do you ride your bike**********

should deaf people not ride?

One of the things I enjoy most about bike forums is that no matter how awesome a day I am having there are always plenty of folks here to tell me how F'ed up I am.

Fall Out Boy are my pop-rock vice. I love 'em.

First: glad you had a great ride.

Second: I agree about the headphones thing. I feel absolutely blind when I'm riding and listening to music. I need the extra info my ears give me to feel comfortable when riding.

Third: Glad you had a great ride. Rain typically really sucks when your destination isn't home.

I don't get the headphone hate... the wind noise is so loud that anything soft enough to be obscured by the music is going to be obliterated by the wind.

well, really, the issue is: what happens when you have to bail and you land on your ipod?

or your walkman...whichever.

that's $250 down the drain.

or $5, if it's the walkman.

I used to think that too. For a time (all last spring/summer) I rode with an earbud in my right ear, figuring I could hear cars coming up on me w/ my left ear so everything was fine. I even road from Toronto to Montreal like that every day. Due to unrelated circumstances (hearing loss of a family member) I decided that maybe having music blaring into one ear all the time might not be so good for my eardrum. I absolutely do notice an improvement in what I can perceive happening around me on the road now. You really can pick out vehicles approaching even with wind/city/traffic noise going on around you.

On a practical basis, if I hear a car coming up from behind me and see a bottleneck ahead, I can plan a different line ... instead of ended up in a ****ty situation that was "totally not my fault" (not that it matters if getting doored/hit is the result).

ON TOPIC, that ride sounds awesome. I've found that a lot of "****ty weather" rides can be amazing if you're in comfortable clothing. When I'm in my ridiculous full body Gortex commuting garb, I couldn't care less how hard it rains but it's always a blast to ride in conditions like that. Last winter I had a few moments in the middle of REALLY heavy, fat snowfall where the streets were dead, all the sounds were muffled and it felt like I was the only one on the road in all of downtown Toronto. That was a great thing to experience at night on the way home from work.

I always loved rainy weather. I was pretty upset when my girl drove my truck to work to pick me up when I had commuted on my bike. It woulda been pointless to tell her to drive home.... she had already spent the gas I was saving, and would've had to wait on me.

As long as it's not a torrential downpour with thunder and lightening, I'm game. Although, I want a beater bike for days like that.

I love people saying "gee, it must suck to have to ride your bike home" and just going "nup, can't wait!".