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The second worse thing about being a scooter rider rather than a car driver has to be being compared to celebrity chef and famed scooterist Jamie Oliver. Nothing wrong with Jamie, but why always him? Damon Albarn, Jonathan Ross and the Gallagher brothers are amongst other celebs that also ride scooters. So why don’t we ever get compared to them?

Anyway, the number one reason I’d rather own a car over my scooter would be the lack of a stereo. That’s right, music on the move to alleviate the monotonous boredom of regular journeys. Stereos on scooters have been tried before, such as built-in speakers on the Benelli Adviva and BMW C1 and via an earpiece socket on the Piaggio X9. Most scooter riders though don’t have this luxury and instead have to put up with their own thoughts as company on long journeys.

I decided I need music while I whizz around the streets of London so I purchased the Ministry of Sound’s MOSDR011 personal DAB radio to provide my two wheeled tunes.

See also: DAB Radios

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DAB –or Digital Audio Broadcasting- is the new digital alternative to the often hissy and interference plagued FM and AM bands. DAB allows for many new stations, supposedly with better sound quality that should also be interference free.

The MOSDR011 is more compact than most of the other personal DAB sets available and has only a few buttons: Power, Display, Preset, Equaliser, Menu and a four-way joystick which changes volume and station. There’s also a keypad lock, headphone socket and somewhere to plug in an optional mains adapter. All very simple, but how would I get on?

Initially painful, that’s how. No I hadn’t mistakenly tuned into heavy metal station Kerrang at full volume. In fact I hadn’t even turned the radio on yet. Instead, I had simply popped into my ears, possibly the most uncomfortable pieces of plastic that have ever posed as in-ear earphones. Walking around using these, you forget about great DAB is supposed to be and instead dream about Sony’s tiny but ultra-comfy MD71 alternatives.

Since I bought this radio primarily for use on my scoot, I also purchased a clip over the ear mono ear piece for a bargain £5 at Maplin. Why mono? Well the law does allow you to listen to radio or music on two wheels – but only via one ear. Unlike those supplied ear phones, the ear piece doesn’t bring searing pain to my earlobes but fits quite neatly under my helmet.

Amongst my testing I included my weekly round trip from Notting Hill to Kingston – a good 90 minutes round trip. I found that coverage is rather patchy around Notting Hill and Richmond town centre, where the sound suddenly resembles a psychotic Dalek or completely loses the plot altogether. It’s ironic because those places are well known for their middle class population, exactly the type of people two of the popular DAB stations –BBC7 and OneWord- are aimed at.

I also used it the radio on my daily commute to work into London’s west end and even once grudgingly wore those in-ear phones whilst walking around central London. In most areas the reception is fine, but occasionally I found a blip where the sound broke up or just completely died altogether.

Listening to the new digital stations it suddenly hits you. Many of these stations are lacking in something. That something is DJs waffling on about nothing. On some DAB stations, it’s effectively just back to back music with few interruptions. It’s kind of like a poor man’s iPod.

As for the sound quality, well most of the BBC and main commercial stations broadcast using a higher bit rate and stereo providing excellent sound quality. Some of the lesser known stations – usually with less cash flow- have noticeable worse sound and broadcast in a hardly high-tech, mono.

Overall the MOSD011 is a worthwhile piece of kit. It looks good, is easy to use and its compact size fits nicely in the hand. The two AA batteries though only last around eight hours, unlike some newer models what can do more than double that. Even though this is one of the first personal DAB radios on the market, I cannot find any glitches with it except occasional receptions problems that would affect any DAB radio – oh and those bloody annoying earphones.

At least the radio should drown out those dreaded Jamie comparisons.