I recently got a Buckshot bluetooth speaker to use on my bike. I was excited to replace my old piece of junk cheap BT speaker that would barely last 2 hours on a charge, and couldn't really attach to anything due to its stubby, 3" round cylindrical shape.

So I got it charged up and fired it up on a morning commute, and right away it sounded like a CD skipping bad. It got progressively worse over 20 minutes and then it just lost the connection completely and wouldn't re-connect.

I always carry my phone in my right rear jersey pocket on commutes, or in my front right shorts pocket on casual rides. With the phone in my shorts pocket, it seems to do okay. But in my jersey pocket, with the speaker on my bars, it just will not play smoothly. I discovered that if I took my phone out of my pocket and gave it direct line of sight with the speaker, it would work fine. Really? Line of sight for Bluetooth??

I emailed Outdoor Tech about it and they confirmed that the speaker does need line of sight with the phone to work properly. Bummer. I was under the impression that line of sight was not required with Bluetooth, especially this one being a Class II BT device with a range of 33 feet under ideal conditions. On the bike the phone is maybe 2 feet from the speaker.

So I guess I have to continue carrying the speaker in the top of my trunk bag on commutes, and so I will continue to experience music coming from my butt.

My last setup was a Nyne with the matching handlebar mounts, That setup was good till I got a new bike and the mount wouldn't fit on my newer wider handlebars Since then after an exhaustive search I went with a UE Boom II and a "bag mount" someone is producing just for this purpose and selling on Amazon. The bag hangs under the top bar and is just a little inferior to the nine setup. It also depends on your phone to control unlike the nine which could be controlled directly on the unit on the handlebars. At full blast the battery lasts only 1:45 on the boom but just a bit lower and it lasts fur a full 3 hour plus ride. The Nyne was nice in that the sound was directed at me. The UE goes out in all directions letting me share my music with people I ride with. Of course this is both a blessing and a curse. Overall both setups are decent with the Nyne slightly more attractive if the mount works for you. Also- both mounts required an extra bungee from me. The Nyne mounts are crap and I needed the bungee for security and peace of mind. On the amazon bag mount I need a bungee to attach it to the front of the bike otherwise it tends to slip back toward the seat post.

Have you tried using something l ike this for your phone?Nashbar Top Tube Bag I use something similar and it would put your phone a lot closer to the speaker.

I used one a long time ago when I had an iPhone 5, and the phone barely fit in there. I hated it also because my junk would hit/rub it when standing over the top tube. And the straps wore permanent marks in the matte black finish on my bike.

So yeah, I can't really stand those types of bags.

I've never had any luck with any BT speaker picking up the signal from a phone with the phone in my jersey pocket. It's nothing to do with the speaker and everything to do with the fact that BT is terrible stop-gap technology. I have my phone in a tinkered-with Maxpedition case mounted under my handlebar. Also conserves battery, because with the phone maybe 6" from the speaker, the transmission power is really low. A 4-hour ride typically consumes about 15% of my phone's battery.

I like to think of it as a fundamental limitation of very low power ultra high frequency radio propagation due to the limitations of small batteries and small antennas.

Hey look at that, we said the same thing with different words. The English language is amazing.

The connection between my iphone and my speaker has been rock solid even through a heavy jersey or vest.

It's not about going through the clothing, it's about going through the big bag of meaty water that is the human body. Bluetooth does not do that very well at all.

Thought I'd resurrect this old thread, I had been using an OT buckshot speaker for a few years, it worked great. I kept my phone in my saddle bag and never had connection issues.

After a few years the speaker started to turn off if I experienced some bumps on the road, but I could turn it back on and be fine. Now this year, after fully charging it, not even 40 minutes in it died and could not be powered back on.

I see they have a version 2.0 of my original, and was thinking of buying it but am hesitant since this "rugged" speaker died like this. Plus mine was glow in the dark, and they don't seem to offer this color?

My question is, does anyone have experience with outdoor techs products? Is there another product that's similar?

I liked the small form factor and handlebar mount, plus the controls on the speaker.

Thanks!

https://triduffer.wordpress.com/2016...e-ot-buckshot/

Other than the line-of-sight connection issue, I've had no problems with mine. And the battery life is AMAZING even after a couple of years! I can easily go 2 weeks on a single charge with several commutes plus a few weekend errand runs.

I think a lot has to do with the build ( housing ) of the product and the components used within the speaker. Not to mention it might have a lot to do with the phones ability to broadcast using BT as well. I have a BT speaker that I use in my car occasionally and it works fine in the car. When I use it in the house it also works well but if I take into another room it sometimes will start to cutout but depends on where I sit it. Like what was said, the better the line of sight along with being closer to the phone the better it will work.

BTW, I plan on buying a BT speaker for the bike. Should be similar to the Buckshot but a cheaper Chinese brand. I rarely play music while on the bike but I do sometimes like to listen to podcasts or an audible book. Though I've never done that while on the bike I thought it might be interesting to try. I also like the idea that I can also charge my phone using the speaker if I use one that includes that option as well.

Anyway, if I get one that sucks I'll let you know. I mount my phone on the stem of my handlebars for navigation purposes though so I don't think there will be any cut-out issues. Of course with BT speakers there is always going to be other issues like lack of volume, tone issues and how well the mounting system works.

I should subscribe to this thread, didn't see some responses!

I got mine working again, plugged it in and let it charge. It was odd that at first it had the red led for charging, but then both red and blue came on. Mine does some weird things and it hasn't been abused.

Either way it's been fine for a few 60 mile rides, and it does have awesome battery life. I've been looking at the pro but worry about the larger size and uncovered ports, but the battery pack feature would be nice. The pro doesn't come in glow in the dark like my current speaker though.

When it comes to small portable BT speakers I think it needs to be said that from time to time almost any BT speaker, phone or other BT receiving or broadcasting device will at times act up. Sometimes when they just fail to work you have to delete the entire setup in the device being used and then set it up all over again. I've had to do this both in my car and with my BT mini speaker. I drive a newer Subaru at work and for some reason when I setup the BT connection on the car radio system it suddenly stopped working ( connecting ) for some unknown reason. After I deleted my phone from the car system and setup the whole thing again it now works fine, go figure. The same thing happens with my desk top computer from time to time. Just the other day I was trying to use my mini BT speaker in my house and was having all kinds of problems. It would connect for a second and then the BT speaker would just announce that it was turning off...what the... I'm still not sure what the problem was. Right now I'm not sure if the speaker is charging because when I plug in the USB it just turns red for a moment and then the LED light goes out. Not the first time I've had a BT speaker with electrical / charging issues.. I think sometimes the internal wiring inside connected to the USB port just starts to have problems. Anyway, since the speaker wouldn't connect and stay connected with my desk top I turned the BT off on my Desk top and then tried to use the speaker with my phone. With the phone it worked fine, no problems. It seems the main issue with my little Jam Alloy speaker is with the usb port. I have to set the plug at a particular angle or it doesn't charge. That really sucks but at least it's working for now. All of my charging cords are fine. The speaker does the same thing no matter what usb cords I use ( and I have several ).

I finally ordered a new BT speaker for the road bike. I chose one being sold on Amazon but I'll not post a link to it till I get it and see how it works. The Amazon reviews on the model I ordered were better than most so I'm hoping that the reviews were not fluff. Hoping to get it by the end of next week but depends if they run out of stock. They had four left when I placed the order.

Okay...got the speaker and this is what I got....

This speaker had pretty good reviews and I liked the aero look. Hadn't had a chance to ride with it yet but testing it inside the house I can say I'm pretty pleased with the volume and bass level ( at least with some songs ). I have a feeling my data usage is going to go up big time if I start streaming while on the bike.

Continued from my last post;
I took the Bropang BTS26 bluetooth speaker I purchased from Amazon on it's first ride tonight. My initial impression is that I liked what I was hearing. More than enough volume to make me a happy camper. It's suppose to run for 5hrs but since I doubt I'll ever do a ride that long I'll have to take their word on it. Sure makes riding late at night a little less spooky if you're listening to music. I can use a little less paranoia in my life so I can consider this as a positive side effect of having some tunes to listen to while on a late night ride. On the down side the water resistance rating is only IPX4 so likely not a good thing if you get caught in a sudden downpour. On a side note I'll make sure not to download to my play list, "Riders on the Storm" from the The Doors. My late night paranoia needs no inspiration from Jim Morrison.

That Bropang looks nice. I use a headset, and I think a speaker would let in ambient sounds better, which I want. I'm glad to hear it's loud enough. The speakers I tried were not. How noisy is your environment?

I listen to podcasts, and I usually download them before heading out. Even downloading them over cellular doesn't use that much data. I also use Spotify, and I can download the music before playing it. I'm not sure why streaming is more data intensive than downloads, but I think it is. Maybe there are lots of retries with streaming?

Some podcasts you can download and store in advance. That means you can download them via wi-fi and not have to use online data. The podcast's I subscribe to are basically streaming podcasts ( AFAIK ) so I have to use on-line data to play them while on the bike. I have a number of songs stored on my phone so I don't need to stream if I don't want to. I also have audible books stored on my phone too although at the time I don't have anything new. I think you're right, I don't think streaming "audio" is going to kill my data but it's not the ideal situation.

If I'm going to use something like a speaker on my bike I'm usually riding at night so there is generally not a lot of passing traffic or highly distracting ambient noise. That said heavy traffic is always going to be a factor regardless of what type of speaker you are using. That and just the fact that air is swishing pass your ears so there is that noise to deal with as well. The only downside to the one I bought is that it doesn't have a port for using an MP3 type USB chip. I knew that when I bought it but since I won't be using one of those I just didn't care. Last night I was using full finger gloves because it was cold and it was hard to operate both the speaker and my phone unless I took a glove off. Oh, and FWIW, even with the music playing at full volume I could always hear the approaching traffic, at least on the faster roads. Riding at night can be somewhat boring because there's not much to look at if you catch my drift. Having some music to listen to at night helps to give my mind something to focus on rather than just looking at the beam pattern in front of my bike. I doubt I'll use the speaker for day rides but heck I suppose it will depend on where I'm riding. If I'm using RWGPS to guide me on a ride I doubt I'll be playing music.

Did another night ride with the Bropang BT speaker. No problems and I'm really liking how well this little speaker is working and sounding. Tonight I decided to just go with the streaming internet radio ( radio.net ). Had to listen to an ad first but then they played several songs in a row that had me pumped up ( .977 - 70's Rock ) At 2:00 in the morning hardly a car on the road but with the radio going I almost felt like I was riding along in the day. I continue to be pleased with how loud it is. I even felt compelled to turn it off when I pulled into my buildings parking lot ( just in case someone had a window open ).

I've been using the JBL Clip 3 Good sound has a D rimg to hang from bike

Thanks for the review and suggestion [MENTION=329622]01 CAt Man Do[/MENTION], but I'm still edging towards the buckshot 2.0 for a replacement. I need something that could last for at least 7 hours, and weather resistance for rain/cold/snow.

I really like my Buckshot, the size is perfect and the sound output is very good. I'm trying to remember when I even bought it, it's been at least four years now.

Since posting my Buckshot 1.0 worked for a few more rides then started to flake out again. It's interesting because I can power cycle it(while riding), then push play and will work until the next bump. There must be some internal connection that's fragile, it will work until you hit a slight bump. Ironic because this is supposed to be "rugged". I suspect using it for cycling over winter time finally did it in, vibrations plus sub zero temperatures must've cracked something.

I just noticed the Bropang also is a headlight. I wouldn't buy it for that feature, but I would use it since it's there.

Yes it does have a headlight on it. Not very bright, maybe 50-80 lumen but it does have a decent beam pattern. The thing is if you use the light you have to point the speaker down which sort of points the speaker grill away from you. The light also has a high and low beam. The ad says that the speaker will run, " 5hrs with full illumination". No mention how long if not using the light. The ad says that the light can provide 200 lumen of output but believe me, it doesn't put out 200 lumen. If it did, no way it would run for 5hrs on a battery that supplies just little over 1000mAh. If it had I would have been pleasantly shocked.

Now about the run time; I just now tried to run the speaker while charging and surprisingly it will still play while charging....so I guess that means it you have an alternative USB type battery source you can get longer run times. Most things I own that charge with USB won't work and charge at the same time ( except for my phone of course ).