Ride Music Deux

So, with some mild prodding from Exegete, my ride tunes solution he mentioned.

I enjoy having music playing, I really do. and more than that, I like good sounding headphones, not earbuds. (Don't get me wrong, Apple's earbuds rock. I just like better sound quality than earbuds are currently capable of.)

Now, my old iPod is a second generation beast, and the only practical place for it is either in a pocket, or a backpack. And since I only wear a backpack when I'm doing long-ish mountain rides, that leaves the pocket. As a result, I tend to kill headphone cables, due to the fact that they are constantly in motion while I'm pedaling away with an iPod in my pocket. This wasn't a problem, until a few weeks ago, when I killed another pair, and went to buy replacements, and found that not only have all the local stores stopped selling my favorite pair of 'phones, (Phillips SHS5200) but most of them don't sell any decent neckband style headphones. Bummer, so I went without tunes for a week. Rides weren't as enjoyable.

At this point Exe had already bought a shuffle, and was trying it out on his helmet. I liked the idea, and decided to see about repairing my favorite 'phones, and get a shuffle to clip to my helmet as well. So I cut an audio cable with 3.5mm plugs in half, and popped open the headphones and replaced the entire dead cable. I went from a 4 foot cord to a 14 inch cord, with the intention of keeping the shuffle clipped near my head. When all was done, just for fun, I clipped the shuffle to the headphones themselves, because that would just be cool if it worked out well enough to have my favorite headphones and the iPod shuffle all buttoned together in harmony.

A little experimentation and tidying work later, and this is what I ended up with:
Great sound, good comfort, and a new ability to control the iPod with ease that I never had before. The weight of the cord and iPod does pull the neckband down a little, but not enough to be an issue, especially on a bike. The lack of a cord hanging out to get caught on stuff is amazing, and I find myself looking for excuses to use it now.

In fact, I'm wearing them right now. *jams*

Mileage: 3 so far.