OK, I love to listen to music on my bike. I've been commuting to work lately on a fixed Nishiki Colorado with a $9-dollar Sony transistor radio in my coat pocket, and it makes me really, really happy. There is something to listening to music through the air versus through ear buds.
Here on the West Coast, I've seen Soul Cycle Slim bikes and Soul Cycle Mobile Audio bikes sporting their down low glow neon under lights around the Oakland, Berkeley, and San Francisco streets and at Bay Area bike events. (They also make bikes that can power blenders.) The music usually contributes to the up-beat atmosphere of the two-wheeled festivities, and the neon glow coming from the bike means everyone can see you at night.
But these guys from Queens, NY, take listening to music on your bike to a new level of complication. Like the extreme music car hobbyists who push car stereo systems to rocket launcher decibel rates, the stereo bike guys, with Guyanese and Trinidadian backgrounds, bring the bike & music hobby from their respective countries to Queens. One guy had his bike stereo system measured at 150 decibels. (According to the car stereo decibel drag racing hobbyist article, "a 747 taking off on a runway 300 feet from you is about 120 decibels".)
Photo 1 & 2 of the Soul Cycles lifted from the RockTheBike site.
Photos 3 & 4 and text lifted from the New York Times Online:
(Photo 3) "The motocross bicycle of Stephen Sonnylal, 17, at left, bears a 200-pound system with a 50-CD changer. It has 3,000 watts of power and cost $800. "People say, 'It's the next best thing to having a system in a car.' But it's better because you don't even have to roll down the windows," said Nick Ragbir, 18, right."
(Photo 4) "Mr. Samaroo's sturdy Mongoose supports a system with four 12-inch speakers that can handle the 5,000 watts. He's co-owner of a business called Legal Intentionz that mounts stereos on bikes."Photo: Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesArticle and more photos Photo: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
