A week before Interbike I’d posted about Ultra Mobile Bike Devices and connecting an iPod to a bike. Remarkably during the Hugga Hookup we met Cy-Fi, an iPod speaker and remote for your bike. Good timing!
I did test ride and video the Cy-Fi, but it was too dark and the video didn’t turn out well. The device itself was cool and the owners of the company were very proud of it. Using new technology, from Kleer, it’s an iPod remote that connects to speakers you mount to your handlebars. What’s unique is that the speaker has buttons to change the track, volume, and select playlists.
Sure, sure, a DIYer could just duct-tape some speakers to a wire and an iPod. Maybe just wear headphones, but if you’re at Critical Mass or a bike parade with the Rock the Bike crowd, you can blast your Bombay Dub Orchestra for everyone to hear.
Ride louder is Cy-Fi’s slogan and they’ll find buyers for this gadget. The tech bloggers have certainly noticed
- Gizmodo: a Wireless iPod Dock for Your Bike
- Engadget: the wireless iPod speaker for your bicycle
- Crunchgear: iPod Bicycle Speaker Announced
Great, now we will have kids out blasting their music off their bikes like those douches who drive around in their cars with the sound turned all the way up?
Why didn’t they license HSS so it would be focused on the rider? Oh yeah, cause that would have been considerate.
There’s that always that factor… or as Gizmodo notes about the iPolo shirt, “the douchebaggery of a sleeveless shirt with the jackholiness of an on-board iPod pocket.”
If you were to play Jamoroquai on it.
And this is the technology it’s based on. For the Ultra Mobile Bike Project, I’d like to see video.
i think its pretty cool….now if someone would only develop a charging system for the ipod that would feed of a dynamo hub!
It is cool. I thought it was great riding around with it.
I don’t see a huge trunk-filling subwoofer, amplifier and car battery on this tiny speaker, so this will probably be slightly less noticable than people who blast their car stereos.
=v= My Bike of Awesomeness is nearly complete. I’ve got the wheel spinners (20-inch rims, of course), the Down Low Glow, and now the “Cy-Fi” system with hella bass. All I need now is a license plate holder with a light display chasing around its border.
Um, do you think it spoils the effect if my license says, “BICYCLING: a quiet statement AGAINST OIL WARS?”
You’ll need to add a Karaoke function and here’s how to charge your iPod with your bike.