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Listen to music while riding your bike
January 11th, 2008 by Fritz 
I don’t wear headphones or earbuds or any other listening device while I ride my bike in heavy city traffic; I feel l should use my hearing to know what’s going on around me. I wouldn’t mind some tunes and maybe the occasional podcast, however, on some portions of my commute.
While some solutions are available, I especially like this low cost possibility with the BevyTech Gadget Bottle. You can attach your cell phone to the 22 ounce water bottle and listen to MP3 tunes through the phone’s external speaker.
The Gadget Bottle is a water bottle with an outside holder for gadgets, snacks, keys, wallet, or other odds and ends.
The Gadget Bottle inventor, Steve Lach of Spokane, WA, created the Gadget Bottle specifically so he could listen to mp3s from his cell phone external speaker while riding his bike. He posted this video demonstrating how he uses the Gadget Bottle with his cell phone (in 29°F weather with 12 inches of snow on the ground).
The Gadget Bottle is made in the USA and sells for $7.50 each plus shipping. I might buy a box just to hand out to my friends. Buy it at Gadget Bottle.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I’d be interested in a follow-up article on how well this works in real life, should anyone buy one. The concept sounds great, but I can’t imagine that the speaker would be loud enough to hear in actual real-world riding conditions. While the video was nice, there was no background noise like I experience on my commutes. I would love to hear of others experiences with this bottle.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I can’t wait to see some guy holding a water bottle to the side of his face and talking to himself.
January 11th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
your MP3/cell strapped to the water bottle until you go down from a Right Hook or go down hard enough to dislodge the bottle from the cage, your buying a new phone And MP3.
Personally IM cycling to Save money!
January 11th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
While I’ve only been hooked once in my life, I can count on crashing at least once or twice a year for other reasons so crash survivability is certainly a concern. I have a Gadget Bottle on the way and I’ll let everybody know how it works out. I’ll have to think of a way to be a crash test dummy to test this. My biggest concern on wipeouts is ripping up my clothing.
The video shows Steve talking into his water bottle — it reminds me of the old “Get Smart” show where Maxwell Smart is talking into his shoe phone. Kinda humorous.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I would think moisture is an issue here to. Go through a puddle and douse your phone or mp3 player. Not to fun.
January 12th, 2008 at 12:05 am
I like the idea behind the Slipstreamz- you can buffer the wind but still hear the traffic around you. I haven’t tried them yet, but they look interesting. Here’s a link to a vendor, as the actual product site has been defaced: http://www.macfriends.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2479
January 12th, 2008 at 2:04 am
I ride with a phone that plays mp3s. I use more caution listening and talking than I see many motorists. I keep the volume reasonable and only use music half the time. The headset I have found the best is from Plantronics and the phone uses voice commands to initiate the music. Cool.
January 12th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Gadget Bottle - progress technology :)))
January 20th, 2008 at 1:16 am
I have used a i pod recently while biking. Until I received one of these devicees myself…I couldnt really imagine it being very safe to ride a bike with music and headphones on.
However, now that I think more about it…I drive my car with the radio on, often at a decent decibel, and I cannot hear much outside at all.
If the audio is kept low enough..I see no issue with listening to your fave podcast on a bike.
January 21st, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Hi Everyone, I appreciate you visiting and blogging about GadgetBottle.com. I just wanted to say, on a nice summer day it is really motivating to ride to music. At the bottom of this page is my playlist: http://gadgetbottle.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=39
A note to djkenny , the bottle allows you to listen to music WITHOUT HEADPHONES, I would never recommend riding with headphones unless you are at the gym on a stationary bike. Then load up a Tour De France or Ironman video on an Ipod or Zune and watch it from the side of my bottle. The Gadget Bottle is a very affordable and useful monopod. A few friends use them at work to watch TV shows from there video player. They recommend using two bands linked together and wrapping them around the bottle, you can mount the video player sideways like a cross or small letter”t” and enjoy your video wide screen. While on a stationary spin bike, on a very cold January day I tried it at the Spokane Valley YMCA and it was great watching the Tour’s Alp Alp Duez mountain stage. One more thing, last summer while cycling, I tried just placing the phone in my jersey pocket, I could hear it, but not as well as on the bottle. Questions please email or call me at 509-580-2223 or info@bevytech.com Thanks again Steve Lach Owner of GadgetBottle.com
February 6th, 2008 at 2:32 am
I commute daily with an ipod. Kind of feeling semi-guilty about it, but not guilty enough to lose the tunes. About 2/3 of my 8 mile commute is on MUP, the other 1/3 in a dedicated bike lane. I know my hearing is compromised, so I try to be extra aware visually. If I was on more heavy-use urban streets, o rhavign more car-biek interaction, I’d more strongly consider losing the ipod. But, I just love my music…Anyone else do something similar?
February 14th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
I’m so glad someone finally brought this issue up. Yeah, RainCity, I listen to my ipod at a reasonable level as well - I commute 10 miles each way through urban Seattle so I feel extremely guilty about doing it. But man, does it make the ride more fun.
I really don’t think it negatively affects me that much, but that could just be denial speaking. I get that you’re theoretically more alert without it, but has lack of sound-detection ever been the cause of a right hook or a dooring?
Hold on, I’m loading up the nano for the ride home…