Music to ride with

Normally I’m not a big fan of using ear buds while riding for the obvious reasons of being distracted or not hearing things around you. But I recently received a set of Open Ear Headphones by Aftershokz

So the whole idea with Aftershokz is that the speaker/driver is placed outside of your ear canal and uses your bones to project the sound coming from it.Having this configuration allows you to hear your music and still hear your surroundings. I had Doc Thunda try it out yesterday and while he was listening to music, he and I could carry a full conversation. It’s actually kinda weird to have Aftershokz. The best description I would have for it is this, just imagine that you’re sitting at Starbucks, you hear the ambient music. Not too loud, not too soft, but just enough where you could easily sing along with it but at the same time you can hear the person your sitting next to. Basically you have music in your head while riding…kinda cool if you ask me.

Anyhow, let’s talk about the idea of music while riding.As I’ve been testing the Aftershokz I’ve loaded up my MP3 device with some random songs and by golly, some of those songs worked great in helping me push harder or just have a bit more fun as I’m riding. Here’s a list of songs that I really liked on my ride from yesterday.

Bon Jovi – Living on a Prayer. This is great during a long downhill ride.

Warren G – Regulate ft. Nate Dogg. Perfect for cruising the single track.

Snoop Dogg-Who am I (what’s my name). I liked this during a climb. It wasn’t too fast but it help me carry a tempo up the hill.

Muse-Madness. This is another great climbing song. I ended up singing “Ma ma ma ma ma maaadnesss”

Debbie Deb-Look out weekend. This one was surprise to me. I thought it was great to start the ride with since it’s faster paced. Beside, you just can’t go wrong with Debbie Deb!

Lupe Fiasco- Paris, Tokyo. This is what I finished my ride with. The jazzy sound mixed with hip hop was awesome for cooling down and cruising back to the trail head.