Mono earphone choice for cycling.

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I like to have a single earphone in while cycling the back roads, keeping the other ear on
any traffic approaching behind.
Have tried several mono earphones, two problems:
  • Wind getting past the silicon bud, making the audio hard to hear.
  • Wind noise on the body of the speaker being transmitted into my ear.
Have been looking at "in-ear monitors" and "air-tube" headsets.

Any recommendations?
 

Lyrical

fen x
Location
LANDAN
I personally do the exact same (earphone in left ear) although they're headphones (I guess you could set your music player to mono instead of stereo)

Anyway! To the point, I use foam tips as can be found on quite a few headphones. Worth giving them a shot if you haven't - Shure Olives, Comply Foam or something!
 

Mr Haematocrit

msg me on kik for android
I use audio bone headphones, as they do not fit in your ears leaving them open to hear for traffic. They fit just in front of the ears and use the resonance of the skull to transfer sound. Really interesting technology imho
 

Mr Haematocrit

msg me on kik for android
If you sat in a silent room and compared them to standard headphones, you would likely find the bass lacking however when on the bike they give a reasonable sound quality while permitting you to hear all the other noises around you. They do not overpower you and are not effected so much with wind noise as traditional headphones.
In terms of being able to clearly hear traffic and other road users while listening to music or a podcast. I find them to be a great compromise.

Anyway stereo is nicer than mono imho
 
Interesting comments about the audio-bone headsets.
I think the troops use them nowadays ... with added noise cancelling,etc.

I've certainly had a good play around with various units.
The biggest problem is the mechanical effect of wind on the body of the units being transmitted into the ear canal, the second problem
is the noise of the wind itself getting past the bud.
Tested so far:
28d5adfe.jpg


And the winner is obviously:
12e8509c.jpg


These sort of silicon buds are available from ebay for £2 or less.
(The mp3 player is brilliant by the way ... much better on the bike than my ipod classic).
 
Was using this and was happy with it.
41hrPYJ1PIL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Changed to this, no cord to tangle, reads me my text messages, tells me who's calling and I can pull over and quickly answer, no fumbling. All in all, very cool (main use listening to podcasts on my 'droid)

motorola_hx550_1_3.jpg

(it's gone up since I bought it)

Tried bluetooth myself ... the body of the earpiece picked up so much wind noise its only used in the car now!
 
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