I have a little amplified speaker. It runs on 3 AAA batteries. Where to mount it? How about on top of my helmet?

OK, today, I tried it using packing tape. Not very elegant, but it pretty much worked. I kept my iphone on my belt. The audio cable goes down my right side, through my back belt loop, and around to the holster on my left side. Excess cable is stuffed in my left front pocket.

What are you broadcasting, Tom?

I rode a brevet this year where a guy had a sound bar sort of thing rigged to his top tube and had the tunes cranking. He said he preferred to ride lantern rouge and liked to have some music while riding through the night.

Oh Tom, ya gotta ride with the big boys......NOS Optima radio/horn.

Headphones man!

Or you can do what I did and share your music with other cyclists! Haha

+1. Rode with a Pan-Masser and he had a wireless radio broadcast thingy on his Ipod in his jersey pocket with a radio on his top tube. Titanium frame, full frame pump, radio, and we were passing people. It was great.

I dig your resourcefulness Tom. You should have it hang just below the top tube. It'll lower your center of gravity

Oh and nice shoes. How do you like them?

Wouldn't bluetooth headphones work just as well. Hmmm, nothing C&V 'bout that tho'.

Headphones don't allow you to hear the other noises in your surroundings as well as if you were listening to a speaker several, or even a few inches from your head. Is that why you rigged this up, Tom? I've considered mounting a battery powered speaker somewhere on a bike.

When all I could see was the first photo, I thought it lit up too.

I am sorely disappointed now.

Pfft
Second picture,thought it was a Polaroid also.

That is awesome Now the question is...What were you jamming too?

Oh, I see what you mean. My head was right in front of the light.

Yes, the speaker is to avoid the use of headphones. It didn't cut out any ambient sounds.

It's not powerful enough. I wonder what kind of weight I would have to carry to hear it well on my fast descents. And when it is loud enough for that, it might overpower ambient sounds! But I'm thinking if I pump about 2 watts into each speaker, that might be the sweet spot. Batteries to power such an amplifier shouldn't be too heavy. The odd thing is that it has become very hard to find good, small passive speakers! Most small speakers these days come with their own amplifiers. No good! They're either not powerful enough for this application or they're made for 110 volts A/C.

On the way out, I listened to Fountains of Wayne. On the way back, I listened to Amy Winehouse.

Austin has several large (chaotic) monthly rides, and one time my friend rigged his speaker system up to his bike. Sufjan Stevens blared the entire way there and back. Not the safest setup, but they were all pretty baked at the time, if you know what I mean.

He was one-upped wattage-wise, though, by a guy that strapped a speaker hooked up to a car-battery powered amplifier onto his back rack.

Oh, and RobE30, I like the shoes. It turns out they're a little small for me. Throughout my adult life, I have been buying shoes, trying them, feeling satisfied with them, and then later discovering that they're too small. But these might suffice. They're not terribly small. I can't believe size 47 is small on me!

They're lovely to ride on. They have an excellent balance of flexible and stiff, leaning towards stiff. They're fairly good for walking, but they feel like boots. They look well constructed.

And a bonus: they're made in Cambodia. This is one Asian nation where the labor practices model the French practices. Workers are members of unions. They have legal rights and good working conditions. This places them at an economic disadvantage, because their prices are higher than those of other Asian makers. But I'm glad to own these, knowing that the workers were well paid and well treated. Look for clothing made in Cambodia. They have lots of clothing factories there, waiting to be called into duty.