Abe_Froman

I've been thinking about bone conducting headphones. You can hear podcasts fine with loud traffic around? I was using the speaker in a water bottle cage for a while, but podcasts tended to get drowned out. Music wasn't too bad.

Dan333SP

I use one of these bluetooth things in my right ear-

https://www.amazon.com/FOCUSPOWER-Bl...mini+bluetooth

Listen to podcasts and music at a reasonable volume. The audio quality isn't stellar, but you don't need hifi when you've got the wind rushing over your head anyway. Unlike some shoddy Amazon suppliers, I had 2 of these earbuds die on me over the course of a year and both times the company immediately sent me a replacement no questions asked. Nice to not have any wires, and if I end up riding with someone and want to talk, it's easy to just slip it into a jersey pocket and turn it off.

redlude97

I can hear when a car isn't passing, and about 70% of my 1+hour commute is on a MUP. I could probably turn up the volume to drown out everything else but that wouldn't be a good idea. I'm okay with missing parts of podcasts since I prioritize safety

Riveting

A single in-ear earbud in the right ear, and the left bud completely cut off at the fork. The single bud is connected to the phone which resides in the right jersey pocket, with the wire routed under the jersey. No problems in 25k miles.

Most BlueTooth earbuds are usually too bulky and don't fit well under a balaclava.

rfmarotti

Good answer here.

Ogsarg

For me the danger of listening to music or podcasts or any form of audible entertainment is not that it's drowning out the noise of cars or other things, its the fact that it distracts you from being alert for the odd things that invariably happen when you least expect it. When you're immersed in your favorite song it's likely going to take a fraction of a second longer to react and a lot can go wrong in a fraction of a second.
I have a bottle cage speaker that I use on early morning (4:20) rides, but on those rides, I see maybe 1 car per mile and I'm on a road with almost no intersections for most of the way. Longer rides on the weekend I go without any entertainment.

rubiksoval

Do you apply that notion about audible entertainment to driving motor vehicles, as well? After all, you travel a lot farther in a fraction of a second at 40 mph (or 70 mph!) than you do at 18 mph.

Ogsarg

Very true but emergency maneuvers on two wheels are different than with four. Ask anyone that has ever target fixated.

bbattle

I can't listen to music, ride my bike and talk to myself at the same time.

I can listen to music later.

bleui

this

WhyFi

No Beryllium drivers? Pass.

MulliganAl

I ride in Atlanta, the home of crazy ass drivers, and I use JayBird X3 earbuds. They sound great, are light and I can unplug one and let it just dangle when I'm in traffic and need to be more aware.

Noahma

I have one of these in my back bottle cage on short rides, and in my center jersey pocket on longer rides.

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Portable...etooth+speaker

GuitarBob

snort.

JohnJ80

Please don't do the water bottle speaker. Pretty annoying for everyone else.

For bone conducting headphones, I use the Aftershokz Titanium. They're a great alternative to the Apple AirPods (one only) that I typically use. The Aftershokz are sweat and weather/water proof. So when it's hot and humid, that's when I wear them. Highly recommend them for both not interfering with ambient sound and for their durability.

Agree with the one ear method. Works great. If there is sound attenuation in the right ear, I can't tell. You have to be using the open air style of ear buds though.

I use the Apple AirPods and they work great regardless of how I'm dressed and they are bluetooth connected.

Meh. That's why it's way down the list and not a top 10 rule.

Bottom line on using an earbud while you're riding: Don't do it in an urban setting and don't do it when you need to concentrate or when there is a risk of task saturation. Don't use one that is noise isolating. Be smart about it. Done that way, I don't see the danger.

I also have a Garmin Varia Radar so I get an additional warning that someone is coming up behind me.

J.

Seattle Forrest

I can't listen to stuff while I ride. (That's not to say other people can't or shouldn't, other people can make their own decisions.)

When I put headphones on, I go into my own world. It's not that I can't hear traffic, it's that I devote too much attention to what I'm listening to.

I don't have the same problem with speakers, like in the car.

DrIsotope

Currently, MEE Audio M6 Pro + Comply Comfort 200 foam tips + Nulaxy BR18 Bluetooth receiver.

Maximum sound isolation, good ear fit, comfortable for long rides. The sound quality could be better, not gonna lie-- my older Klipsch sound better-- but the earhook design means they don't wiggle around and get caught on things. And everything comes in under $100.

Superb quality and battery life out of the Nulaxy. 25+ hours, easily.

50PlusCycling

I ride to get away from noise. I spend enough time looking at screens and listening to news and music, riding is it's own form or entertainment.

DrIsotope

Well, the OP didn't ask, but uh... thanks for sharing, I guess? Do you also go down to the theater and interrupt movies by telling people how awesome books are?

JohnJ80

Good one.

Abe_Froman

Can someone please explain, precisely, why you care about hearing cars behind you? This has been brought up more than once, and I don't see the benefit.

canyoneagle

Awareness of surroundings
I'd rather know a car is approaching than be startled by it.

I think this topic is way beyond a black and white - one answer for all. So much depends on circumstances. I used to ride in empty developments or corporate parks at night, and had no issues using headphones. Conversely, I'd feel completely uncomfortable isolating myself when riding on roads with traffic.

DrIsotope

And I have no problem with people saying they don't feel comfortable with using headphones while riding-- I won't ride without a helmet, but I don't tell other people to wear helmets "or else." I have issue with people who claim wearing headphones is dangerous, or is going to get people killed. Because that's idiotic. If a distracted driver is going to hit you, they're going to hit you whether you hear them or not. Thirty miles an hour is 44 feet per second. Even if you hear it, and can magically echolocate it like you're a manbat, you have no time to evade. If there's even space to evade.

I wear headphones with maximum noise isolation-- and I can still hear cars and trucks and busses and everything else. Doesn't mean I can do anything about them.

daoswald

On main roads there are cars rushing around at speed differentials of up to 50mph. On city streets there are cars, pedestrians, and bikes coming from all directions, and into and out of parking. They make u-turns, right hooks, left turns, they're distracted on cell phones.... but they have seat belts and metal cages around them.

I'm on a bike, and while it's a sturdy aluminum frame one, it's no match for the many things that can harm me on the road. Yet I love riding, and consider it a healthy sport. The benefits outweigh the relatively low risks if I'm paying attention and alert to my surroundings. So I choose NOT to listen to anything aside from the ambient sounds around me as I ride. It's for my own safety.

Anything I can do to increase my chances of avoiding a collision, I do. I have a forward headlight/flasher (L&M Urban 900), a rear flasher (CygloLite HotShot Pro 150), and when I'm riding after dark I also use flashing amber side-lights that mount below one of my bottle cages (Bottle Blinky). I wear a helmet, and cycling clothing that has reflective components to it. I even have a few strips of reflective adhesive on my bike. I wear gloves (which have saved my hands serious road rash recently).

But after all that, I go out and enjoy myself.


Consider this anecdote:

In my early 20's I got into the sport of sailing. Sailing has a lot to do with keeping track of relative wind angles and relative wind speed. At first I had to frequently check a wind vane and windspeed gauge for direction and speed information. Over time I got so I could sense the conditions and judge them well based on the feeling of the wind as it passed across my face.

In my late-20s I found it necessary to get prescription glasses. One of the first things I noticed about them was that they changed how I sensed the wind. Until I re-learned the feel, I had to go back to frequently looking up at the wind vane.

Another anecdote:

I've been riding clipless pedals exclusively for over a decade. The other day I switched the pedals out to flats just temporarily for some errand riding. The first thing I noticed was that navigating tight corners or harsh road conditions, I felt less "in control". I've come to expect that mechanical connection between my feet and the bike, and when it's not there, I'm not controlling the bike as effectively.

In both of these anecdotes our effectiveness improves by removing some of the buffers between ourselves and the things we're interacting with. Clipless pedals get us closer to the bike's balance and mechanics. Glasses got me farther from the feel of wind in my face that aided my sailing.

Well, there's something else that is a part of cycling, and that's reacting to the chaos in the world around us. We tend to do that better when we know about it. Our eyes give us field of view at maybe 180 degrees... and a little more if we take them off of what's in front of us and turn to look behind us. But our ears can be working on deciphering sounds all around us. It's a mistake in road riding to deprive ourselves of the one sense that can detect something coming up behind us.

DrIsotope

Everything was going so well right up to that last sentence. Then you had to go and ruin it.

I'll give you an anecdote. There's a housing development going up on the east side of the nearby river trail, the houses set back probably 75 feet from the trail. To the other side, 1/4 mile of sand and trees. When the framers are blasting away with nailguns, I can see them inside the open skeletons of the houses-- but there is absolutely no directionality to the sound. Depending on the temperature, the humidity, the wind, sometimes that pap... pap... pap! sounds like it's coming from directly ahead. Sometimes above.

I can hear the city busses coming up behind me from a ways off-- when they accelerate, they're pretty loud. But I cannot tell which lane they're in. The human ear is simply not designed to precisely locate objects that are behind it.