Headphones and Cycling! Is it safe?

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4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
That's only cos you have to :angry: , and someone DID do...... :tongue: (i.e. ride over 4F's head) heh heh...no names............. :biggrin::biggrin: (not me) PS anyway...get back up here for a spin mate on your next "business visit"..... :tongue:


Foss, you were on your arse the other side of the track :hello: I am looking at getting up for the November session :becool:
 

BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
I have no intention of becoming a helmet cam warrior and the only time I will wear a helmet is on the track.

That's OK, I understand if you don't have the courage of your convictions. Just don't expect to get much credence to your views on hearing vs. looking.
 

4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
That's OK, I understand if you don't have the courage of your convictions. Just don't expect to get much credence to your views on hearing vs. looking.


So you expect me to go out and buy a headcam just to prove to you my viewpoint ? FFS mate you need to get a grip on reality.
 

JoysOfSight

Active Member
@joys of sight

Hearing the ambulance (or police car) converging from the next block tells me I may need to move over (this is London - emergency vehicles often pass wrong side of traffic islands etc.

Thanks for the info! Perhaps we have it worse here, as traffic on the wrong side of islands is not limited to the emergency services... ;)

But the crucial point is - do you move over and stop before you see the ambulence?

When I'm in the car (or on the bike), whether I hear a siren or not I wouldn't do anything differently until I had established where the vehicle is and where it needs to go (by seeing it). Otherwise, for example, I might pull into the bus lane and end up obstructing an ambulence coming up it. Or vice versa.

I don't think it can be denied that hearing an ambulence at least prepares you for the possibility that you might need to manouvre, but I'm not convinced that it is giving you anything more than a sort of comfort blanket. The exact same argument applies to in-car radios, to convertibles with the roof up (or any car which doesn't have its windows down). And of course, in most urban environments the average speed of a cyclist is as high (if not higher) than motorists, so there's no real argument that they don't need to hear because they are going faster or whatever. The reason they don't *need* to hear is simply because they don't *need* to hear.

(And for what it's worth, I quite like having the windows down when I drive in town, because it's sometimes nice to hear what's going on. I don't feel unsafe when I roll them up & put on the radio though!)
 

marcw

Well-Known Member
In ear phones that don't seal the ear canal are bad for your hearing. Add the wind noise and they will be even worse as you have to turn them up. In ear phones that seal the ear canal block out a lot of external sounds, attenuation for decent headphones will be around 15db+, so you can listen to your music at a lower level. Wearing a decent pair of sealed headphones on the tube with the iphone turned up to around 7, it's loud and I can barely hear the tube noise which gets can get really loud. This doesn't strike me a something I'd want to transfer to a bike. Also wearing just one headphone you are likely to turn the other one up to compensate for the wind/ traffic noise again putting your hearing at risk.

There is no cure for Tinnitus.
 

BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
So you expect me to go out and buy a headcam just to prove to you my viewpoint ? FFS mate you need to get a grip on reality.



I'll even offer to lend you mine, paying for postage both ways.

FWIW I'm not suggesting I'm a better cyclist, far from it. I'm sure you're an excellent cyclist, but going purely on your posts I also have a suspicion that you might be relying on your hearing instead of looking as much as you should. I didn't misread your 20km post, by the way. ;)
 
@joys of sight

Hearing the ambulance (or police car) converging from the next block tells me I may need to move over (this is London - emergency vehicles often pass wrong side of traffic islands etc.

BM and possibly Marz seem to suggest that somehow using my hearing makes me less observant; I reject that proposition.


If you're using your hearing to reduce the number of times you think you need to check over your shoulder visually then yes, you're being less observant. Would you ever consider the road clear purely based on the fact you've not heard anything? I'm guessing not, you'd look and check the road is clear before attempting any maneuver in the road and so being able to hear traffic is redundant when manervering. And if you're just traveling along the road, the assumption should be, regardless of how far (20miles even), that there is a car behind you and if you've not visually confirmed where that car is and are waiting on your ears to alert you of its presence you are not being observant.

On a wet and windy day your hearing's going to give you what, 50 yards of warning that there's a car behind you?
 

Brahan

Über Member
Location
West Sussex
For the last few months I've been wearing headphones on most commutes and I'd say that they've forced me into being a much more observant rider. More looking over my shoulder, more eye contact with drivers which makes them more aware of my presence in front of them. I don't feel worried about having a bit of music in my ears what so ever.
 

BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
I saw a deaf cyclist a few weeks ago, only noticed due to the cochlear implant. What initially drew my attention to him was the amount of looking he was doing, far better than most cyclists we see out and about.
 

Mark_Robson

Senior Member
[QUOTE 554588"]
Let's be honest, any claim that wearing headphones when cycling doesn't affect your ability to hear what's going on around is daft. It undoubtedly does.

Personally I don't, because I don't want to compromise my senses when I'm on my bike. If you choose to then that's entirely your decision.
[/quote]I understand your point and agree to a certain extent but what about wind noise? By far the biggest audio impairment for me is wind noise. I don't have ears like Dumbo but once I'm going at a decent speed wind noise totally impairs my ability to hear my Ipod and whats going on around me. If it gets any worse I'll have to turn my Ipod up and risk noise induced deafness. :whistle:
 
Resisted getting involved until now. I've been a cyclist all my life and been lucky enough to ride with some top people, road racers, testers etc. Been a member of 3 clubs and ridden with probably thousands of cyclists over the years, and you know what? Not one of them did I ever observe using headphones whilst riding. The majority of the people I ride with are experienced on a bike with good handling skills, this should be saying something.
To voluntarily deprive yourself of one of your key senses is completely irresponsible, absolute madness. Other than that I don't really have a strong opinion on the subject.
 

BentMikey

Rider of Seolferwulf
Location
South London
[QUOTE 554590"]
Headphone-induced hearing impairment is optional.
[/quote]

So is listening to music in the car, or winding the windows up. Both are quite normal, so the illogical idea that headphones on a bike suddenly becomes life-threatening is simply mad.
 

400bhp

Guru
[QUOTE 554588"]
Let's be honest, any claim that wearing headphones when cycling doesn't affect your ability to hear what's going on around is daft. It undoubtedly does.

Personally I don't, because I don't want to compromise my senses when I'm on my bike. If you choose to then that's entirely your decision.
[/quote]

Completely agree and I choose not to wear them.
 

Jezston

Über Member
Location
London
Resisted getting involved until now. I've been a cyclist all my life and been lucky enough to ride with some top people, road racers, testers etc. Been a member of 3 clubs and ridden with probably thousands of cyclists over the years, and you know what? Not one of them did I ever observe using headphones whilst riding. The majority of the people I ride with are experienced on a bike with good handling skills, this should be saying something.
To voluntarily deprive yourself of one of your key senses is completely irresponsible, absolute madness. Other than that I don't really have a strong opinion on the subject.

I hope you'll understand my frustration replying to this.
The point I keep having to make on this thread, and if you look over it again, is that wearing headphones is not depriving you of a key sense, and the point many others have made is that hearing is not such a key sense.
I apologise if this sounds rude but I wish people would look over previous comments in such threads before making statements which do a great disservice to The efforts made by people to present their arguments.
 
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