I-Like-To-Bike

Do you study while cycling? How 'bout chew gum at the same time as cycling or is that too distracting from the task at hand?

John Wilke

I agree 100%, yet despite me not wearing any headphones I still got run over from behind, so there's no guarantee even if you _can_ hear them comming (and I don't remember anything of the crash).

jw

graham58

who wants to hear the truck or car that is about to run you down. How many of you know the car behind you is about to run you down anyway ,Iam to busy looking ahead,and even if you did hear the car chances are the time you recognised the noise you would be flying through the air.
cheers
blue

dobber

No Earphones Required

NoRacer

The answer is obvious! It's so they can use their cell phone headset, too!

NoRacer

To be within the bounds of Maryland State's acceptance, I listen to the right channel only. In MD, you are allowed to have an earplug in one ear.

baj32161

I don't even own an I-pod
I would probably wear one while doing my laps around the local college, but never on the road.

Cheers,

Brian

DataJunkie

I concentrate better with loud music. In college I regularly studied with loud music blaring to the point you would have to shout to get my attention. Nowdays at work I have a set of headphones and I carry around a flash drive with mp3s on it. When I really need to work on a project the headphones go on and the volume goes up. Now talking is completely different. If someone else is talking, no matter the volume, I can not concentrate.

As for Ipods and cycling: do what you want to do. Personally, I am thinking about getting an IPOD for my birthday. Maybe listen with one bud in on the street and both on the MUP. Heck, I moved my mother in a Uhaul from SE Washington State to the Dayton Ohio area with one ear bud in the whole way. Not a single problem. Yes, I know that is illegal.

Jarery

Wow, I guess the earplug made it so you couldnt hear her banging to get out of the uhaul.

skookum

A Bicyclist's sense of hearing:

Read and discuss

spinnaker

Yes and I woulf bet it is indeed illegal to transport your grandmother in back of a uhaul.

Cyclist0383

No I don't study when I ride, but I do need to pay close attention to my surroundings with all my senses. I'm willing to bet we have a bit more traffic here than in Burlington, Iowa, population 25,579.

Judging from this picture of Burlington you folks have a lot of traffic to battle with.....

spinnaker

Yet another "opinion". Just because your hearing isn't perfect on a bicycle should not mean that you should ignore this important tool. It's the same old tired argument against helmet laws on motorcycles. Opponents will give the old argument that a helmet won't make much difference during a fall at 70MPH. That is probably true. But what about a fall at 30 or even 10? Yes it will save your life should you hit your head. Same thing with earphones on bicycles. You probably aren't going to hear that truck on a 40 MPH descent but you will hear it a 10 - 15MPH or stopped at an intersection.


But there is not convincing anyone. My guess is the same people that wear earphones when cycling are the same ones that won't wear a helmet on a motorcycle.

Katrogen

Ziemas that looks like a neat town.

I personally do not wear headphones. I decided not to on the very first ride. I was riding down a busier road that has extra large bicycling lanes on each side of it. I had my headphones on and it was raining. Just about 10 minutes down the road my CD started to skip so I stopped the bike to adjust. I started hearing this faint honking noise... it didn't seem to be part of the song I was listening to. (Journey's Best Of hehe) After I took my headphones off because of the CD player not cooperating I found myself blocking the way of a slow moving tractor. He ended up telling me that I had been blocking him for about 5 minutes. I felt bad, got myself off the road and he passed.

After that embarrasment I never did go back to the CD player/headphones. I don't even own an I-pod because I wouldn't use it much.

Jarery

Great article. But people are not interested in common sense and dispelling myths. They prefer to keep spewing the same false assumptions over and over.

DataJunkie

Ack!
She was in the cab with me. That was the main reason I was wearing an ear bud.
Plus, I am agnostic and she is devoutly religious. All the religious material she listens to would have literally driven me insane.

MMACH 5

I still can't figure out why so many cyclists give a rat's @ss if someone else wants to listen to music, (or talk radio), while riding.

I promise that I won't force you to listen along with me.

telenick

As someone who is hearing impaired...

Being able to hear the car doesn't enable you to know if it's going to hit you.

Furthermore, would you say a deaf cyclist lacked common sense?

I-Like-To-Bike

BFD! What are you listening for? Sweet nothings whispered in your ear by passing motorists?
This is where I commute, Comrade. I prefer to listen to Whitney, Prince, or Luther over tire, exhaust and engine noise. You can listen for cryptic messages if you prefer.

Cyclist0383

Comrade?

I don't listen for cars, I know they are always there. Cyclists don't need another added distraction, hence I think that headphones are a very bad idea.

My wife was hit by another cyclist who was wearing headphones, distracted in his own little world. She screamed at him just before he t-boned her. He didn't hear a thing, and she knows how to make some noise. If he wasn't so damn distraracted chances are he would have heard her before he hit her hard enough to crack her frame.

genec

Actually along a hiway like that, listening to music might be a better way to concentrate on the road... just don't get distracted and make a sudden left turn.

Rev.Chuck

Thank you. That helps make up for all the times I have been trapped behind a tabacco farmer here in Rural NC

ghettocruiser

I probably deserve a punch for saying this, but the problem is not the headphones, the problem is that you are going slower than a tractor.


** Ducks **

I-Like-To-Bike

All right, Good Buddy. Your wife got injured by another cyclist, who happened to be wearing headphones. Certainly not a good thing. Hope it was a bike frame that cracked and not hers.

Does this anecdote substantiate your opinions about the relative dangers of headphones as having any validity? Well maybe for you. And I suppose if the other cyclist was in full racing gear with a cycling computer, camelback and heart monitor, munching on a Powerbar, or perhaps was just chewing gum you would be ranting about bad ideas relating to those dangerous "distractions".

I can Google too, and selected a picture to represent life in Riga just as you selected a picture to represent your idea of my cycling environment. Let us know if it is accurate, Good Buddy.

worker4youth

BikeForums corollary: As t -> 1 month, the probability of a headphone thread approaches 1.