Originally Posted by
01 CAt Man Do
Yep, you have to hate a cheap mount. In this case the mount is designed to pivot. It's the pivot point which is the weak link. If it was just a standard slide mount there likely wouldn't have been a problem. Anyway, seller is sending me a new one which I should have by next week. In the mean time my jury-rigged setup is working fine. I did buy some black zip ties but I think I'll leave it as it is unless it starts to loosen.
When I get the new mount I'm going try to reinforce it with some black duct tape in the area around the pivot. Not sure that will be possible but I'll try. If it's not possible for some reason I'll probably just continue to use the setup I'm currently using because no way is that going to break if for some reason the bike falls to the ground. Of course if I can't get the duct tape in the needed area ( when I get the new mount ) I could just as well reinforce it by putting a zip tie around the whole thing ( like I'm currently doing ). Yep, that should work and really, it's doesn't look all that bad and has no effect on the sound quality. Of course it you use zip ties you can't use the QR but that's a trade off I'm willing to live with.
Continued from my last post above;
Got the new mount just a couple days ago but I decided to keep using the setup I jury-rigged with the zip ties because I'm just figuring it will be stronger and will take more abuse. That said last night I decided to take it off my road bike and put on my MTB just to see how I might like it on a late night MTB ride. Well, as soon as I tried to put it on the handlebars of the MTB the strap came off the mount. At first I thought it broke but thankfully it was just the strap pulling all the way through the mount. I had to remove the speaker off the mount first but once done I was able to reinsert the rubber strap and all was fine. Looks better with the black zip ties but now I have to hope the rubber strap doesn't come loose again. That's the last thing I need while on a ride. At least the original mount doesn't use a rubber strap as it uses a typical screw type mount. Not going to use the new mount though until I get time to buy some black duct tape to help reinforce the pathetically thin plastic.
Other than the mount issues I absolutely love riding with this little speaker. Since I've had a little more time using it I've found that most of the time I really don't need to use it on full volume if I'm riding on quiet roads or MUP. ( Funny but at full volume it can sometimes be annoying, even to me depending on what song is playing ) Of course on an MUP I've already decided it's probably best to not use it if I'm riding in the day when there are other people around. Just wouldn't be right to annoy others with my music.
Since I started using the speaker I had no idea how much I would like riding with music ( or other audible venues ). First thing I discovered is that not all streaming radio websites or apps come across at the same volume. Right now I've been using the "radio.net" streaming radio app and that is working out so good I might purchase the pro version ( so I get less ads ). Yesterday I also added the "Tunein Radio" pay subscription app because I wanted to be able to hear Baseball games and that too is working but sadly comes at a premium price. At least I have the option to listen to my home Baseball broadcasts for now and that is a big plus although I'll likely cancel the subscription by Sept.
Anyway, took the speaker mountain biking last night but was riding in a river valley that has a hard time getting a signal from local cell towers ( depending how close to the river I am ). Thankfully I have some good songs stored from Google play so I have that option too. Sadly last nights ride was no fun fest. Too much mud still despite having waited three days after all the rain. I guess after 3-4 weeks of constant rain it just takes more time for things to dry out. Had to cut the ride short because it was just too tiring trying to fight the soft ground. Hopefully by Sunday things might be a little drier.