MUsic players on tour.
 

If you take music on your tours, post how you bring it along. I'll try to put the major types of players on the poll.

My idea of touring is to get away from it all, including my favorite music. I enjoy listening to the sounds of where I'm travelling, be it birds and animals, or the occasional eavesdropping on some foreign language.

What about a piano? Sure it's tough climbing the mountain passes, but the downhills are awesome.

I'm a big fan of flash players with removable rechargeable batteries, especially since I use mine just about the whole time I am on the bike (nothing worse than having to find a powerpoint to charge your ipod)
And you can always buy batteries from a gas station in an emergency. I take along a couple of CDs with mp3s on them, so can change the music on the player every now and then at a library / computer shop etc

Up until now I've done a lot of humming - even singing. I've been known to start multi-animal stampedes at the very hint of a song beginning... it's great for dogs too - just start to sing and they stop like they hit the end of their chain!

So rather than continue being guilty of sound pollution, I've decided to take an I-pod this summer. I'll try it when I'm riding - using right ear only and low volume; never in towns/cities. I'll be riding in remote territory.

You know, the poll could have had a choice of "bird imitations" -- now that's where I really have hit a new low!

There are several formats missing from the list of options:

- Eight-track players
- Revox Reel-to-reel tape recorders.

On tours, I always carry my big ol' eight-track player and a "Dark Side of the Moon" cassette which I play over and over...

;)

Personally, I don't know too many tourists who lug around reel-to-reel tape recorders, but surely, somewhere, there are touring stereophiles who won't leave home without their high-fi equipment and vintage 1977 Koss electrostatic headphones!

Don't forget the tube amps. And three-way speakers. And I like to line my tent walls with egg cartons for that ultimate listening room on tour.

But seriously, I prefer to just take a very small battery powered AM/FM radio with earphones. Nothing fancy, but enough, hopefully, to at least pick up some local weather reports.

I'm with Simsi. I have an Ipod that I took on one tour. But I mostly used it to listen to a book when I was hanging around the airport. the rest of the time--me for the sounds of nature.

SAfety first
always wear a helmet and never use a music player

Plus, the wind and the birds are much more interesting

(I do notice I sing a lot of Elton John to myself when touring -- even tho I am not a huge fan of his; plus I make up songs. One of my better one's is 'Do Hydrate' to the tune of that sappy Godspell tune, 'Day by Day,' all about keeping hydrated)

In traffic I never listen to my MP3 player but for a break on trails and tow paths I have been known to tune in. I find them especially good at night when I'm camping. It blocks out some ambient noise and helps me go to sleep.

I found the iPod a sanity saver on long tours. I don't listen to it everyday but it makes 12 hours in the saddle more enjoyable.
I don't believe in the theory that they are inherently dangerous it depends on how you use them.

Good article on bicycling and the sense of hearing here:

http://www.bikexprt.com/bicycle/hearing.htm

On my first trip cross-country - back in 1887 - or was it 1987? - I found myself humming a lot of tunes. The tunes would find me rather than vice versa. Usually it had to do with my pedal cadence. One day I just couldn't get the theme song from "Captain Kangaroo" out of my head. Over and over and over again. I would force myself to count fence posts and talk to myself - and just as soon as I drifted back into autopilot - Captain Kangaroo would reappear!

In traffic I never listen to my MP3 player but for a break on trails and tow paths I have been known to tune in. I find them especially good at night when I'm camping. It blocks out some ambient noise and helps me go to sleep.

cheap single AA battery am/fm radio with earbud speakers [size about 100mmx30mmx12mm]... relax in tent at night listening to radio, also good for listening to news and weather ...

hate it when that happens ... have had bits of mindless throwaway pop songs stuck in my head for hours as you grind along ...

on group rides, i have been known to say something like 'jeremiah was a bullfrog ...' when the group has stopped, and then depart ... it is surprising how many come up to me at the end of the ride and say they had this sodding song stuck in their heads for the rest of the ride .... hehehehehe

Mini disc seems to work well for me. 25 + hours on one AA. beats carring some adapter for an ipod.

Humming mostly. I find that trying to get that annoying song out of your head and replacing it with something decent is a very challenging exercise that make those hours in the saddle literally fly by. :D

A $5 am/fm pocket radio for me. I use it in camp. I have considered trying to mount one on the bike (no headphones or ear buds though).

I read a tour journal once where the author described riding across northern Missouri and listening to a local radio station that was broadcasting funeral announcements, who was admitted/discharged from the hospital, etc. and the author wondered "who listens to this stuff?" I'm pretty sure I know what station it was(http://www.kmzu.com/index.html) because I listen to it whenever I get out of the city enough to pick it up. Listening to the small town stations shows the sense of community the area has. Personally, I love to get away from all the 'Top 40' city stations that play the same new songs over and over, interspersed with annoying, loud-mouthed, BS car dealership commercials!

On the subject of songs being stuck in your head - When riding rail trails I usually end up with Willie Nelson singing City Of New Orleans in my brain for miles.

Mandolin:)

Kayakboy has the right idea. Nothing like a little harmonica or pennywhistle in camp. And a book, definitely a book.

Weather radio. That's it.