bmthom.gis

I like to listen to stuff on my commute. The ride itself is not very exciting and having earbuds in stops big trucks and air brakes from being too loud. I've got some wireless, bluetooth headphones I use.

fietsbob

Maybe you can add music to the GoPro video you produced as You rode , once you get Home Again.

Seattle Forrest

I don't think I could market those as "protective." But they look cheap to produce. So: yes!

bmthom.gis

huh? I don't have a GoPro, or any desire to produce movies and upload them to youtube. Or were you talking to someone else?

Anyway, there are way more dangerous things to do besides ride a bicycle with earbuds in. I don't need to defend my decision to listen to music while riding...it has had no negative impact on my riding. It's like some of you can't walk and chew gum at the same time or something. I don't know how I ever survived the rides I have done listening to music while not wearing a helmet or any bike specific clothes!!

diphthong

i'm with ya 100%.

maybe something along the lines of "only for those listening to music while riding..." but as i said, that would only delay the collapse of the dam for a few posts.
you know how the forum just loves to pounce on any leaf dancing in the wind.

bluescatjm

I have a single ear bluetooth ear bud I use with my phone for music.. I put it in my right ear so I can still hear traffic and nature around me. The battery life is something like 8ish hours so it seems ok for long rides. Doesn't seem to have much of an effect on my phone's battery life. You can get them on ebay for under $10. Hope this helps!

Camilo

Surprise, surprise, people respond to a perfectly valid question about music with their misguided and un-asked-for advice that listening to music is morally reprehensible and dangerous.

Bah.

I use wired ear buds - both ears - fairly cheapish (<$20) ones, a step or two up from the free ones you get on the airplane. I'm not an audiophile and audiophile quality is especially wasted on a bike. but am planning to buy some blue tooth earbuds because the headphone jack in my phone is getting hinky. I use the Rocket music app, although the google app would work fine. Either will sort my entire library by genre, and I usually pick a genre and shuffle. I've got some play lists, but a shuffle is more interesting as it brings out tunes I haven't pre-selected and probably haven't listened to in a while.

Ear buds don't decrease my safety on my bike one iota. At low speeds, I can hear traffic and at high speeds, it's wind noise and not the music that drowns out traffic sounds. Actually, for me, well fitting ear buds seem to mitigate annoying wind noise, and actually make it easier to distinguish traffic sounds at higher speeds than bare ears.

Do I use ear buds in a group or on busy urban streets? No because I personally think it's rude to use them when riding with someone else and I've got enough interesting distractions on city streets that I don't really want to listen to music. Out in the country where I spend >90% of my road bike rides? Yea, I really enjoy listening to music.

RandomEncounter

Since this topic has already veered off, I'd like to toss in my two cents. Keep in mind that people around you are probably not on their bikes because they want to hear music, especially if you're not riding around on city streets are are on MUPs, trails, or back roads frequented by recreational cyclists. No matter how awesome your tunes are, you're likely to be annoying those around you. In a car, windows are rolled up and you can keep your music to yourself. On your bike, not possible.

kbarch

It's called rhetoric. Give us a break, man!

IRT the original question: I love music, but I have zero desire to hear it played while riding. But music will just come to me on rides sometimes - I'll lightly whistle or hum , or just let a tune go through my head. The only time I ever feel compelled to play music is when it's super quiet and I'm alone at the office or at home, and it's never that quiet on the road. I play music in the car, but that's to stay awake.

Stucky

I prefer to be quiet and enjoy the sounds around me, with occasional short jingles from the butt trumpet.

905

This is a longish post. Here's the short version:


. . .

In answer to the OP's survey question, I use wired earbuds with hooks, as my ears eject anything else. I await lightweight, reliable, unobtrusive wireless bliss.

. . .

There seem to be two main arguments against.

1. The joy of cycling should be enough.
Why would you want to listen to music anyway? (Or talk radio, or audio books, etc.) What about all the lovely birdsong you'll be missing? Or dispatch telling the messenger where to pick up his next package, or the thousand other scraps of sound that are a feast for the curious ear if you ride in an urban environment? Or even just the sweet humble ticking over of your trusty bike?

This, of course, isn't so much an argument against earbuds as it is a statement of taste, and can be immediately discarded except in discussions about what constitutes music to your particular ears. I'm sure there are many wonderful threads to be had about ambient noise.



2. It's distracting, dangerous, just plain crazy.
I need all my senses to survive out there! You do too! Don't do it man, a sex addled meth head will mow you down to the soundtrack of maniacal laughter! At the very least, you won't hear me say On your left, which is rude and selfish!

First, there's no reason a cyclist should be any more distracted than a motorist (I know, he's got thousands of pounds of metal protecting him, but that doesn't mean cars go swerving to the beat of whatever their drivers are listening to); or a surgeon performing an operation (I'm not a surgeon, but all the TV doctors do it, don't burst my bubble and tell me they're making it up!); or the million other things human beings are capable of doing while listening to music. It's not as if you suddenly lose your balance. Nor would someone who's so easily distracted survive long. People love to hand out Darwin Awards in advance. Not many here, folks.

The more serious argument is that you won't hear something you need to stay safe. Whenever this topic comes up, plenty of people will point out that the mere fact of hearing cars as they approach does not usually put you in a better position to avoid being hit by one. As I've heard it put very pithily: it's not echolocation. This isn't to say that you might not find various audio cues useful; just that they aren't, strictly speaking, necessary, as others will also point out, deaf people ride.

When riding with music we make ourselves selectively deaf. We, the earbudded, tend to compensate by being that much more vigilant with our peepers. An argument could even be made that you, the unearbudded, are the ones taking your life in your hands, by tending to rely overmuch on your hearing. I'm not going to make that argument. I'm saying there's more than one way to think about this.

Using one earbud instead of two is often submitted as a partial defense, but it must tax the brain somewhat by giving each ear a separate mission. Plus it's a scientifically verifiable fact that mono is no fun.

"On your left" is rarely info I need to know, and not only because I live in the UK. You're on my left? Good for you. Carry on.

My own experience is this: I took up earbuds 20 years ago around the time of my first long tour of Britain. While there's plenty of birdsong to be heard along the way, unless you're an ornithologist, that can get rather samey after the first few hundred miles. Nor do I find it to be particularly motivating, except perhaps as an aid to a nap. So I plugged in, often to Tanita Tikaram as it happens.

her middle name is Tinnitus

Most of my cycling, when I wasn't rolling through the countryside, was in my newly adopted home of London. This is, shall we say, a challenging environment for cyclists (and pedestrians).


on their way to their yellow submarine parked in the Thames

Some find it overwhelming, even slightly terrifying, and never really get comfortable cycling here. I took to it like a fish to water. Listening to mytunes while threading a needle through these chaotic streets is icing on the cake [metaphor overload]. It's true that not being deaf and therefore used to a noisy life, I'd probably be uncomfortable if I couldn't hear anything outside my earbuds, but I find that I hear enough to keep me grounded in the unfolding reality around me even as I enjoy whatever flight of fancy that's playing in my head while blocking out what amounts to urban white noise. (And it's easy to take them off if need be. This doesn't have to be all or nothing.) I keep an eye on everything, trust my fellow road users to act in a reasonably predictable fashion (even unpredictability is predictable; once you know that random pedestrians will always be lurching onto Oxford Street, you're always prepared), and enjoy the hell out of my ride. I know that just because it's worked for the past two decades doesn't mean I won't be hit by a bus tomorrow, perhaps driven by Boris Johnson as he goes on a wild bender after relinquishing the London mayoralty, but so far, it's working just fine.

chil2makefun

If you want music but nothing in your ear you could try the Aftershokz bone conduction headphones.

bakes1

Was not an overreaction at all. OP asked a technical question about a piece of gear and got more than one idiotic and opinionated response that did not address his question.
For the record, I use a Buckshot bluetooth speaker that mounts to my handlebars quite nicely with the included rubber strap. Good sound quality and lasts many hours per charge.

kbarch

Makes sense. However, being more of a music person, playing a couple of CDs was the only way I managed to get two full hours in on rollers in one session during the winter. I guess it's a kind of motivation, since I used the changes in tempo and volume as guides for varying cadence and power. It was kinda fun.

deapee

Oh you mean before Zwift? Now other riders nearby and live segments will get the pedals a crankin' just fine.

Looigi

Westone UM-1 headset plugged into smartphone, usually using the TuneIn app.

Gehena

I personally just use a bluetooth headset. I can adjust the volume, skip tracks and answer and hang up calls all on three buttons. I get the joy of music without the fuss of headphones or earbuds! As for the issue on safety, i think the idea that wearing earbuds or even headphones makes riding dangerous is flat out stupid. Riding is dangerous, period. If you're riding where you're supposed to be, and cars are driving where they're supposed to be, there won't be an issue (provided you cycling lane is ****ed). The ability to hear provides literally ZERO physical safety benefit. Hearing a car coming doesn't make you in any way safer that not knowing it was coming.

cave12man

That. Is crazy. (and awesome)

cave12man

I wish I could get used to those types of earbuds that you wedge into your ear. Maybe one day, they look like they sound amazing.

cave12man

THANK YOU.

I actually just received a Buckshot this morning after a tip from someone else earlier in the thread. Some pretty big sound from such a small package, we'll see how it holds up on the ride.

OldsCOOL

Iphone, Pandora/Tunein app, earbuds.

cave12man

Couple people have talked about that tunein app, gotta check it out.

OldsCOOL

A great collection of internet stations.

Tiglath

If I am not sucking air I whistle the Dexter theme song...

GlennR

Late to the topic, but I hope there's minimal traffic where you ride.

I live on Long Island and traffic can be a real problem. On some roads are narrow with shoulders that don't exist. Being able to hear traffic is the difference between being safe and road kill. Too many drivers not having their eyes on the road, on their cell phone or their mind somewhere else.

Personally, I like being "disconnected" for a few hours. It allows me to focus internally and clear my mind.

Whatever you do... please be safe. The life you save will be your own.