Occasionally I see a gentleman on the local bike path who has a very large boom-box attached to his handlebars with duct tape. He’s somewhat of a bike path legend, because he pedals along at about 3 mph listening to his radio at high volume, and then he gets highly agitated if you overtake him without sufficient verbal warning.

Personally, I find the music of a well-lubricated bicycle gliding through the woods to be more than enough rock ‘n’ roll.

And of course, folks who ride with iPods are riding on borrowed time.

So it’s with mixed feelings that I came across this new product today: A $79 iPod speaker system for your water-bottle cage, with remote volume controls.

If I were the only one left on the planet, and I eventually got tired of talking to myself while I rode my bike from one abandoned city to another, I might eventually want something like this to drown out my own terror.

But back here in the real world, isn’t riding around with your tunes blaring kind of an anti-social thing to do? For some reason, it just isn’t the same as tunes in your car or even on your motorcycle, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

What do you say? Ride with tunes, or without?

Almost every day at Instructables.com — “the world’s biggest show and tell”– there’s someone with a new hack on the bicycle, from the snow-bike to the DIY carbon frame (I mentioned this last week) to the torchless tallbike.

Today, I noticed this bike built with two headtubes so that the wheels can be steered independently. Not necessarily something you want to take out on a bar cruise, but good for a few laughs out in the alley. (Incidentally, not a bike I’d want to be clipped in to, as this gentleman is prepared to do.)

Still, I can’t help saying: All this human ingenuity, and no one has actually improved on the simple perfection of the traditional safety bike.

We already told you about Tara Llanes’ unfortunate accident. Recently, Dirt Rag Forum member downhill mike dropped a post with a great idea that the folks at Whiteface Mountain Bike Park have come up with:

At Whiteface Mountain Bike Park we will once again for our 3rd consecutive year have Ladies Days on the 1st Saturday of each month we are open in the summer.
This year there will be no charge for the ladies as always but a collection box will be set up at each Ladies day for Tara’s Road To Recovery Fund.
This could raise over $1,000.00?
Maybe other mountain bike parks could do something similar?

Kudos to downhill mike and the gang for the great idea. Remember folks, any good idea is worth copying, hint, hint.

is likely the best cyclocross racer the US has ever produced. Last year, he nearly won the World Championships, but still astonished the cyclocross world with a silver. That led to a high profile, high-buck contract with one of Europe’s best cyclocross teams, SunWeb-ProJob.

So far this year has been a tough one for him, but over the holiday break he began to turn on the gas, finishing second in Middlekirke, Belgium. Since then, he’s finished just off the podium in his last four races. More than one observer has commented that he seems to be building form again for this year’s Worlds, which take place in Treviso Italy on January 27th.
Way to go, Jonathan Page! We’re rooting for you!

A perennial subject at the bar is whether you can get a DUI for riding your bicycle while intoxicated. The shortcut for our purposes here: It depends on your municipality. In some areas you can get a DUI and even forfeit your automobile driver’s license. In other areas, where more enlightened heads prevail, the drunk cyclist is considered a danger only to him or herself. Really, a drunk cyclist is one less drunk car driver, right?

Anyway, there’s nothing to compare with a $1400 ticket for riding your bike recklessly, as this poor gentleman did in Virginia.

For riding his bike too fast, Kajuan Cornish got an “abusive driver fee” of $350 each year for four years.

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re sort of fighting your bike — and that it might ride better without you?

Here’s a Monday morning video to make you smile.