The Lavod MP3 Bike Speaker and flash light is a fantastic new gadget for cyclists everywhere – whether you cycle for half an hour every so often, or go out for long weekend rides.  Cycling is a great way of getting around and if you live in a busy city it is probably the quickest way too!  One of the things I miss on my cycle commute, compared to driving, is having a little bit of music.  I wouldn’t want to use earphones, as I like to hear what is going on around me, but I would like to listen to some music to help pass the time and when I start to slow down put Eye of the Tiger on to speed me up!

Product	Availability	Best Price	Retailer
Lavod Bike MP3 Speaker	In Stock	£99.95
Lavod Bike MP3 Speaker	In Stock	£102.49

Now, I’ve wanted a bike speaker for some time now but I’ve never seen anything that was really suitable.  The Lavod is the first good attempt at a bike speaker that I’ve seen, with it’s sleek and compact design as well as its decent technical specification it is sure to be a must have gadget!

Sound Quality

Let’s start from the top with one of the most important factors – how does it sound?  Well, with its built in, high quality loudspeaker with 1.5 watts of power it should be pretty decent.  It can play either MP3 or WMA format files and store 2GBs worth of music, so you can upload all your favourite albums!

As well as listening to your music through the loud speaker, you can also use the earphone jack to plug in headphones or ear buds.  This is great if you want to use the Lavod as a normal MP3 player when you’re not riding.  It also means you can use it for any outdoor adventure…so if you want to listen to some music when you go hiking, you can take your Lavod bike speaker, plug your earphones in and enjoy your music privately as you go along…and if it starts to get dark you can also benefit from the flash light!

What’s the Battery Life Like?

The Lavod MP3 Bike speaker has a powerful 2000mAh Li-ion battery which is built into the player and can be easily charged via your computer’s USB port.  This should let you use it for about 8 to 10 hours before you need to charge it again.  This should be good enough for a long day ride or a week of commuting, so in my mind, the battery life is very good!

How much music can I store?

The Lavod has 2GB worth of inbuilt memory which means you can put Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album on it nearly 40 times.  With that in mind you should be able to get around 500 tracks on the player.  For the size of the player this is a large amount of storage and it should give you enough space to put all your favourite albums on.

Wont it get nicked?

I’m sure those with sticky hands would love to get their hands on one, but the Lavod has a quick release, so you can pop it on and off when you leave your bike.  The quick release is a very nice and simple feature.

What if it rains?

Don’t worry!  It is made of oxide coated, water resistant aluminium so it’s fully waterproof.  It’ll carry on playing even in the wet to help you get home.  If it does rain you’ll also have the Lavod’s inbuilt flash light to help you along your way.

Anything else?

Handle bar space can be a bit of an issue, but the Lavod bike MP3 player and speaker is nice and compact at only 14CM long and just over 3cm in diameter.

You can adjust the speaker vertically and it has 360 degree click rotation to get it in the best position to use the flash light and to be able to hear it.

One thing to note is, it will only fit on thinner handle bars (those, around 3cm thick).  This may mean it cannot fit on some road bikes.

What does it cost?

The Lavod MP3 speaker is a bargin at just £100.  I’ve had a look all over the net and the only retailer I can find is FireBox.com.  I think that this is a fantastic gadget and is amazing value!

Product	Availability	Best Price	Retailer
Lavod Bike MP3 Speaker	In Stock	£99.95