Then why did you post this?

I see EVERY car that passes me LONG before they ever pass me. Tell me why I need to hear them and why it is dangerous in that situation to listen to music? Do you have to hear cars when you drive to know when they are near you or do you rely on the more important sense of vision?

Give me a break.

I do when the idiots are weaving all over the road, oblivious to the rider behind them yelling 'on your left!' at the top of their lungs.

I was kinda joking.

Heck, even I know they have music in Missouri.



Back on topic: Music while riding is a lot safer if you are looking around constantly and pretty much know what is coming up behind you at all times. (It's good neck exercise too.) Also a good idea to hold your line just in case you have a momentary lapse in knowing what's coming up behind you. IMHO.


.

This thread is like some amazing new form of Idiot Flypaper.

There ya go. Some sense spoken. Having 360 degree visual awareness at all times is how you do it.

I'm curious as to the answer as well......

Music on a trainer and on the road are two different topics.

+1

No, it's just that a lot of stupid riders using iPods and listening to music instead of listening for cars and trucks and instead of paying attention to the road have succumb to their Darwinian fate - they got run over and are no longer cycling - most of 'em died with their music. So they're no longer posting on BF.

I love the sound of rubber on the road.

S.

Maybe the 5000+ posts regarding MP3 players has had a desensitising effect.

No it's not. Not if you only use one side.

I've yet to see a rider using only one ear bud.

Look harder

Exactly why it's now redundant to even call out a warning when passing a rider w/ earbuds. If there's a bit of a weave to the left, an elbow and/or knee will always correct a preoccupied rider.

Am I not allowed to notice what I consider to be a change in the forum - and then pose the question wondering if it others have noticed it and what their take on it is? Is it confined just to BF's own little interweb world, or perhaps a shift in the general cycling population? Think Stuart Smalley's "Deep Thoughts"

Or would you rather I post the fourth thread this week about leg shaving?

Mac

And I find the morbid "All the iPod wearers got hit and died" humor slightly unsettling. How many of you are posting in the "Cyclist hit by car and died" threads expressing anger that the general population feels the cyclist "had it coming"? Pot, meet Kettle...

Mac

I think the results from this show that in fact nothing has changed.

Why did it seem like iPod/headphone/earphone threads died down?

Because everyone's tired of posting the same old crap.

Face it -- whatever we've been doing has been working well enough that we haven't gotten killed. So, we can't understand why all the other yahoos would do it any other way, because, since they're doing it differently, they must obviously be WRONG.

Agreed, it looks like maybe the fact of the matter really is that nobody brought it up recently.

So much for my request for this not to turn into a bunch of bickering, but what should I have expected, really?

Oh well, I'm off to bed. If this thread is still a train wreck in the morning I'll ask a mod to lock it if it hasn't already.

Mac

Illegal in CA? Yikes! I guess the Finest in the cities I ride through are busy doing more important things. When they're riding behind me it's pretty obvious I'm jacked in.

Used to be dead set against iPods on bikes but -funny thing- as I became a stronger, better rider I began to change my mind. I just completed my first metric century and I don't think I could have done it without the iPod. Music to fit every need.

If it works for you great. If not, great too.

On my commute to work this morning (as I listened to some Prince and Collective Soul among others) I came up with another angle on this deal.

One's willingness to sacrifice hearing could be partially based on one's passion for music. I for one am welcome with the trade off if in fact there is one.

If you truly have a passion for music, there is nothing like the connection between a good ride with some good music. It's like a drug for me. Some just can't understand that.

Cyclist that are oblivious to their surroundings antagonize drivers and make things more difficult for cyclists who share the road.

There are a lot of people that ride bicycles in very dangerous situtaions that increase their chances of getting hit/injured/killed. Lots of bike riders (I won't call them all cyclists) get hit by cars and die because of their own stupidity at no fault of the automobile driver. A bike rider got killed here in Louisville recently. They were riding on a very very busy street with lots of parallel parked cars, cars moving in and out of sidestreets - just a very dangerous situation with no margin for error. I've been riding for many many years and there is no way I'd ride down that street. They did. They took their chances. They got killed. Too much risk for me.

With today's car drivers in their sheltered environments surrounded by their music & preocupied by their hand held cell phone/text/'net access devices it's just a more dangerous world out there for anybody riding a bicycle. I like to minimize my risks when riding - I ride on as safe a roads as possible (suburban/rural with low car traffic), at off-peak times (not while everyone is commuting home from work), in full daylight, and without an iPod or similar device. It's all about managing risks. Safe roads at off-peak times in full daylight. No sense being in the right and dead - you're still dead.

I think Pcad has it about right - he listens to music in a way that also allows him to pay attention to traffic and to hear what's going on around him. There is still a risk but he's minimized it. Heck - cycling is a risk. We assume that risk when we ride. That's reality. I don't live in a fantasy world where I am a senseless advocate for cycling rights on all roads all the time in all conditions doing whatever I want on a bike. That's why they give out Darwin Awards. No sense making it more risky than it already is.

I never tire of posting the same old crap. If you hadn't noticed.