By Jason McDowell Creative Director Published Dec 07, 2010 at 3:30 PM

Sometimes when I go for a bike ride, I like a little music to accompany me. It helps keep my pace up, provides general entertainment and it's a nice way to distract yourself from the occasional insults and ignorance yelled by passing traffic.

However, cramming a pair of buds into your ears isolates you and reduces the stereophonic hearing abilities that help to keep you safe in traffic. Additionally, the buds have to be turned up so loud to get any decent sound of of them that the wearer risks damaging their ears.

To the rescue is an external helmet-mounted speaker called the Tunebug Shake. Mount the speaker onto the back of any helmet and use its vibrational properties to send sound waves through your helmet. The effect essentially surrounds the wearer's head with music. You can plug in any audio device or toss the cables altogether and simply use the Bluetooth signal.

Pros: It does what it says. On it's own it's a nifty little speaker, but once you mount it against your helmet the sound quality drastically improves. It really does sound like the whole helmet has become a speaker. As far as safety goes, since I've been using this device I've never been surprised by oncoming or passing traffic, even when the Tunebug Shake was turned up full volume. Mounting and removal is a breeze. Using the device also encourages helmet safety. Personal health is a good reason to wear your helmet, but your favorite tunes might be an even better one. Touch sensitive volume buttons can be accessed, even with gloves on. Turn it up when traffic gets heavy or turn it down to have a conversation with friends.

Cons: The sound is pretty tinny and the vibrations they use to mimic the heavy bass notes try hard to make up the difference, but mostly it just feels odd. It's a pretty heavy device, particularly for a sport that spends hundreds of dollars to shave tens of grams off of components. The Tunebug Shake adds about 22% more weight to an average helmet. Plus you have to bring along your own music device, thus adding more weight and potentially more cables. It'd be nice to get some hard drive space onto the device even if it only offers the ability to play a randomly. The provided charging cable is USB only, so you have to be near a computer to juice it up. The Bluetooth connection is tenuous and requires your audio device to be in close proximity. When I had it in my pocket the signal kept skipping out. When I put it in a shoulder holster the signal held up quite nicely.

Final verdict: While the device could use a little refinement, the enjoyment I've gotten out of the device far outweighs the cons. It's a novel idea that, surprisingly, holds up to everyday use. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Tunebug Shake to those who enjoy music or those who had safety concerns. It's one more element that encourages fun on two wheels.

Jason McDowell Creative Director

Jason McDowell grew up in central Iowa and moved to Milwaukee in 2000 to attend the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.

In 2006 he began working with OnMilwaukee as an advertising designer, but has since taken on a variety of rolls as the Creative Director, tackling all kinds of design problems, from digital to print, advertising to branding, icons to programming.

In 2016 he picked up the 414 Digital Star of the Year award.

Most other times he can be found racing bicycles, playing board games, or petting dogs.