Wearing headphones while riding rates pretty high on the anti-social scale, not to mention being downright dangerous on busy trails, but there is a time and place where they do make sense. Many of our rides start with a twenty minute spin to the mountain, followed by a good hour or more of climbing up a steep decommissioned gravel road in order to access the goods, a task that can be made a bit more bearable by pumping our favourite tunes. With this in mind we were pretty stoked to try out the BlueBuds X headphones. With three different sizes of rubber buds (we found the medium size to work best for us), and three different fin sizes (we preferred the smallest), figuring out the best fit and setup is a small effort but it's certainly worth it to achieve the most secure fit possible. After tinkering around for fifteen minutes or so, we ended up with a setup that refused to budge from our ears, regardless of what we were doing. While we admittedly didn't expect the JayBird headphones to work that well, we have more than twenty rides with them now and can't remember having them dislodge once. The cord that connects the left and right earphones can be run either behind the head to keep it out of the way, or in the more traditional position under the chin, with us favouring the prior due it feeling invisible and not rattling on our helmet strap. We don't pretend to know much about sound quality but the BlueBuds Xs sound pretty decent to us, with deep bass that doesn't feel tinny whatsoever. Their range seems to be about four feet or so, more than enough to function fine if you have your music device in a pocket or your bag, and JayBird's claim of an eight hour battery life looks to be true. While the JayBird headphones may be one of our favourite new pieces of gear, they aren't perfect. The control buttons that allow you to adjust the volume or answer calls while on the go feel a bit vague with gloved hands - it'd be nice if they stood out higher for a more tactile feel - and we kept accidentally dialling the last caller while trying to adjust the volume. We also experienced intermittent cutting out, with the sound being interrupted for for a split second once or twice an hour. Our other complaint is that the JayBirds don't fit as snuggly into the ear as other earbud style headphones, simply because the rubber fin that acts to hold them in place also dictates how deep they sit into the ear canal. The result is that they are a bit more prone to being affected by wind noise than a standard earbud setup that can be pushed further in. This isn't the end of the world - we noticed it more on our commute to the mountain than when we were actually on dirt - but it is worth noting. So, would we recommend picking up a set of the $169.95 USD BlueBuds X headphones, especially given that an inexpensive set of earbud style headphones can be had for around $20 USD? That really depends on how often you listen to music while riding (or running, hiking etc). The wireless Bluetooth technology is a massive plus in our mind as it means not having to fiddle with cords that can get caught on your shirt, jacket, backpack, or bike, and the sound quality is very good to boot. We're big fans of music, and despite the lecture that we are sure to get from some riders, we are also big fans of listening to music during a ride. With that in mind we would happily pony up for the BlueBuds X headphones. - Mike Levy |
Reviewing a seat is a tough thing to do. Not only are we all shaped differently down there, we all ask very different things of the seats we use: a lot cross-country or all-mountain cats needs something that's comfortable for the long haul, while those who don't often go past the two hour mark might be happy with anything. Then there are the downhillers and freerider types whose main concern is that they aren't going to break the rails or rip the seat's fabric cover the first time their bike goes off on its own. Prologo's unique looking Scratch Pro CPC most definitely falls into the first category, and we would go so far as to say that it likely isn't the ideal choice for an all-mountain type bike that will be leaving the ground on a regular basis, despite the seat's carbon fiber 'NACK' rails holding up just fine to the abuse we doled out. We also found its gently rounded top and 134mm width to work just fine for us, even on rides that went into the six hour mark, and the seat's nose didn't feel like it was going to drill into our nether regions when it came time to slide forward for a steep climb. And what about those rubber patches that look like a cat's tongue is about to lick your underside clean? It turns out that they actually do make a difference when it gets wet and muddy, enough so that we found ourselves noticing how much we moved around on a more traditional seat in similar trail conditions. Having said that, it isn't like anyone is going to be ever held back by using a regular seat, just that Prologo's CPC rubber patches are appreciable. Unfortunately, those same rubber patches tended to make quite the interesting noise sometimes, with them emitting an odd squeak as our baggy shorts rubbed against them as we pedalled. This seemed to happen regardless of what material our shorts are made from (although we admit to not using the Scratch Pro CPC with only lycra shorts), and it was annoying enough that we could see it being a deal breaker for some riders, especially given the seat's $285 USD retail price. Want to try the same shape and CPC rubber bits but without the carbon fiber? The 'TIROX' rail version goes for a full hundred dollars less at $185.00 USD. - Mike Levy |
The Hyper Knee X D3O pads aren't slim fitting numbers that would go unnoticed under your your favorite pair of jeans, and we'd even go so far as to call them bulky, which is why we were so surprised by how invisible they feel during riding. The soft material that Demon uses as the pad's inner liner feels very comfortable, even after a few hours of wearing them, and there are also no internal seams that might cause irritation in the longrun. One problem that we sometimes see with pads that utilize adjustable straps to hold them in place is that the straps can often shift off of the pad itself and chafe, but Demon threads both their upper and lower straps through loops to prevent this from happening, and we didn't ever feel like they needed to be snugged up overly tight in order to hold the pads from sliding down - they stayed put even when a lot of pedalling was required. The D3O knee protection allows them to conform to your leg better than if they used a hard plastic shell, likely contributing to how comfortable we found the Hyper knee pads, and the inner and outer side knee protection was appreciated as well. While not inexpensive, their $89.95 USD price is very reasonable considering Demon's use of the pricey D3O padding, but it is their ability to stay put and feel close to invisible that makes them winners in our books. - Mike Levy |
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Put in more newsworthy terms and bigger numbers... the unit cost, of the B-2 bombers the US Air force bought, amounted to about 2.2 BILLION each, when the R&D costs were included in the program, after the air force abruptly cancelled more orders after 21 bombers. Had they produced the planned 121 bombers, the unit cost would have been in the hundreds of millions each. The same thing is happening today with the F-35 program. What was originally planned to be a unit price plane around 70 million, is currently rolling off the assembly line in low rate initial production versions at around 150-200 million each once. Why? Because rather than with the B-2 where they did all the R&D and then built a prototype to do the flight testing and work the bugs out with, AND then produce planes ready to deploy, with the F-35s they've doing the R&D/Testing concurrently with the production of aircraft. Problem is, as problems arise, and they are (hundreds), the planes being assembled at the factory are being built with the already identified problems still present. Money will need to be spent to go back and fix these planes later once they solve all of them.
Now how does this relate to this saddle or the bicycle industry ? Well some brands do all the work to get it right up front, then base the unit price on how many units they'll be producing and how quickly they want to get out of the red on the balance sheet, and some companies develop and produce concurrently and its the end users who suffer by having to pay for the product, and then later pay again to keep the product working / fix it. Tony Ellsworth operated on the concurrent strategy for YEARS much to the annoyance of many customers and dealers.
For some products though I believe it's highly warranted, like when people smashed sram for those rims who were heavier than most competitors but sold for more than 2x the price. If you're in the market for rims, that's valuable information.
People come here to get information about products, so most of the time I don't find it out of place when people call bs on price/quality/features/whatever.
And people do mention it when the product is well priced and works great.
As far as sound goes, they are amazing. I use my Blackberry and ipod nano to connect to them via bluetooth. At the gym, I leave my Blackberry in a cubby and can listen to music easily 30-40 ft away. While biking, I don't both with the "over the ear" as the normal mode is just fine. Would recommend to anyone.
I love riding and I also enjoy the occasional product review to keep me some-what in the loop of what new product is out there and how it is generally rated. These sort of things often come hand-in-hand and it shouldn't change a riders passion of riding for fun!
We can appreciate product reviews and still ride for enjoyment
earphones? - read about that thing inside your ear, responsible for balance
knee pads - Kyle Strait nr 5024a with different material of padding inside = hindered pedalling? Yes those opened the whole new world for all of us, but let's put that to museum. I want 661 TOMCATS back in production!...or Dainese Oak Pro at lower price!
I'll give them a try. Looks like they are just what I've been looking for, for they gym!
2. place over ears holding in existing earphones
3. money saved, choice of whatever earphones you prefer, problem solved
Trials or street riding w/ ears on? Never, unless it's wireless. Then sure.
TRAIL riding? maybe. Used to do it, but honestly, I like the sound of nature...
Saw the $285 price tag and went right back and changed my answer to "None of the above".
www.arriva.com/leo/index.html
like in the article, would be great for the hour+ forest road climbs then peel em for the down...
www.sweetsingletrack.ca
Also if you want music without earphones try there boombotix.com I clip it on my camelbak.
Everything there seems a bit overpriced.
generic (non original tats) bother me more than they should.. lol