Take it home today!!!

I've tried a million and one solutions to be able to listen to music whilst riding. There are very few that comply with the following list: 1. Possess the ability to hear ambient sounds (cars, your friends yelling at you, animals, your bike breaking down, etc.) along with the music, 2. Be unobtrusive and simple for you and 3. Not make it so everyone else hears what you are listening too (which probably sucks anyway). Standard earbuds/headphones fail number one completely, are flat out dangerous and taking out just one side sounds like crap. Mini speakers, bluetooth or otherwise fail number two mostly and suck for number three. The best two solutions I've come across are the Far End Gear ShortBuds http://farendgear.com/shortbuds/ and the Otus Mini speakers http://www.o-tus.com/. The ShortBuds are a no brainer. They convert stereo sound in a single speaker so you hear everything in one headphone and still have a free ear for ambient sound. I use these on the road as they are not effected by wind noise, but they'd do well off road too. The Otus speakers require a tiny bit more effort in rigging them up in your helmet, but sound great off road. They work particularly well with helmets that have a cut away that is close to the top of your ear, the Bell Super for example. I use some gaffing tape to direct and support these better, but they will work fine with just the heavy duty velcro supplied. It surprises me that more people haven't tried these out as they are inexpensive and far better alternatives than anything else.

The Path Riot looks like a seriously capable bike. They are not available in the US. I went into a local REI and the shop rat there looked at me like I had two heads when I asked about it. I think having demo fleets available out of REI stores would do very well for them.

The Nomad is due for an update which probably will not show up until next year. Personally, I think they'd sell a ton of metal Nomads at a lower price point. I am having to eat my words as I was pretty sure SC was all but done with alloy VPP bikes. However, I think this plays to Pons globalization of the brand where it's necessary to have lower price points to compete. Also notably absent on the updated website is the venerable Heckler. It too is due for an update. I'd love to see SC do a "Bullit 3" with something approaching the geometry and travel of the Nomad. We'll see.