MilitantPotato

Bone Conduction headphones are amazing. They sit behind your ears and transmit music by vibrating on the bone. They don't block external sounds like headphones and won't damage other folks calm like speakers do.

daredevil

This definitely got my interest. Can you compare the sound quality to anything we are familiar with?

Shinyville

I use this bag once in a great while for on-bike music:



It's made to hold ipods, but anything with the same headphone jack will plug in just fine.

Unfortunately, I don't recall where it came from--I think my wife got it for me from some catalog company's clearance stuff for 10 bucks. It doesn't sound amazing, but it's a way to go without headphones.

As a musician, I kind of relish my "no-music" time on bikes, so I don't use it often, and I'm not into headphones while biking, personally. But it's a funky little bag, for sure.

Jim from Boston

Back in the 1980's there were Bonefones which sat on your chest and transmitted the sound. I've been looking around for them for years. If you wanted to use the Bone Conduction headphones on an organized ride, I wonder if they would violate the no earphone rules, especially since they attach to the outside of the ear but don't cover the ear canal? Personally I wear over the ear headphones, keep the volume down (mostly talk shows anyways), can hear outside sounds well, IMO; and I wear a rearview mirror.

MilitantPotato

The sound is pretty poor to be honest, if they where less expensive they'd be worth it. The sound is close to a cheap portable radio, flat and somewhat muddy. There's plenty of reviews floating around, some say they are passable, others hate them.

metro2005

So Deaf people can't ride bikes or cars?

Pretty lame rule if you ask me. If you turn up the volume in your car you can't hear the outside world as well. If you put on headphones on a bike and don't set the volume too high i can't see the problem.

bikegeek57

and you'll note his rear tire is flat?

bikegeek57

sorry I am deaf and I ride (and drive) just fine. hearing aids are useless with the wind. I just have to pay more attention than most. My peripheral vision is better than average. Only time I have a problem is when some idiot sneaks up right behind and HONKS! that really is irritating and dangerous.

metro2005

I also know a deaf person who rides a car and bike just fine. That is why i think a rule that says you can't block your ears while driving is weird.

daredevil

Deaf people are likely a bit more adept at using their eyes than those with hearing. That being said, if you are good with your eyes, you obviously don't need to hear what you can see, right?

demoncyclist

Tom-

My wife and I both have i85's. Try playing with the EQ settings on your iPod. I think I have the Bass Boost selected on mine, and it sounds pretty good. Mine has gone through a few nasty rainstorms, and is in fact waterproof. The carry bag makes it easy to take to the beach or picnics in the park as well.

noglider 

OK, I'll try that. I rode with it today and listened to podcasts rather than music. That, of course, is tolerable. The machine's intolerance to bumps is really annoying. It shuts itself on or off after a heavy bump. So one lesson is that even when the mount on the handlebars is tight, the handlebars just transmit too much of a bump, so I'll have to have it on the down tube instead.

The sound from the system has become pretty disappointing, but I'll try your suggestion. When I turn bass boost on with headphones, I don't notice much of a difference, and my ears are extremely sensitive to bass. I normally have to turn bass down in regular stereos because too much really bothers me.

demoncyclist

Make sure you have the right set of bumpers inside the tray for your iPod. That will help keep it from slipping out of the dock connector (which is why it stops playing). You could even cut a piece of foam to wedge between the top of the iPod and the bottom of the case to keep it from moving around. The fact that the iPod is upside downis the only design flaw I have found so far.

noglider 

Duh, why didn't I think of that? Thank you.

threephi

I did notice that, I chalked it up to what happens when you load 100+ lbs on your rear wheel

noglider 

I wonder if that bike is ridable at all.

ChipSeal

Texas does not think that it's citizens are so incompetent as to not know when it is good idea to wear headphones or not. Down here, we generally don't go crying to our government to make our neighbors live the way we are unable to persuade them to act, at least for something so petty as headphone use!

Therefore, Texas has no law regulating where and when one may wear them.

If you happen to live in a stifling nanny state, well, I'm glad I'm not you!

noglider 

I remember Texans were pissed when the state made drinking and driving illegal. That was relatively recent.

Cycho

One side of me, the dreamer side, says "Wow, that's really cool. The human tendency for inventiveness never ceases to amaze. Then the other side, the pragmatic, level headed side says "Wow, that's really stupid. People have way too much time on their hands."

My pragmatic side is always right.

qmsdc15

Agreed, "super aural" is the way to go. The "street style" with headband that goes behind the neck works great with helmets. I use Philips SHS391, would not ride without them.

qmsdc15

They can, but if they drive with headphones on they might get a ticket.

noglider 

I agree with the law. I'd rather drive or cycle near a deaf person driving than near a hearing person wearing headphones.

I just ordered some Sennheiser PMX-60 behind-the-head headphones from Amazon. I haven't given up totally on the iH85, but I want to be able to use headphones occasionally. Plus these will come in handy for when I walk the dogs in the winter and am wearing a hat. I currently have some cheapo headphones of the same style, but they sound like crapola.

Leiniesred

IH85B for me. I have used it almost daily for >1 year. I love it!

When you ride the same general MUPs to work for 3+years, it gets a little uh, boring. The ih85 changes all that. Yep. It gets rained and snowed on. Nope. Never had a problem with it shutting on/off. It is one of those things that "just works." Simple handlebar remote. Plenty of volume 99% of the time.

I use rechargable AAs recharged by our small home solar power plant for the ih85b. I charge the ipod via solar too. (Even if I charge from other sources our house is 100% windsource powered too.)


The ih85b gets used as the garage radio when I work on a car. It is also easy to toss it into the room I'm working on during house work or chores. We use the thing all the time. Its instant portability is great.

The IH85b (b for black) is one of those gadgets that "just works." A simple remote on the handlebars has limited functions to be sure; but what do you REALLY need while you are riding? FF, RR volume up, volume down, play/pause. That's enough for me, a member of the walkman generation.

1 beef with the thing. The 7.5 volt external power plug will charge the ipod, but not the AA batteries that power the device. Yes, I realize that not everyone uses rechargable batteries and they simply can't do it because someone would forget and the thing would try to charge regular batteries and the rig would blow up in his or her face and blah blah blah.

Another item of note is "Ipod only." That means only DOCKABLE ipods. ipod shuffles won't work either.

Commando303

Aren't most laws meant to enforce ways of conduct that "the people" wish everyone would follow? How many "biggies" (like, "don't kill," "don't ****") are there? I think I think (not a typo.) it's acceptable to tell people (by law) they should be able to hear traffic when operating a bicycle -- it makes the road safer for the cyclist, the pedestrian, and the motor-vehicle–driver. Sure, we can be absurdist and ask, "What about deaf people," but that really is absurdist, isn't it? (I'm pretty sure the poster who said this was joking, but the type of argument does come up in trying to defeat legislation.)

"By law, you must walk single-file [here]. 'Well, what about people in wheelchairs?'" Come on.

Not everything ought to be legislated (e.g., the wearing of helmets), but, when others' safety is at stake, it's OK to at least talk about the practicality of passing paperwork.

daredevil

I still maintain that hearing what you already see does not make the road safer.

The legislation would be for dumb people much like other laws.