A friend has just given me some itunes vouchers to buy music for my upcoming biketour (3 months or so in the western States). When I’m cycling I quite like random music so if anyone has any favourite songs for riding to please let me know!

When I’ve been ‘touring’ on the racer, I find its the stuff with big wailing vocals or lots of fuzzy guitar that seems to get me moving, in the past its been Wolfmother, Black Keys and Black Angels, all basically big riffy drummy rock bands.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have powered through a lot of big hills, but they’re a little hit and miss because some of their stuff gets a bit ‘ploddy’, same with Brian Jonestown Massacre. ‘Take it from the Man’ by BJM will always remind me of a particularly spiteful gritty wet road climb in the middle of Argyll.

Have tried listening to White Denim (as a relief from all the ‘Black’ bands) but they do a lot of jazzy rhythms which frankly just get me confused! 😀

Don’t listen to music while riding anymore, used to listen to Aphex twin while commuting to uni through south London, bad bad idea 😯

toploader is quite nice for road riding for me, nice and chilled, but still got a nice beat.

“Horseshoes & Hand Grenades” by Green Day – I challenge anyone to ride slowly to it! Maybe not what you want for a tour but great while on off-road blasts 🙂

Some Crowded House and Nerina Pallot for a more mellow pace.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHQG6-DojVw[/video]

why not download mixtapes, get a bit of everything? Theres a forum out there whatever your genre where people will be downloading mixes for free, then sell your itunes voucher on ebay?

I tend to listen to tunes that I liked from biking videos/films, so its a pretty random mix. Some of my faves:

Shiny Toy Guns – Ghost Town
Santogold – L.E.S. Artistes
Spinnerette – Baptized By Fire
Band of Horses – The Funeral
MSTRKRFT – It Aint Love
The Glitch Mob – Drive It Like You Stole It

They all remind me of certain videos or segments of films, so that gets me pretty stoked. 🙂

Band Of Horses

I listened to Rage Against The Machine on a training ride which was great on the road clikmbs but was disasterous when I hit some fast singletrack. Clipped a fence post, was catapulted into a tree and mashed my little finger. Ouch.

blood sugar baby, sex magic, repeat until you finish the ride / race.

The soundtrack to Twin Peaks – because it reminds me of riding on Mendip.

Wheat’s ‘Hope and Adams’ – because it reminds me of riding in New Mexico.

Cat Power’s The Covers Record – because it reminds me of riding in Leigh Woods.

EMF’s Schubert Dip – because it reminds me of the Malverns Hills Classic ’91. 😀

EMF’s Schubert Dip

Bought that one when it first came out & I still listen to it now & again. Superb stuff.

My riding music usually consists of 7+ hours of mixtape on my ipod-a-like, but I do have this album in heavy rotation too…

Diablo Swing Orchestra – Sing-Along Songs for the Damned and Delerious

The Glitch Mob – Drive It Like You Stole It

PocketShepherd henceforce is the coolest person on this forum 🙂

LTJ Bukem…

Old school, chilled DnB at it’s finest..

Or Hernan Cattaneo for some quality chilled tunes..

Old school, chilled DnB at it’s finest..

As played by LTJ for his Mixmag Mix… epic, epic tune.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbsnt_l9hsM[/video]

And let’s not forget this…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYHE4HtWgTM[/video]

…or this!

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG4CTiaIOw8[/video]

Never really regarded D&B as ‘trail’ music, but, Lord above, it was a big part of my teenage soundtrack.

😀

The Glitch Mob – Drive It Like You Stole It

This is an awesome track! Shame the rest of the album is a bit bland.

Thanks for all the suggestions – they look good! I will download a random mix (and definately that Sing-along songs album) to add some more upbeat music to my normally quite chilled (and liable to making me ride slower and slower…) collection.

TSY – definately need that song, and Queen’s “Bicycle race”, I always end up with the chorus of these songs stuck in my head when I’m on a long ride. Also America’s “Horse with no name” which I end up singing over and over again every time I’m in a desert.

Why would you have headphones on for a ride? I really don’t understand it.

I did a trekking holiday a few years ago – all around the SW USA – Grand Canyon, Bryce, Mesa Verde etc. Stunning. There were 2 girls on the trip who had their ipods on at almost all times. We did the ‘down and back up’ trek into the Grand Canyon and every step of the way, they had their headphones in. They just treated the whole thing like a giant step machine. If you want to ride a bike with a soundtrack and something to see, why not get a turbo trainer and a projector for the tv? Not trolling – just don’t understand it.

Anything by Tosca esp. Suzuki in dub

_tom_ – Member
The Glitch Mob – Drive It Like You Stole It
This is an awesome track! Shame the rest of the album is a bit bland

Yeah, it’s weird, but the tracks work better on a shuffled mix than as a full album. The Drink the Sea Mixtape (free from theglitchmob.com) is much better as a whole listen.

Back to the OP – I always find Kasabian (1st two albums) great riding music on the iPod.

Anything by Underworld works for me.
+Daft Punk +Sabres of Paradise.

Oh and the Santogold record is pretty good too.

Anything thats been used in an MTB film, always brings images of the film back. Rise against is good 🙂

cant remember the name exactly as i dont have it with me… but “fingathing – superhero music” or anything by “ugly duckling” has great vibes whilst riding up, down or through stuff 😀

Yep, definitely Underworld. and 16Bit for something a little harder.
Also LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture and !!! (chk chk chk) are never off my Nano

TooTall – Member
Why would you have headphones on for a ride? I really don’t understand it.

I understand your point – I don’t listen to music all the time when I’m riding, but I really enjoy having music for big climbs or long roads when the scenery isn’t really changing (and I expect some 100km stretches on this trip). If I’m with people I rarely use my ipod but when I’m alone I really like having it.

Why would you have headphones on for a ride? I really don’t understand it.

I always use music when I’m road riding (ie commuting).
1. cos I find road riding boring as hell
2. cos I hate the constant noise of cars

+1 for Daft Punk

And I’ll get shot down in flames for mentioning these two in the same sentence but my favourite bands to commute to (yes, in London traffic!) are Oasis & Judas Priest.

The Priest WILL get you up any hill!

Why use headphones

Because it can be so exhilerating (sp?). Right tune, right road, right moment = massive rush and silly gears up hills. Having some very strong mental images associated with certain tunes now is a pleasant side effect, (Buchaille Etive More in the snow on the 27th December = Black Grease by the Black Angels).

Maybe some people don’t get this effect, in which case, you have my sympathy.

My current riding favorites are……….

Kid Fresh – People want sugar
Kid Fresh – Winter in Shanghai
Diplo – Chasing the Dragon

All highly recommended mixtapes and free downloads too.

Maybe some people don’t get this effect, in which case, you have my sympathy.

Music has always played a massive part in my life and will continue to do so. I just never felt I needed a manufactured soundtrack when riding a bike, surfing, snowboarding, diving, playing rugby, climbing etc. Climbing the Buchaille was special enough and didn’t need anything nature didn’t provide. IMHO.

Steppenwolf – Born to be Wild.

Obviously.

Obligatory motorbike noises when you’re riding too.

i ride flats purely so i can stick my legs out as far to the sides as possible and shout “weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” as i do down hills on fire-roads.

that’s how real men ride.

TooTall – you’ve never snowboarded with music playing? You are missing out 🙂

It all depends on what sort of mood I am in and what the weather is like really, but I just listen to a load of stuff on random.

I have found that Thrash Metal works quite well (works really well for me in the gym too), and some bluesy stuff like Joe Bonamassa is pretty good music for rides too.

There’s nothing like some really fast paced shredding guiter solos for the fast bits of singletrack though…

Teenage fanclub all the harmonies great for summer rides

Giant Squid – Metridium Fields

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Encbcl_Qejo[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH1x0w8oPKA[/video]

At the Drive-In – Relationship of Command

Pretty much any Fugazi

Dust Brothers – Fight Club Soundtrack

+2 for Daft Punk. Their live album (Alive 2007) is incredible and never fails to get me excited. Fridaymixtape.com is great also for eclectic (and free) mixes.