Unleash Nerd Fury

On June 25, 2006, I did the mountain biking portion of the Mountain to Sound relay. The 23 mile mountain bike section of the relay starts at Hyak, in the Snoqualmie summit, and proceeds down the John Wayne/Iron Horse trail about 1500 feet to Rattlesnake Lake.
In preparation for this ride, I went up to do the 2.2 mile long tunnel one time by myself. It was completely freaky and I wanted to share it with my friends. So for race day, I mount a camera on my bike and take video through the tunnel. So I searched the web, and I found these great directions on how to make your own bicycle camera mount. (aside, we nerds heart Make magazine)

Well once again, months later, my hubby found this. Grumble.

One thing I love doing is riding a bicycle. As much as I love riding with my husband, he has this annoying habit of throwing out “Audio Cooties” – i.e. he’ll start singing whatever is currently stuck on and lodge it firmly into my head, whether I want it or not.

I could combat this by riding with my own iPod and listening to my own tunes, but listening through headphones while operating a vehicle (a bicycle is considered a vehicle) is illegal. (Aside: it is a HUGE peeve of mine to see people riding with headphones or no helmet).

Instead I came up with a way of playing tunes on my bike while training for the Seattle To Portland bike ride. My design evolved over my training but by STP it included

• An iPod shuffle, attached with velcro to my handlebar stem.
• A head phone splitter
• An extension to the speaker cord
• A cheapo radio shack speaker, placed on top of some foam on the back rack on my bike, attached via a bungie cord
• A Sony compact speaker, attached to my aero bars with a cord.

(I will insert a photo here when I can get one.).

Each speaker was attached to the iPod (which I could change just by pressing a button on my handlebars) and I could pump the tunes out to the front (for me) or back (for my riding buddies). I even used the system at the Lake Steven’s Olympic Distance triathlon (I did the biking portion).

I thought I had something novel, until my hubby sent me this.