Author Topic: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???  (Read 20190 times)

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Offline BikePacker

Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« on: November 11, 2021, 07:50:46 am »
Was out on a spin yesterday and began asking myself what are the 'sounds' i hear
(i.e., not from earbuds : )
while cycling
that i don't hear when not & that i really like.
For example, a favorite for me, absolutely,
is sand & gravel crunching under fat tires.
What are your fav.s?

Offline staehpj1

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2021, 08:08:06 am »
My fav has nothing to do with touring.  It is the cacophony of mechanical noise in the middle of a large peleton accelerating out of a corner in a critereum.

I don't use them anymore, but I still remember fondly the sound of my Look road cleats cliking in.  Spds just aren't the same.

More pastoral ones are birdsong and rustling dry corn in the wind.

Offline canalligators

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2021, 08:38:49 am »
The subtle “tick, tick, tick” of a Sturmey-Archer AW hub, as you cruise along in 2nd or 3rd gear.

Offline BikePacker

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #3 on: November 11, 2021, 09:01:34 am »
Oh yeah .... with fall having arrived ....
here is another of my fav.s ...
fallen leaves from time to time crunching under the tires.
Also, hearing the squirrels scampering about those fallen leaves,
as they are accumulating their food stores for the coming winter.

Offline rwinot25

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #4 on: November 11, 2021, 09:01:48 pm »
Running water. Stops me all the time.

Offline mpeebles

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2021, 06:10:28 am »
Great question.  When I did my trip this year I was happiest when I could just hear the sounds my bike made as I went.  Maybe that's when there was no wind? 

Offline jamawani

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2021, 10:24:39 am »
An absolutely empty road -
So quiet that you can hear the birdsong -
And the water in the brook.

Offline HikeBikeCook

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Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #7 on: November 14, 2021, 07:31:02 am »
Sounds of nature and when you hear no evidence of humankind's noise pollution.
Surly Disc Trucker, Lightspeed Classic, Scott Scale, Klein Mantra Comp. First touring bike Peugeot U08 - 1966

Offline Alessa3322

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2023, 06:25:34 am »
Oh yeah .... with fall having arrived ....
here is another of my fav.s ...
fallen leaves from time to time crunching under the tires.
Also, hearing the squirrels scampering about those fallen leaves,
as they are accumulating their food stores for the coming winter.
Oh, I also like the sound of the fallen leaves crunching under the tires! Moreover, everything is beautiful around. I'm looking forward to this time of the year :)

Offline rayed

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2023, 03:53:09 pm »
I don't hear much these days and waiting for my first pair of hearing aids finally.
Hopefully the doctors from Audiology Island will be able to find the best fit for me personally.
It is a little frustrating to get hearing aids in such a young age, but there is really nothing else i can do.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2023, 04:28:50 am by rayed »

Offline misterflask

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #10 on: October 27, 2023, 08:36:17 am »
'cacophony of mechanical noise in the middle of a large peleton accelerating out of a corner in a critereum'

I was on a paramedic standby at a local crit.  A rider crashed right at that point in the first turn.  Before we could get him moved the peloton passed us on the next lap just inches away.  It was like being buzzed by a semi.  It was one of the more terrifying moments in that career.

The rider had a laceration that tore a good way through the calf muscle.  I saw him the next year as a spectator.  He was back on a bike, but not racing (yet). 

Offline misterflask

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #11 on: November 08, 2023, 07:57:26 am »
There were the Chain Birds.  Grinding up long steep climbs with no wind noise in my ears, I'd hear a quiet  'cheep    cheep    cheep'.  Was that the birds, or a lubrication issue?  I'll stop.  The cheeping stopped.  But could they be very cautious birds spooked by a stationary rider?  I don't hear them when quietly coasting along in the flats, but hey, different habitat.  I've changed lubrication regimes and don't hear them anymore, but I've not toured in the same mountain range.  I don't -think- the chain birds exist, but I'm still not absolutely sure.

Offline Mark Manley

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #12 on: November 08, 2023, 11:23:03 pm »
On the rare occasion I am riding after dark I sometimes hear owls calling which is a great sound.

Offline ray b

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #13 on: November 09, 2023, 11:20:15 pm »
The hollow, low pitched hum of high-pressure tubular tires at speed on smooth pavement with a following wind....
“A good man always knows his limitations.”

Offline lincolns2

Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???
« Reply #14 on: January 16, 2024, 06:57:21 pm »
Seasonal only-

There's a unique crunching sound that snow makes under a fatbike tire. It's like a rapid succession of low-pitched squeaks of individual snowflakes being compressed together.  There's a similar sound that footsteps can intermittently make in snow, but on a bike it's like a single footstep that becomes infinitely long. Pure bliss on a silent day when that's the only sound you can hear.