business trips, with one ear still open to hear outside happenings. such as "your flight is now boarding."

i believe it's critical to keep in touch with sounds around you. it's easy to get distracted and go into a music trance of bliss, which while driving could get you into trouble, out of touch with the here and now.

i've yet to try it out, but would recommend just a background volume level just to enhance your riding experience, not to overwhelm your senses to draw away your attention from the road.

be safe out there !

There are some places that have banned headphones while walking/running/jogging because people have a tendency to turn them up to a point that they can't hear what's going on around them. I do have a small mp3/data stick that's handy while running/walking (fits great in a sports bra if I have no pockets, and I have the clip on headphones that have a seperate volume control) but I also tend to take one ear piece off if I see that I'm coming to an intersection with any real amount of traffic.

I've thought about putting something on the scooter. It'd be easy to drop the mp3 player into the cubby and use sticky velcro to stick a small set of speakers on the dash. Haven't done it though, and I'm not really excited enough to do it. I almost never listen to even the radio in a car anymore, and I haven't liked tape decks/cd players in cars/trucks since my Dad was dumb enough to buy me an under dash mounted REALISTIC (argh) tape deck for my first car and have it installed. (I had it in my trunk hoping it would fall out the hole in the side along the highway someplace. No such luck.)

I almost wrecked my car changing a tape. After that, I stuck one tape in, and left it until I was stopped.

After I got rid of that car, I never had anything like that installed again, ever. Spooky had a CD player installed in the truck he bought, but I would get ragingly mad, because it was a pain in the butt, I refused to change the disks while driving, and listening to the same CD over and over and over and over got old really fast.

If I listen to a disk, the passenger messes with it. I don't even change radio stations unless I'm stationary these days. Modern car radios are just too dang slow, and if I can't operate it blind, I don't operate it while driving. (yep, this is where the really old style radios from 70s and before really outshine the modern garbage. They can be operated blind, you never even have to glance at them.)

polianarchy wrote:

sunshinen wrote:Do you feel that listening to music makes you less aware of your surroundings?

Great question! I'd love to know the answer, too.

As for me, I rock the Rio Carbon mp3 player. I am no fan of the
i(solation)Pod and its horrible stepchild, iTunes.

I find this whole discussion entertaining. Before I bought an iPod I had a couple of different Rio's and Creative's. My gripe was that MusicMatch, the software that most of those came with was awful, and had no workable Mac or Linux tools.

Today, your options with the non-iPod ecosystem look to be about the same. MusicMatch or Windows Media Player (or the Zune Market Place if you are a really hardcore Microsoft fan). While iTunes for Windows has it's share of issues, is it really worse than MusicMatch or Windows Media Player?

The bigger concern for most people is the DRM, they don't like the iTunes Protected AAC format (Mpeg 4 w/ FairPlay DRM applied). I ask though, is that any worse than the MusicMatch or Window Media Player's use of Windows Media Audio (Mpeg 4 w/ PlaysForSure DRM applied)? It should be noted, that even Microsoft didn't like PlaysForSure enough to use it on the Zune, it use it's own proprietary DRM'ed format for it's private store.

As far as I know, the only fully legal, non-drm'ed music stores are either buy it on CD and rip-to-MP3, which the RIAA has now filed that they believe that to be a violation of the Fair-Use act, or eMusic.com.

In my opinion this is just stupid on the part of the music industry, but they are the ones forcing the issue. Our choices are to not buy music (and judging by some of the crap they RIAA is foisting on us these days, that's not a bad option), or buy indie from sites like eMusic.com that support DRM free music *and* your independent artists.

Now all of that said, I think that this is where the player industry is falling down.

What I want is a speaker kit like the one that is currently available, that rather than having to then add a player, is a player that reads a USB key for the music, smartly integrated into the bike, complete with Bluetooth support to link to an in-helmet communication system would be perfect.

Oh, wait, one of the chinese brands is already doing this on their CVT motorcycle, the Qlink Legacy.

Yes, I think that it's time that PGO, Kymco and Daelim get on some of these features to distinguish themselves from the Japanese.

I know all the arguments about it being a distraction while riding, you can't hear emergency vehicles etc. In a perfect world, these are good arguments, but it's not a perfect world. Due to wind noise, and ambient noise, most riders use some form of noise damper, be it, earplugs, a balaclava, a hat under the helmet etc, so the only issue is music more of a distraction that the mind numbing white noise of the ambient noise and wind? IIRC, studies have proven the opposite in automobile drivers, Why would this be different on two wheels ?

Anyways, if you can't tell, I use an iPod, under the seat with a Blue Tooth adapter broadcasting to a modified plantronics BT headset in my helmet that also connects to my phone so that I can pull off the road if I need to deal with it. (it rings, but I can't answer it because I leave it under the seat as well )

I apologize for potentially hijacking the thread here...

Apple actually wants to do away with DRM on iTunes. Jobs has challenged the record industry to allow them to do so, which may actually help online sales because of those who detest the very concept of DRM protections.
http://playlistmag.com/news/2007/02/06/ ... /index.php

There are quite a few ways to circumvent DRM, including tools such as DRM Dumpster. I don't really bother, though, because I only have so many devices I need my tunes on anyway...

ScooterDave wrote:I think I have a picture of me & my iPod on top of a parking garage.

Oh man, I laughed when I read that. Nice crossover joke from the XYL forum!

lou76 wrote:kinda hard to hear with a helmet on and cruising at 45...

We've got several people with speakers in our Club who cruise at 45+ all the time. Not only do they hear the tunes but the rest of us as well. Makes for great sing-alongs at stop signs and red lights.

I came across some cell phone/music listening options during my search for other accessories on the wheelup webpage www.wheelup.it

A motorcycle friend once proposed to his now wife over helmet intercom system while on a cross-country trip. His wife added the lovely detail that the proposal was preceded by three days of beautiful poetry that seem to be "whispered in her ear". Sounds pretty romantic to me.

Laugh it up and get it out of your system. But, all I can say is Damn I look good.

Dave