Scosche boomBOTTLE

July 19, 2013

Helmet mounted speakers were the Fine Tuned topic of discussion in the latest issue of Adventure Cyclist magazine. Since that article, I've had a chance to play around with another bicycle speaker system, the boomBOTTLE from Scosche.

Scosche audio is well versed in audio equipment, producing a number of wireless speakers, headphones, and car audio equipment. The boomBOTTLE is aimed at the active lifestyle, and cyclists in particular. This wireless speaker system can sync up to any bluetooth devices, such as an iPod, tablet computer, or smartphone. If you don't have a bluetooth device, there is also an aux input. 

Sitting on a shelf in my house, the boomBOTTLE puts out plenty of volume to fill up the living room. When it's time to hit the road, it fits snuggly in my water bottle cage. Since I'm not a big fan of blasting loud speakers on my bike for everyone to hear, I didn't use this a lot on the road or trail, but if you have a good time or place to do just that, you have the cabability to go for it. This comes in handy for me at the end of the day. When riding into camp, its nice to be able to pull up a playlist on my iPhone and have some music in the background as I set up camp and put my feet up. 

The rechargeable internal lithium polymer battery can give you about 10 hours of continous playback on a full charge. Retail is $150, which is expensive compared to headphones, but pretty good if you plan on using this as your speaker system on the road as well as at home.

Photo by Josh Tack

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TOURING GEAR & TIPS is written by Joshua Tack of Adventure Cycling's member services department. It appears weekly, highlighting technical aspects of bicycle touring and advice to help better prepare you for the journey ahead. Look for Josh's "Fine Tuned" column in Adventure Cyclist magazine as well.