If you said, "Elmer Fudd, when he was hunting for wabbits," you get 50 bonus points. If you were thinking my new helmet, yes, it is. No bonus points. A new addition makes even more quiet.
"A new addition? Did you and Joan have another little bundle of joy?" That ship has sailed, hit the rocks, and is resting on the bottom of the deep blue sea, but thanks for asking. I use my Apple Airpods a lot. Steph gifted me another set when she heard I wore my first ones out. At the time, I was thinking about getting a set of the Airpod Pros, which are smaller and have noise cancellation. A discussion on one of my scooter forums centered around "What kind of ear plugs do you use?"... I have several different types, from squishy foam to little silicone plugs that look like a Christmas tree that you shove in your ear. They all work. Mostly. One of the participants on that thread said he was using Airpod Pros... "Ohhh, that sounds intriguing," my little mind said. Looking them up, I saw that they are currently at the lowest price since they came out. With Apple products, a lower price generally means they are about to come out with something new.
Joan ordered me a set. They came in yesterday, but the mail room here isn't open on Sundays. This morning, a few minutes after they opened at 8:00, I went to get that and some other stuff Joan ordered. I put them on the charger and headed out for my morning bicycle ride.
These are slightly smaller than the previous Airpods, and they fit a bit more into your ear. While I am thinking they will be good for recording and editing, I will be giving them a test ride on the scoot.
Joan said, "No thanks - it's too hot," when I asked if she wanted to go for a ride - today is grocery shopping day. That works: she can make a run to the store, and I'll go out into the heat; high is predicted to be in the upper 90s this afternoon.
After she left, I took care of some coach chores, then geared up for a ride in the hot. I put the Airpod Pros in my pocket, wanted to get a good with/without trial. Almost no traffic as I took the Vespa through the twisty roads. I stopped at my usual mid-loop, where I know I can get some shade. A Jeep was in that shade, so I pulled close to get some "fringe shade." I asked the guy in the Jeep if he was OK sharing some shade and he said they were just pulling out.
I took my helmet off, drank plenty of the ice water I brought, put the Airpods in my ears and did a test fit with the helmet... no problem. I opened my phone and it already knew I had a new set of Airpods... the outside sounds nearly disappeared as the noise cancelling turned on. I may be onto something here.
As I was ready to pull out onto Iron Mountain Road, 4 couples on large bikes passed by. Three Harleys and a Goldwing. I had no idea they would be going so slow. I know what you're thinking - no, they aren't from Minnesota... Wisconsin. "How slow were they?" you ask. A couple years ago, we got caught behind the truck that was spraying a fresh center line on Iron Mountain Road... these riders were slower than that! All those wonderful curves, and I couldn't even lean into them because they were going so slow. Double yellow center line, so no passing. I was very happy to hear the the Airpods were doing a wonderful job of muting the noise, as the last bike of the 4 had the loudest pipes. Probably why the other 3 made this couple ride in the back. These Airpods softened that exhaust rumble to a gentle purr.
The only time I got up any reasonable speed was on the splits: I stopped on the road to let them get well ahead of me, only starting to roll when a vehicle came up behind me. Yes, I caught up to them before they got to the end of each of the splits. Seriously, there was no more than 10º of lean from those bikes on all these fun curves. They weren't just slow... they were painfully slow. I took several deep breaths and enjoyed the nearly quiet.
Yes, I had time to take a rolling selfie with my phone (I didn't bring a camera today). The women on the back of the bikes were waving to each other as they slowly moved through the pigtail bridges. So slow. I was behind them the whole length of Iron Mountain Road, from where I got back on after my stop. They pulled off as we came to the T in the road, where you turn for Rushmore or Keystone. Looking in my mirror, I saw the first two riders get off their bikes and High-5 each other... for what??? World's Slowest Transit of Iron Mountain Road???
I needed gas before going back to Hart Ranch - instead of taking the highway, I took the long curvy way around to get to where the road would meet up with Highway 16 two miles before the gas station that is my usual stop on the way home. I don't want to say that all that slow driving is responsible, but I got a record-breaking 98.3 miles per gallon on this fuel up. The bright side of slow riding, I guess. ;-) I'm kidding - there is no bright side to riding that slow.
I'm declaring the quiet of the Schuberth helmet as very good. Add in the Airpod Pro, and it is as quiet as riding in the car with the air conditioning on. With all the quiet, I was able to keep the face shield of the helmet partially open, which really helps with today's heat... 97º was as warm as I saw.
And, just because it's Rufus, here's a shot from yesterday that I didn't get posted...
The big furry boy sitting on Joan's lap, one of his happy places. It would be one of mine, too, but Joan won't let me sit there. ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment