When there are no pedestrians or bikes around I go 40-50 on the way home from my rides because it's all downhill and have no trouble hearing.

The entirely of that post is what we in the industry call "nonsense," unless you're using kilometers as a unit of measurement. Having descended at 50mph, you cannot hear anything-- it's like having a hair dryer pointed into each ear.

Further, there's absolutely zero worry about approaching vehicles at 50mph, you just ride smack dab in the middle of the lane, as you're going as fast as the cars.

I feel like I'm really missing out by not having these super ears that defy all physical law.

There's a simple explanation that your ears are already shot. Many people's are. One more reason to be careful listening to loud music. Cars make noise in many ranges anyway because there are vibrations, engine noises, wind against fenders and so on.

FWIW, I ride in the canyons and mountains a lot. I am able to hear approaching vehicles coming for roughly up to 10 seconds. There is plenty of time to make adjustments when ascending. Descending is another matter. Cars/motorcycles will be on my ass fast with maybe a second warning. Wind noise is a factor as well as my focus being on the road ahead for hazards.

Besides noise, my concern is target fixation where the speeding motorcyclist steers into me from behind. That would be a bad day. Fast fwd to 2:40 in the linked video to see an example of target fixation:

Firstly, that's not how sound works. If there is a 90DbA sound at point blank range (that is, wind into your ear holes) you cannot hear a 90DbA sound being generated at a distance. The strongest pressure wave wins.

Second, if my hearing is already "shot," what difference does it make that I wear headphones? Can't hear the cars anyway. Still manage to put in 10,000 miles a year... and I live on still.

Your arguments are getting weirder and weirder. Firstly, I don't blare music. Never said I did. How would I miss a close call because I'm listening to music, even if it were blaring. I'd see the car pass right beside me, right?

The Dallas, Fort Worth Metroplex is not in the middle on nowhere, I can assure you. It ain't New York city, I'll grant you that. But I've been passed by at least 25,000 cars in the past year alone, and that's a conservative estimate.

Depends how fast you and the car are going.You have a lot less time at 20mph than at 12mph.

Just saying.

BTW.. what type of music do you listen to?

Lately i've been streaming Grateful Dead concerts from Youtube. 3+ hours of great music and since the Dead recorded all of their concerts, there are hundreds from the mid 60s until now.

He doesn't get it, he is hopeless. No one is expecting to avoid a car barreling in on them at 70mph, however you can avoid be run over by cars turning off the highway onto the shoulder or cars right hooking you at an intersection or driveay. There is zero chance these things have never happened to the guy, he was just totally oblivious to the impending death he was lucky to avoid.

I don't ride my bicycle on the highway. I can assure you I'm not oblivious and if death were impeding all those times, well, certainly I'd be...dead.

Once the car passes me, hearing has nothing to do with anything. I CAN SEE THE CAR! And I can try to react.

Here's a clue...cars don't want to hit you. They really, really don't. Many driver have kids who ride bikes, many drivers have friends who cycle and many drivers are cyclist themselves. Even if none of those things happen to be true for a given driver they still don't want to hit you! Even if they're a total psychopath, they still don't want to hit you because it will screw up their car, and there may be legal complications.

If you deal with so many cars cutting you off and pulling over on you, why do you continue to cycle on the road? That doesn't seem smart.

A lot of different stuff. Let me think...from my ride this morning we had:

Conquests - White Stripes
Solid Gold-Plated Fool - Jo El Sonnier
Back in the USSR - Beatles
We Learned to Be Cool From You - Jimmy Buffett
Understanding - Bob Seger
After the Hurricane - BR-549
A Long December - Counting Crows
Young Lust - Pink Floyd
Now That the Magic Has Gone - Joe Cocker
Black Water - Watermelon Slim & The Workers
Miracles - Jefferson Starship
D'yer Mak'er - Led Zeppelin

I don't remember what played before those.

Frequency differences matter, so this isn't as neat a relationship as that.

I can very distinctly hear car tire noise while riding at 23 mph. I tested that again just last evening. It's at a very different frequency than the wind noise.

What's hilarious about this topic is we all have different strategies based on our riding habits, environment and perceptual strengths/weaknesses, and this always degenerates into people trying to prove that their's is the only rational way.

BTW, because of reaction times, an additional second of warning is actually quite valuable.

You argument would carry more weight if you used the correct scientific/engineering units. (It's dBA or dBa, not DbA.)


Actually, it doesn't matter if you use the correct units – this statement is simply false.

It may not make any difference at that point but I am not begging you personally to take them off by any means. But like the guy in another thread saying no one needs to wear a mask due to the virus having the wrong info out there can cause problems. I don't wear mask any more because I already had it but I am literally the only person I've seen on a bike wearing one. I'd hate for it to be common knowledge that you don't need to hear as you ride as that could get people killed.

I just got back from 10 mile ride next to the freeway. The freeway was 100 yards away from the trail but I can still hear cars at least 200 yards back from my position. I also had cars pass me on side streets and could here them all the way from one light to the next. I can hear the engine, hear the air around them even hear the TIRES for god's sake. That's a quarter mile away. You are definitely either impaired or not reporting or testing accurately here somehow.

I'm late to the party and I have only read the thread title but I would never listen to music while riding a bicycle. I rely on my hearing for approaching cars, etc.

Of all of the big fish claims I've read on this website, that one pretty much takes the cake. This trumps the daily 40-50mph descents by a long shot. Hearing an approaching car from 600+ feet despite other ambient sound? There's an intersection less than 100 yards from where I'm sitting, and I can't hear every car taking off from it on a quiet residential street. At a quarter mile? Unless we're down at the track or someone is really romping on it, an individual car is (usually) inaudible at that distance. I can hear the Mustang driving jerkbag that takes off from every intersection like he's at the Pomona Dragway from a mile away-- literally. But none of that has anything to do with what's going on here.

Cycling is not a pursuit that is limited by a rider's ability to hear. A person with absolutely perfect hearing has no real advantage over someone with poor, or even no hearing. We're not fighter pilots-- we don't need 20/10 vision and otherworldly reflexes. That's just a fact, because I am not extraordinary in any way. Don't need to be. Riding a bike isn't that difficult. Some people seem to choose to make it seem more difficult than it actuallly is.

I would definitely say not safe you need to hear your surroundings even if on mud track

On the multiuse trail it probably is better manners to not use headphones. And it generally is lower noise and more nature so you want more exposure there.

On roadways, I do everything I can to block out the noise of internal combustion engines.

I just saw on the news that 13 sailors that had already had the virus on the USS Roosevelt have just tested positive for a second time. But then a mask isn't to protect the wearer so much as those around the wearer.
I just had an idea, why doesn't someone set up a poll for whether to wear a mask or not? And then another poll for whether to stay home or go out in public. Or would such polls be too political? :fight:

Thread has run its course. Closed.