I don't know if its only me, but... when I'm driving, even back in the days when that was a daily activity and I was far more expert at it than now... when I have to do some thing like parallel park, pass a double trailer semi or make a broken u-turn in heavy traffic... I turn the radio down... way down. It's automatic... I need to concentrate and the radio is a distraction, so I reach over and turn it down, or off, without even thinking about it. Until now... hmmm... I am a professional musician and uber hard core music lover. Music plays constantly in my home, office, and elsewhere... but not on my bikes. I've never been remotely tempted to listen to music or talk or self-empowerment or language learning media while vehicular or recreational cycling. Can it be done? Of course. Do I have any opinion about others who do it? Nope. I have more reaction to people that salmon against traffic. Should a poster with over 2000 posts know how to get the information that they are seeking more effectively than to *cough* troll *cough, cough* the Commuting forum for a reaction? Most definitely.

H

i'm in the crowd that thinks wearing headphones while cycling is a terrible idea. you're on the road and you need to be able to hear things behind you - especially for those of you who don't use mirrors.

it's really no different than walkers/joggers on the MUP wearing headphones and completely tuned out of their surroundings - when I come up behind them and call out "on your left!" they don't hear a thing then freak out when I pass them and get annoyed - which is stupid because it's their fault. I did my part. but at least for them if something happens it's just a biker and bike. if you're on the road it might be you and a dump truck.

if you need to listen to something, mount an iPhone on your bars and turn the speaker way up.

I use Koss PortaPros and SportaPros. They have an open back design, which allows you to hear what's going on around you. I had similar "ear pads" for my snowboarding (Giro) helmet and could listen to music while carrying on a conversation on the ski lifts and more importantly I could hear what was going on around me on the slopes.

Where did I say that?

Not sure where this even comes to bear.

I'm able to listen to music just fine, along with the road noise. I hope your mirror and eyes save you from that emergency vehicle coming around the curve, with sirens on, out of your sight line.

For the past 2+ years I've been using a set of Motorola S305 bluetooth headphones. I love bluetooth because my device can stay stashed safely away, and there are no wires to get tangled. They also have controls for volume and play/pause on the headphones. It's useful, but not entirely necessary with music, because if my I focus my attention away from the music, it doesn't matter that I missed something, but when listening to podcasts and audio books, it's very helpful. They are also over-the-ear headphones, rather than in-ear, which I like for allowing external sounds. How much or how little you want to hear surrounding noise is a personal decision. I prefer to not plug my ears with ear buds, but I also admit that traffic sounds do little to inform my riding. I ride in traffic, and so I have to ride as if there is a vehicle approaching at all times. There usually is, and you lose little by riding appropriately for traffic even if there is none.

After seeing the Plantronics M50 bluetooth earpiece tested on Fifth Gear as the winner over other bluetooth headsets, plus its low $30 price, and ability to stream audio to it from your phone, I'm thinking of picking one up to use while on the bike, mainly for listening to some of my cycling talk show podcasts.

And there you go again with that BS attitude. The rest of your post was fine until you put that last bit in there. Really, why do you feel that necessary?

Have you considered that doing something that requires concentratio - ie learning a language - while cycling is possibly not the smartest thing you could do? Having a cellphone conversation hands-free reduces driver ability as much as an illegal amount of alcohol, and what you are planning sounds worse.

Very few people notice when they are doing something that reduces attention or slows reflexes; if they did, they might have the sense to stop. You have to look for independent evidence:

Reasonably, listening to language courses on headphones should worse than a mobile conversation because of the sonic isolation and higher concentration.

If you're moving to Darlington, be prepared for some amusing sights round town of a Saturday evening.
Basically, the colder it gets the less the ladies wear.

Any headphone without noise-cancelling, you would have to dial it way up to beat the traffic noise. That probably not very good for your ear nor for learning languages.
So if you think it's okay, get a bose. otherwise nah.

I just use cheap Sony/Phillips/Skull Candy/whatever's available at Target. One bud in the off-traffic side. Listen to podcasts and Giants games mostly.

Who on this planet, with normal hearing cannot hear an emergency vehicle siren (or train whistle, car horn) no matter what kind of headphones being worn? Your scenario is just baseless fear mongering.

I'd love to hear your comments about "Darlo." To be honest, I'm quite terrified of northern England ... I assume it will be like moving back to Texas (after living in Stockholm and Frankfurt.)

:(

Your previous posts on BF made it appear that you had a choice of job opportunities in desirable locations around the world. Why did you select an area that terrifies you? Just curious

I dunno... I catch myself while riding, and tend to be able to hear faint sirens (Without earbuds) long before I can hear them with earbuds on. Usually, with just enough time to see them come around the bend at an intersection.

Do whatever floats your boat. I, prefer to be able to fully utilize ALL of my senses while operating a vehicle, and not be handicapped in any way.

Best European option on the academic track. The only undesirable things about the position is the location :( Other offers had a better location but significantly less to offer in research start-up funding and overall career upward mobility.

I'm noticing that the higher one goes up the ladder, the fewer the number of positions and the more intense the competition for those spots.

I consider myself quite lucky to have had 7 interviews with 172 applications and to up with this position. Most open positions had between 100 (low-end US state unis) to 800 (high-end US ivy unis) applicants for a single position.

I wouldn't recommend this career path for most people.

Maybe you better get your hearing checked, if you can't clearly hear emergency vehicle sirens LONG before the vehicle "comes around a bend in the road."

I agree on fully using my senses when I ride; I use my hearing for enhancing the experience with audio books, others prefer pod casts, others music; then there are those who prefer listening to road noise.

Thanks for the reply. Shame you couldn't stay on track and remain in Frankfurt or elsewhere in a desirable European location.

I would seriously dispute this - what proof is there that wearing earphones, listing to audio, does not distract you or take away from your ability to react in time? It is not fear mongering. Not only do you take away one very important sense (hearing), but your attention is diverted to audio. Distracted cycling can be just as deadly as distracted driving.

There was a huge debate in this forum last year about earphones, headphones, blah, blah, blah... I'm in the camp that unless you're really, really in the middle of nowhere, you're better off paying attention to the road, especially if you're on a bike, which does not happen to have an integrated safety cage, impact crumple zones, and strategically placed air bags to help rescue you when you make a mistake.

Granted you dispute this. "Seriously"? Hardly.

In Germany, the average for a tenured position is 42. In England, it's mid-30s, leaving me time to get experience in a tenured position and the ability to fight back into Germany as a tenured prof (hence, continuing with the German lessons during the cycle commute in England). In the US, the average age of earning tenure is currently 41. Therefore, England has the most to offer (I'm 36 and 5 years out of PhD ... average age of PhD is 31 in life sciences.)

Essentially, I'm getting offers for 6-year junior professors in Germany (not tenure-track), assistant prof offers in the US (tenure-track) and perm offers (tenured) in the UK.

Goal is start family in Europe ASAP.

Places like Frankfurt, Zürich, Munich, Stockholm are super-tough to get into and usually require lateral movement from an already tenured position.

The whole system is nuts and I see huge amounts of talent being wasted every day due the small number of permanent posts and people's lack of willingness to move.

Oh, I can... When I don't have ear buds in both ears :)

You are not fully paying attention to your vehicular operation then. There's a reason most states prohibit it while operating vehicles on roadways.

i ride with headphones in both ears and have no problem hearing sirens or approaching vehicles.

my favorite headphones are dirt cheap (cycling is rough on headphones) :

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Please check the fatal car pedestrian/bicycle reports in Washington DC. There have been several people killed by walking out into traffic or emerge3ncy vehicle's way in the past year.

BTW, I am not 100% against wearing them all the time. I am against wearing them at the wrong time.

I wear a blue tooth head phone in one ear and I do listen to audio, internet radio, and for incoming texts and calls. Bluetooth delivers decent quality audio and I can still hear traffic coming up around me and at least one ear drum stays warmer on cold days. And no more wires like in the old days. And the additional risk, if any, is minimal. I'm not racing at 22mph, but casually commuting at 15 - 17mph on lesser traveled thoroughfares. I would say to the folks who must contend in city traffic, that yes, wearing headphones might be a distraction, but really, it always has been and continues to be an individual ability.

Some folks can process dynamic images and sound and continue to keep that flow in their minds and they might even process in 3D or better (they understand momentum and position). Some can take only static snapshots with no sense of vectors of any objects. Some can only process what they see at the moment and they're too deaf from listening to loud music all their lives. Similarly, some folks can only process all I/O voice and visual through a limited cortex and serially, so they're slow. Others have co-processing in their brains that take in 100x more information and glean it for what's relevant and a very short time.

So if you're able to do it, and not get distracted, more power to you. But know yourself and test yourself. If you're marginal on the reflex and peripheral sensory detection side of the population, then perhaps no headphones are recommended. But if you're the anger-management kind of person internally grumbling because the first 6 cars are taking 8 seconds to accelerate off the line at a red just turned green, two cars on the right have invalid license/registration, the car behind on the passenger sign is still signalling and left the blinkers on, and the car behind is tailgating and producing way too much smog so you don't want him to get ahead, plus he picks his nose really deep so you don't ever want to shake his hand, and you actually are processing this in a 100 millisecond glimpse, then yeah, probably you could use headphones which would make you more relaxed, unless they zone you out and make you sleepy.

But know yourself first.

best thing on bf in a very long time. german and cycling works for me (as well as when i sleep.)