listening to music whilst cycling???

[Jezston]

[QUOTE 1377702"]
Right. So you were making stuff up to try to justify your argument. And you're asking that your points be accepted without question?[/quote]

No, I was just being flippant. The significant point I was making, which I've made several times now is that with them on or off it does not make a noticeable difference to what I can hear.

I could do a test with a pair of binaural mics (in-ear microphones) with the headphones off and on to demonstrate scientifically the difference they make to external noise, but I expect you'll just dismiss my findings and bash me with some twisting of another point I make in the same post.

 

[ianrauk]

If say the buildings behind were particularly high, and those in front quite low, the sound could in theory be reflected about so it would seem as if the sound was coming from in front. Also that road has a cycle contraflow so you could be going the other way Sound does stuff like that to us - with our fixed-position ears and their poor response to fequency and dynamics compared to other animals, our brains are easily fooled.

(p.s. I'm not sure how I could interpret 'stop being paranoid' and 'I would take those headphones off if I were you and learn to use your ears and other senses properly.' as not being at least a little bit hostile. Please understand how it can be seen as that, remember this is just words on a screen and the sentiment behind it can't be seen or felt)

Nope not convinced with your argument.. I commute in an urban city environment every single day. I know where sounds come from, I have to. It's one of the senses that help an urban city cyclist survive.

You carry on using your 1mm headphones and get confused by where sounds are coming from. Me I will use my ears and my other senses and my judgement. It has kept me alive on the mean streets of London for all these years.

edit:
Oh yes... re your last paragraph. You do realise how pompous you sound right? So my hostility and your pomposity go well together

 

[gaz]

Hands up - slight exaggeration on the mm thick bit:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jabra-BT620-Tooth-Stereo-Headset/dp/B000FH8YJC

But what you do have is - plastic shell, less than mm thick, thin metal and plastic driver and membrane, couple of mm of foam. Like I said earlier, from very unscientific test of putting on and taking off suggested they don't significantly reduce the amount of sound entering the ear - in other words, on or off things outside of them sound pretty much the same.

Are you serious about those headphones? That covers most of your ear. My cheap jvc earphones will allow more external sound in than those!

 

[Bicycle]

I'd like to bring some personal experience to this debate.

I was riding through Central London a few days ago, listening to music (MP3 with standard earphones). Traffic wasn't too heavy for mid-morning on Praed Street (as far as I recall - I don't always pay much attention to things like that).

Anyway... Another cyclist came right up behind me and shouted something at me (very loudly) about the stupidity of listening to music when riding.

He was really quite cross. (Why he felt the need to talk to me, I do not know; he must have seen I was trying to listen to music).

At the time I was listening to a simply divine live recording and was concentrating solely on the music, so I didn't appreciate the interruption.

His yelling snapped me right out of my 'zone' and made me swerve in front of a black cab and a motorcycle, both of whom also felt the need to shout.

If the cyclist had let me carry on pedalling in peace, no-one would have swerved, no-one else would have got involved and I'd have arrived at my destination with rather more coffee in my paper cup than I did.

As it was, a lot of people got jolly cross, I lost half a cup of coffee and I lost a really quite important text message I was drafting.

What's worse, the whole ghastly incident has quite put me off the music I'd been enjoying....

Live and let live, I say.

 

[Jezston]

Are you serious about those headphones? That covers most of your ear. My cheap jvc earphones will allow more external sound in than those!

Honestly, they really don't block sound out.

 

[iAmiAdam]

I train with them, wouldn't ever race with them though.

I wonder how much sound is blocked through a single earphone compared to how much is blocked through car metal and glass and engine sound.

 

[Jezston]

[QUOTE 1377709"]
No. You were being deliberately dishonest and underplaying the truth. Which only shows that you're well aware of what the reality is -that your headphones impair your hearing.
[/quote]

No I wasn't and no they don't.

 

[Sittingduck]

At the time I was listening to a simply divine live recording and was concentrating solely on the music, so I didn't appreciate the interruption.

His yelling snapped me right out of my 'zone' and made me swerve in front of a black cab and a motorcycle, both of whom also felt the need to shout.

If the cyclist had let me carry on pedalling in peace, no-one would have swerved, no-one else would have got involved and I'd have arrived at my destination with rather more coffee in my paper cup than I did.

As it was, a lot of people got jolly cross, I lost half a cup of coffee and I lost a really quite important text message I was drafting.

What's worse, the whole ghastly incident has quite put me off the music I'd been enjoying....

Live and let live, I say.

Concentrating soley on the music, paper cups of coffee, drafting text messages?!

You're taking the piddle, surely?

 

[david k]

By which I meant it turned out to be not a car accellerating directly towards you from behind, but one going the other way, or elsewhere.

i get ya mate, i agree with you

 

[adam23]

I use them to stop the pain I get in my ears when out riding or sometimes walking, it's like a sharp shooting pain I get in my ears, not sure why I get just do.
I am very aware on my bike always looking around and over my shoulders.
Every rider will look over there shoulders before any manoeuvre if they don't they are mental or have special needs

 

[400bhp]

I use it as one of the two environmental senses to get information about the risks which surround me on a bike.

This more or less sums it up.

 

[corshamjim]

I find fingers in ears effectively block out sound too. Singing "la la la I still can't hear you" completes the effect.

 

[JonnyBlade]

ipod in 1 ear for me as 'nice' background noise. Oddly enough, I often forget it's on up until the point I'm over working then I have to switch it off because at that point it does my head in

 

[david1701]

2. As humans, our ability to locate sound sources is rubbish. With loads of noise in cities, and lots of hard reflective surfaces around that ability is all but ruined. How many times have you turned round suddenly because of what sounded like a car suddenly accellerating hard up behind you, to find nothing there?

I have a few times and its just wind noise, I realise as soon as I turn my head and it changes

 

[BentMikey]

Is it, like most of your "theories", simply something you've made up to support a view you already hold?

That's slightly more condescending than you had intended, perhaps? And I think it's supported by the number of cyclists we all see who don't look behind them before junctions and before pulling out around parked cars. They are relying on their hearing, when it doesn't tell them that a quiet bicycle or electric car is behind them.