So, its unsafe to ride and listen to music in headphones, 'cause you might not hear cars, cuase an accident..blah blah blah...but i gotta question: how many of you out there actually listen to that safety rule?

I ride where there are few if any cars, so I do listen to music. It makes long rides into the country more exciting.

Like Operator I do the same.

Here's one. If I want music, I have a pretty good system already installed. No hardware required and it shuts itself off the very second my full attention is needed elsewhere. The only drawback: At times I can't seem to control what's being played, and since all the workings are internal and are not 'user-serviceable', I'm at the mercy of whatever odd tune it decides to play back.

I wouldn't trade it for any of those awkward outboard models, though.

I cant listen to music and concentrate on my riding. However for a slow putter around town, dropping in at various shops, music makes for a very relaxing afternoon.

We love riding. We love music.
The two do not mix. Full attention is required when riding.

I think its probably more of a hassle buy why would it be any different than listening to music in your car/truck or while riding a motorcycle?

I used to ride with a little transister either in my basket or attatched to my handlebars. What I'd really like is one of those headlight/radio combo's. I think it's safer than headphones. Since I usually listen to either CISL (Oldies Rock, 50's and 60's) or Rock 101 (Classic Rock 60's,70's and early 80's.), I usually don't get too many dirty looks. Hey, it ain't Rap, right?!

I do find I ride a bit carelessly if something fast, loud or defiant is playing. I nearly got collected by an ambulance once while I was driving a car because I had "Conquistador" by Procal Harum cranked. Oops! I didn't even hear that siren...

I think it's actually illegal to ride with earphones around here. Probably just as well.

I wonder why NYC bike laws allow headphones...

"na na na... na na na na na na... breakin' the law.. breakin' the law.."

Y'mean, there's a specific exception to the vehicle code that allows the use of headphones while operating a bicycle? 'Cuz in most jurisdictions in this country, operating a vehicle with headphones is illegal. They'd have to have a specific local ordinance overriding the state vehicle code to allow it on a bike. It wouldn't surprise me, though.

How about one of these?



And if you can stand riding with backpacks, there's this backpack with built in flat speakers in the straps. Errr... scantily clad model not included.

HOLY! I'LL TAKE HER!

I ride with headphones, but I usually keep the volume to a setting where I can still hear most of the surroundings around me. I usually ride as close to the shoulder as possible, most of the time I ride where the shoulder is pretty big, I used to be pretty ambivalent towards the headphones but I have used them alot in my rides now, and it's pretty relaxing.

like i said in similar thread: i ride with full volume, but headphones are on the neck. i can hear surroundings and music pretty good

I've tossed this issue over in my head a few times, and to be honest I still don't know. The "blocking of sound" issue can be abated by adjusting the volume setting on the headphones. It isn't really a problem. In the past I've been more concerned with the distraction factor. However, when I was in Hobart last year someone I was riding with pointed out that music can actually reduce the impact of other distractions such as malicious horns, magpies, morons yelling out car windows, etc etc. So in answer to the question at the top of this thread, I really don't know. Maybe try it out for yourself on a short ride and see.

Just recently, when I am on my touring bike, and taking it slow, I have been starting to listen to the radio. I just have one ear plug in my right ear, my left ear is free to hear traffic. Although, the area I ride in a car will pass every 5-10 minutes. I must say I enjoy it.

The disadvantage is I cannot control what they play, but I don't have to lug around a bunch of CDs for a 4+ hour ride, stop and change, etc. Of course i could get one of those M3 players, but I am not into music THAT much. Radio does me fine.

I do find that the wind noise, especially into a headwind, annoying, so I have to turn the thing up. After a couple of hours I find I have to take the ear plug out, just for a break from the dual noise of wind and radio.

My radio is small with one speaker, I think it best if the thing where mounted on the handlebar in such a fashion so that the speaker is facing you so you can hear it, rather than using headphones.

Plus, I wonder how a motorist feels when he sees a cyclist wearing headphones? They are already of the beleif that since we are on a bicycle we are out of control, so now with headphones we are double that as the cyclist is tuned out of his/her surroundings. I don't think it would instill them with confidence.

Digger

I sure hope the world forgives me then last week I was flying down the road in midtown traffic when I reached down to my MP3 player and changed the song... Believe it or not sometimes I wear ear buds with no music on, it doesn't block out any sound but it smooths the flow of wind over my ears so I don't end up deaf at the end of a long ride. Flat ear muffs also work in that aspect.

I sing or hum a lot when riding. Some people would consider my voice very dangerous indeed.

--J

Hmm... that makes me think. I have to wear earplugs most of the time at work, and wind noise often gets to me when I ride. While I'm all for hearing the road while I ride, it would be nice not to try to sort the whoosh of a car from the ambient noise from the wind.

My dad used to run sound in a bar in MT, and he was able to go to an audiology place and have special earplugs made so that he could have a normal level conversation with someone and hear them, but lessen the higher decibles of the band who he was mixing... The way it worked was that it dropped the level over a certain threshold, but left the quiter sounds intact. I wonder if it would work similairly for a biker - take away the loud wind going over your ears, quiet the busses and trucks, but still let you hear that there is a car behind you...

I need to get to one of those places anyways - with the plugs from work I have to take them out to hear people talking to me, and I want to protect what hearing I have left as best I can...

Anyone ever tried this?

Try putting on a pair of 180's ear muffs then riding in the wind, it blocks out a LOT of noise just by getting rid of the turbulent flows going on in your ear lobes.

I'd never wear headphones when riding downtown or in places with heavy traffic. That's just my take on it. In the country even if you don't wear headphones what's going to to help you if you hear a car coming from behind? Is there something special you'll do other than keep riding along?

My girlfriend wears ear plugs when she rides. I prefer to hear whats going on around me and if I really want to listen to music all I have to do is pull up a song from the song list in my head and rock on, actually it drives me nuts some times...

What would you normally do anyway?
Get completely off the road?
I try to ride to the right of the white line or close.
You're still trusting people not to run over you, headphones or no headphones

I'm around noise all day long. It's nice to have a few minutes of peace and quiet.

So no, I don't listen.

I'm with laggard. One of the *reasons* I ride is to get away from the babble. In city traffic, I just wouldn't wear headphones for safety (although strapping an open-air radio somewhere, or headphones around the neck, as people have mentioned, should be fine).

But out of town? I prefer the unbuffered appreciation of what's around me.