Bike season is almost upon me - as soon as temps get above 45 degrees or so my blood starts pumping.

I like to listen to radio while I bike - unfortunatly, to a hard to pick up station locally. I suffered through a staticy mess last season with my built-in FM tuner in my former mp3 player.

Anybody tried, or otherwise been impressed by a specific portable FM tuner?

For my sanity, please help.....

Thanks.
dew.

This is the best small portable I've ever had. I've bought several for gifts and such too. It is not a toy and pretty rugged too. I take it everywhere I go...in my XM tote bag etc.

http://www.ccrane.com/radios/pocket-radios/sangean-dt200v-pocket-radio.aspx


(The Sony digital tuner walkman is good too.)

Bike season is almost upon me - as soon as temps get above 45 degrees or so my blood starts pumping.

I like to listen to radio while I bike - unfortunatly, to a hard to pick up station locally. I suffered through a staticy mess last season with my built-in FM tuner in my former mp3 player.

Anybody tried, or otherwise been impressed by a specific portable FM tuner?

For my sanity, please help.....

Thanks.
dew.
What about an iPod?

You can download podcasts of programming you like before you go riding and eliminate all the reception and static problems? :cool:

I dislike Ipods. I get to service them. Besides I really do want just radio.

Best Buy carries the Sony - perhaps I will try it out.

Thanks for the comments.
dew.

I dislike Ipods. I get to service them. Besides I really do want just radio.

Best Buy carries the Sony - perhaps I will try it out.

Thanks for the comments.
dew.
Thank you.

Interesting you should mention servicing iPods. There is an Apple store near us and we were in it a few weeks ago hanging around the service area while they were looking up the answer to a technical question we had.

Two of the service techs were standing behind the counter complaining about the large number of hard drives they had to replace, under warranty, on iPods from joggers. We got the impression from their comments that the little HDs in the expensive iPods didn't like being jostled by people who were running.

We asked them if they thought the new iPod with the flash memory would be more reliable and their reply was that they thought this unit would not suffer any "vibration" damage from being used by joggers and they were asking the sales people in the store to "push" this new model to customers who indicated they were going to use it while jogging or exercising.

We are not iPod users, so can I ask a dumb question? Does Apple make a flash memory iPod with an FM tuner in it? Seems like there might be a market for such a product, particularly since they just introduced some home audio equipment for iPods today.

As for Sony, FWIW, they used to make a pretty good AM/FM headset radio with presets. We bought several a few years ago because they did not use the foam pads that always wear out. They are yellow, water resistant, and have held up quite well and even have a small external antenna that sticks up. But I don't think it's made any longer. :cool:

None of the Ipods come with FM natively, its an add on accessory. Apple was very slow to innovate with respect to FM for some reason. First you pay an over-inflated, bloated price for the basic ipod, then the accessories bleed you dry. I work for Best Buy, we make nothing on ipods - then get to provide free support for them. I will say the people who buy ipods are not the most technically saavy ;)

There are lots of other great MP3 players out there that have better features, sound quality - but are ignored because they aren't fashionable enough. I liked my Iriver H10 6gb - extremely small, with FM and sounds great. FM is its weakness, but I was trying to tune a station 60+ miles away. Its ergonomics are lacking, but -- I buy music players for their features and sound quality.

The ipod shuffle and nano are flash based, all others have a laptop harddrive or similar inside. Hard drives don't like bumps ;)

dew.

click on the links for the Sony SRF-S84 FM Stereo/AM modified radio ($60):

http://www.fixup.net/products/index.htm
http://www.fixup.net/products/radio/srfs83mk2.htm
http://www.fixup.net/tips/srfs83/srfs83.htm

of course, for ~half the price, you can yust get a stock one...

doug s.

Regarding the Sony SRF-S84: I paid $60 Can. for mine stock, I think that they are almost impossible to find stateside. The Sandisk Sansa E130 mp3 player has an excellent radio section, very close to the Sony in performance - however the mp3 section sounds thin and lifeless. Everything I have tried for biking has been less than ideal while moving as far as radio goes with the exception of the Sony bike radio ICF M88B, the reception is perfect. The downside is that it's big, stupid looking, is not stereo, has no headphone jack, but it does have a cycle computer, clock etc. Dollar for dollar the best deal is probably Sony SRF-59, sometimes found for $15. If I had it to do over again, I would just duct tape a POS transistor radio to my handlbars instead of spending all that cash on research.
Hope this helps - at least I feel better :D

To follow up - I imported a SRF-s84 from a seller in England for a mere $30 TOTAL. It is indeed a fantastic little piece - an amazing little wonder. Good sound and really pulls in stations. I guess I would not be embarrassed to hook this up to a real amp and use it as a tuner.

dew.

Dredging up an old thread - just picked up a spare SRF-s84 for $49.99 at a Canadian Sony store, almost a reasonable price now.

I have a feeling that they are end of line and we won't see them again. I love these things, not so much for biking but for walking they can't be beat.

- Dave

Has anyone here used a SRF-M95? It looks pretty cool, compact like these other radios mentioned but it has a digital tuner. I have yet to see any mention in descriptions of this radio of its sensitivity.

http://www.simplyradios.com/acatalog/rev951.htm