Originally Posted by drac_vamp
let me ask you this, when you are rocking out to some song in your car, right, and you got the volume up nice and loud for some riffage and guitar solo parts, and you are totally feeling it and cruising along looking for parking, and you find a spot but you have to parallel park the car, what is the first thing you do? turn down the music... right? yeah. point.
Nope, I don't beleive I have ever turned down the music to parallel park, but then as someone aptly pointed out above everyone is different. I need to pull the buds if I go into a store, because even with the music off I can't handle interpersonal interactions with buds in my ears. I don't often wear them on the bike either, but when I turn the volume down much lower than usual. I do want to hear my surroundings, but sometimes a rythm really enhances a ride, gets the heart beating, helps me find a cadence distracts me from the screaming in my legs as I climb a hill.
I don't really mean to argue that listening to music does not or cannot impair ones riding ability, but I stlll don't beleive it impairs a rider any more than a driver. That level of impairment perhaps differs from person to person.