Listening to music whilst riding.

[dellzeqq]

I had the same problem, and as I'm a Mr Bodgit.........
I glued a 4 inch piece of plastic triangular window beading on to my helmet straps, then added a bit of reflective tape. This pushes the air around my ears and eliminates almost all wind rush. It doesn't look pretty, but it does mean I can listen to stuff without having to have it on loud, and I can still hear traffic.....and it keeps my ears warmer so I don't have to resort to the neck tube quite so often.

Very clever! Hie thee to the Patent Office!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Very clever! Hie thee to the Patent Office!

Of course, I've never tried it but less wind noise will almost automatically mean better awareness of traffic behind - it makes very good sense to me as an idea that I haven't tried yet. Maybe it would be just as easy to have ''ear cups'' that actually attach themselves to the ear - ears have a good earlobe hooky aspect to them - but strap-mounted ear cups look like a good solution. They could be worth a few bob to helmet manufacturers. More Specialiearsed than Specialeyesed thoughbut.

 

[BentMikey]

A friend of mine also listens to his MP3 player on his bike. I think it's madness. One huge party of your safety on a bike relies on listening out for traffic - there are subtle changes of sound that can tell you something is coming up behind you which you will miss listening to something else. But hey, it's your funeral.

That's a pretty clear sign that you're not looking behind enough. Looking, not listening, is key to your safety.

I don't do it. I wish I could, but I don't want to add another risk to what is probably the most dangerous activity I participate in.

You must live an incredibly safe life, wrapped in cotton wool then. Cycling is so dangerous that your life expectancy goes up 2 years over the national average if you're a regular cyclist.

 

[BentMikey]

If people want to listen to music while riding, that's great. But it's not for me, I prefer to actually listen to my music rather than just having it on in the background.

I'm not surprised, especially knowing how keen you are on your music. Riding is so noisy anyway, I can't imagine being able to hear music at decent quality without deafening volume.

How would you handle music in, say, a 7 series BMW with a super music system? Would that get anywhere close to your need for quality?

 

[Chickc78]

I started off with an amplified speaker pod attached to my rucksack but then I got panniers and so treated myself to this handlebar mounted MP3 player.

2 GB Bike MP3

It doesn't impede my ability to hear the traffic around me, only slight downside is if your musical taste is as questionable as mine it can be a little embarassing pulling up alongside other cyclists at junctions etc.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I'm not surprised, especially knowing how keen you are on your music. Riding is so noisy anyway, I can't imagine being able to hear music at decent quality without deafening volume.

How would you handle music in, say, a 7 series BMW with a super music system? Would that get anywhere close to your need for quality?

To be honest, I'm not that bothered about music while I'm moving anyway, I find it difficult to concentrate properly on driving an artic about town with music on, although it's ok on the open road. I occasionally have the ipod hooked up to the truck stereo via an FM transmitter, but the thing is so frustrating to use (I have to try and retune it every few miles, and it's easier to just make do with radio 4) that I don't usually bother. My "new" (very old) car is fitted with a very loud £300+ stereo system though, so we'll see how much I use that when it's eventually on the road.

 

[Jezston]

I started off with an amplified speaker pod attached to my rucksack but then I got panniers and so treated myself to this handlebar mounted MP3 player.

2 GB Bike MP3

It doesn't impede my ability to hear the traffic around me, only slight downside is if your musical taste is as questionable as mine it can be a little embarassing pulling up alongside other cyclists at junctions etc.

Like I said ...

A pair of open backed headphones does not cut out external noise. If you don't feel comfortable listening to music whilst on the road, then don't. Buying some overpriced speaker so you can listen to music in dreadful tinny mono seems like some odd thinking.

See these things I just don't get. The sound quality has to be pretty dreadful, right? I mean - compared to a pair of headphones at least.
Try putting a pair of regular 'open-backed' (as in not sealed, leak sound out a bit but let sound in, and also have better bass response due to ... boring physics stuff) headphones. You'll find it barely makes any difference to what you can hear. Try playing some music through them - you'll find you now also hear music - it doesn't cut out what you hear from around you, it just sits on top of it at whatever level you like.

Buy some bluetooth headphones like mine and you can start/stop, change track and volume from the headphones themselves, and if someone calls you then you can stop and talk to them without fiddling about in pockets!

 

[JoysOfSight]

I have a lot of respect for people whose hearing is so accurate that they can figure out whether it's safe to pull around a parked car (or change lane) by listening to where all the vehicles around them are, and how fast they're going.

It's not for me though. I've tried quite hard to learn the difference in sound between a vehicle passing a couple of feet away and one that's going to clip me, but (especially at open road speeds) I just can't master it.

 

[Chickc78]

Like I said ...


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See these things I just don't get. The sound quality has to be pretty dreadful, right? I mean - compared to a pair of headphones at least.
Try putting a pair of regular 'open-backed' (as in not sealed, leak sound out a bit but let sound in, and also have better bass response due to ... boring physics stuff) headphones. You'll find it barely makes any difference to what you can hear. Try playing some music through them - you'll find you now also hear music - it doesn't cut out what you hear from around you, it just sits on top of it at whatever level you like.

Buy some bluetooth headphones like mine and you can start/stop, change track and volume from the headphones themselves, and if someone calls you then you can stop and talk to them without fiddling about in pockets!

I agree with everything you have said - the reason I use a handlebar mounted speaker system as opposed to earphones is that I am partially deaf in my right ear and as such don't really want to block the small bit of noise that I can hear. I have the handlebar speaker on the left handside and it causes me little problem.

I haven't yet found headphones that I can wear under my cycling helmet - my head is 2.5 foot round (my motorcycle helmet is a XXXXXL) and as such there is literally no room for the head band of headphones.

 

[Jezston]

Fair enough ... although aha! I feel I should perhaps direct you to over-ear neck-band headphones - these are mine and they fit like this:

(not a pic of me btw, just a random google image search result)

Go very well with helmets!

 

[Bigsharn]

When you say 'out' do you mean you use earphones rather than headphones?

Heres a test for you. With both earphones in your ears but nothing playing through them, do you find you hear anything any less?

I use earphones, a set of green JVC Gumys And nope, no difference. I actually use my headphones while I'm bored at work, I'd never get the proper in-ear headphones for that reason alone

 

[numbnuts]

what happens when your deaf or going deaf, I'm in the latter group

 

[rusky]

Having always wondered about wearing earphones while on the bike I thought I would experiment.

I have 2 different types of in-ear headphones, conventional ones & the newer style pop-in plug ones, the plug ones reduce the background noise considerably so I chose the normal in-ear ones.

I set the volume to a decent level at home & set off. The wind noise completely drowned the music out so I upped the volume.

IMHO it seems that unless you have the volume up load, you should be able to hear the traffic fine. If you can't you probably won't without earphones.

Making a sweeping generalisation (I've only tried this for 1 day & forgive me if you don't come in under this category) but, it would seem that the people who insist it's dangerous are the ones who haven't anything to back up their argument.

I'm going to try for the rest of the week & see how it goes. I do find my mind wanders when I commute which can cause a lapse in concentration so maybe this will help that!

 

[JoysOfSight]

See how often you catch yourself pulling around things without doing a proper (visual) check. Obviously thinking about it affects any measurement but I definitely find myself thinking "that was silly, I just assumed it was clear" more often when I ride ear-free.

Thankfully it hasn't led to a serious off.

 

[gaz]

See how often you catch yourself pulling around things without doing a proper (visual) check. Obviously thinking about it affects any measurement but I definitely find myself thinking "that was silly, I just assumed it was clear" more often when I ride ear-free.

Thankfully it hasn't led to a serious off.

I see that happen daily, by cyclists that do and do not wear earphones.