Barracuda - Totally Driven!

I started riding a lot back around '94. For a good 3 years, i was out every day, in the rain, snow etc. No matter what the weather was, i didn't care. To make a long story short, i ended up getting into music, started a band and biking wound up on the back burner. Although there were a few brief periods where i would get into riding again it never was the same. Back in 2009 was the first that i really fell back into it with similar enthusiasm.

So ive been riding a lot in the past year or so and have been trying to figure out what feels so different about it. Is it just cause im old and not in as good of shape? Do i not push myself as hard? Something just felt different. Then it hit me...

Back around 95 we didn't have the technology that we do today. Discman was the prevalent portable music player and you couldn't exactly ride while listening to music since they would skip like crazy. These last couple years i have been listening to music the whole time i ride. I don't know if it is distracting me, or benefiting me since it helps me keep pace.

I can't help but think sometimes that i miss the way it was back in the day, before mp3's and cell phones though. Now i feel like i don't absorb the surroundings as much, and everytime i get a text msg or email i hear the notification and immediately feel the need to check it. I remember how amazed i was that i could call from anywhere when i first got a cell phone, and then a few years after when internet was being introduced on phones. Then in 2007 when i first got the iPhone, i was at a bbq on the beach in the middle of the night watching youtube and it seemed like the coolest thing. Now I have the HTC Inspire, and its just amazing. Sometimes i think it can do more than my computer.

As i walked home with a flat yesterday, i was on the internet the entire time while listening to music, and it was nice to have something to do. When i think back 10+ years to how i managed to do it with without any entertainment it makes me second guess myself though. Its become one of those things that is easy to get used to having, but hard to go back to the way it was. I personally don't like the idea of something like that having the control it does over me.

So my question for you is do you listen to headphones while you ride? If you do, do you use a separate mp3 player where you dont get distracted by emails and messages? If you do, how do you think that it has affected the way you ride and enjoy it? Am i nuts for saying that as much as i love riding, i liked it more before cell phones and mp3 players but at the same time if i forget my phone or it dies i feel like i need to get back ASAP in case someone is trying to get in touch of me? Maybe since i stopped riding when things were simple, and now that so much has changed i feel the difference more than i would otherwise


I'm going out for a ride now on my A2L. Its the first time i've ridden it. Fully rigid, 2.35" Z-max's, 7 spd rear. I am going to listen to music on the ride to and from the trail, but not while i ride off road. I'm going to make a conscious effort to only check email/msg when i am at the halfway point of my ride. Hopefully it brings back some of the feelings i got back in the day, before technology became what it is. Wish me luck

I have seldom taken a ride without music. I'd leave the cellphone and blackberry at home, and strap on the headphones. I even carved notches into the foam pads in my helmet so that my headphones would have a channel to run through and not dig into my head. Earbuds make this unneccessary, but I still have the old Sony Sports walkman that used to accompany me on my rides a few years back..

I don't ride with music but I can definately see where it might help keep the energy up during a tough climb or something. As for the cell phone, I put it in my camelback in case of emergency but don't even think about it while I'm out there, I usually check it after I get every thing put away and back in the truck. My phone doesn't have email or internet, I'd probably use it a lot more if it did.

I've never listened to music while riding. When I'm outside I like to hear distant sounds. That way I feel more connected to the vast space around me, and I think I notice a lot more too, like animals I might otherwise miss.

When I moved to Austin in 94, I had no one to ride with. So was delighted to be able to use the cell phone as a way to be able to call for help in the event of an emergency.

You have a good point. When I landed on my neck at 20 mph deep in the woods last summer and couldn't move I was happy to have my phone. Then I realized I had no service, and then I realized that I couldn't talk, I could just grunt. Eventually I did manage to move enough to get a call through and was thankful. Even though it didn't work at first it made me a little more hopeful about the situation and eventually I managed. Had I not had it I would probably still be laying there now :p

Ive gotten so out of shape from not having much time to ride in the last few years... my pulse alarm can now warn me of an incoming stroke! (not litteraly.....well maybe..)

Welcome to parenthood... just settlin' in for a cardiac arrest cocktail... who's got the next round?